Cross Dimensional Moral Credentials: The Effect of Race and Sexuality on Prejudice Behaviors
Year: 2014
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Despite what one may think, prejudice is not always the result of a biased upbringing. Past research has shown that when presented with a questionnaire that consisted of ambiguous, prejudiced statements, people were able to establish moral credentials by identifying the content as racist. In this way, they proved to themselves that they were unbiased. The purpose of our study is to research the influence of prejudice on decision making in a cross-domain experiment, in which race and sexual orientation act as our independent variables. Both of these topics are very prevalent in society today, and no cross-domain experiment on the two has ever been conducted. Furthermore, little to no research on moral credentials, decision making, and sexuality in conjunction with each other has been done. We want to see whether or not we can influence peoples decision-making and moral judgments with a three-part experiment. In this cross-domain experiment we will study how threats and credentials influence peoples bias. We expect that by the end of the study, our results will show that people are going to be more prejudiced when they have had the option to previously establish their moral credentials. Our results should further the understanding of how moral credentials or threats in one domain effects bias in another.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2302011685