Date of Award

2020

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

This study aims to use Moral Foundations Theory to reduce prejudiced attitudes towards Latino immigrants. Research has shown that liberals and conservatives tend to differ in their support of moral foundations. Liberals are more likely to endorse individualizing moral foundations (fairness and caring for others) while conservatives are more likely to endorse binding moral foundations (sanctity, loyalty, and authority). Participants read one of two brief messages in support of Latino immigrants framed in either the binding or individualizing morals. the hypothesis was that conservatives who read the binding message will have more pro-immigrant attitudes, be more supportive of pro-immigrant policies, and have a more prosocial behavior intention toward immigrants compared to conservatives who read the individualizing message. Likewise, liberals who read the individualizing message will have more positive outcomes compared to liberals who read the binding message. I also hypothesized that this effect will be mediated by feelings of disgust for conservatives, but it will be mediated by feelings of anger for liberals. the results indicated that there was no significant main effect or interaction effect for the type of message on attitudes toward immigrants and policies, or intentions to donate. However, liberal Democrats were significantly more likely to donate to a pro-immigrant charity and to have positive attitudes toward immigrants and pro-immigrant policies.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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