Suchergebnisse

The aim of this case study is to give a clear understanding of how to conduct experimental research to contribute to a better understanding of the theories on uncertainty and how to apply the research tools. Some typical uses of experimental research in social psychology take the form of supraliminal and subliminal priming and implicit association tests. This case study examines the impact of two different types of uncertainty (personal and economic) and measures them both supraliminally and subliminally in relation to implicit attitudes (Studies 1 and 3) and in relation to explicit discriminatory intentions (Study 2) toward the members of the outgroup. The results of this research show how uncertainty increases discrimination against an outgroup among people who are low in their need for cognitive closure but not among those who are high in their need for cognitive closure who show a high tendency of discrimination independent of the certainty versus uncertainty induction.

Many recent studies show that election outcomes correlate with judgments based on the first impression of a candidate's face. In our study, we showed the faces of 32 pairs of politicians from small and medium cities to 70 students, and we asked them to make judgments about competence and trustworthiness based on the candidates' faces. As an initial hypothesis, we wanted to test if competence and trustworthiness inferences based only on an image of political candidate's face, would have the same predictive power with reference to actual electoral outcomes. As a second hypothesis, we tested whether the predictive power of inferences based on candidate's face varies according to the size of the city of the actual elections. Results show that ratings of trustworthiness and competence based on facial appearance predicted the electoral outcomes for cities with more than 15.000 habitants, but that electoral outcomes of small cities were less correlated with such inferences, especially as far as trustworthiness is concerned.

This research investigates how the impact of persuasive messages in the political domain can be improved when fit is created by subliminally priming recipients' regulatory focus (either promotion or prevention) and by linguistic framing of the message (either strategic approach framing or strategic avoidance framing). Results of two studies show that regulatory fit: a) increases the impact of a political message favoring nuclear energy on implicit attitudes of the target audience (Study 1); and b) induces a more positive evaluation of, and intentions to vote for, the political candidate who is delivering a message concerning immigration policies (Study 2).

Abstract. Little is known about epistemic motivations affecting political ideology when people make environmental decisions. In two studies, we examined the key role that political ideology played in the relationship between need for cognitive closure (NCC) and self-reported eco-friendly behavior. Study 1: 279 participants completed the NCC, pro-environmental, and political ideology measures. Mediation analyses showed that NCC was related to less pro-environmental behavior through more right-wing political ideology. Study 2: We replicated these results with a nonstudent sample (n = 240) and both social and economic conservatism as mediators. The results of Study 2 showed that social conservatism mediated the relationship between NCC and pro-environmental behavior. Finally, NCC was associated with pro-environmental attitude through both social and economic conservatism.

[Abstract] A participatory backcasting methodology has been developed for the GLAMURS project, entitled participatory backcasting for sustainable lifestyles and a green economy. It consists of two stakeholder workshops; a first workshop for problem exploration and development of visions for sustainable lifestyle and a green economy followed by a second workshop focussing on pathways and implementation.In six regions studied in the GLAMURS project vision workshops have been successfully executed. Thirteen visions have been generated. Visions have been compared on several dimensions including (1) sufficiency versus green growth, (2) individual versus community orientation, (3) governance by government or market, and (4) urban versus rural focus. ; The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement Nº 613420