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1. Religious Priming Effects on Reactions to Political Situations Alex Langley
W. Paul Williamson
Henderson State University
2. What is priming? Prior presentation of an idea facilitating recall of related memories or attention to related stimuli.
3. Priming in action
4. Previous Research Religion & Politics (Allen, 2006)
General Effects of Priming (Bower, 1983)
Priming & Religion
Priming of “religious” words & the “religiously-committed” (Winger, 2003)
Perception of “God-control” & susceptibility to religious priming (Wiegand & Weiss, 2006)
5. Research Question Can religion be used as a priming agent to elicit a certain effect with respect to political issues?
6. Hypotheses Ps who are religiously primed will judge political situations more critically than Ps who are not religiously primed.
Ps who are high in fundamentalism will judge political situations more critically than Ps who are low in fundamentalism.
7. Research Design (2 X 2 X 4) Mixed Factorial Design
Dependent Variable
Langley Political Situation Scale (LPSS)
Independent Variables
Religious Priming (Yes, No)
Fundamentalism (Low, High)
Political Situations (within-subjects)
TV Nudity Abortion
Homosexuality Terrorism
8. Participants 41 Cross-Cultural Psychology Undergraduates
Gender
17 Men
24 Women
9. Materials Religious Fundamentalism Scale (Altemyer & Hunsberger, 2005)
North Dakota Null Hypothesis Brain Inventory (Byrne & Kelley, 1981)
Religious Beliefs Scale (Thouless, 1935)
Langley Political Situation Scale (LPSS)
TV Nudity Abortion
Homosexuality Terrorism
10. TV Nudity Situation On June 6, 2006, the FX television network aired an episode of the television series Nip/Tuck. Due to a programming error, Nip/Tuck aired one minute early, and on this episode a male actor was seen fully nude from the behind, resulting in television obscenity laws being broken. Nip/Tuck is an adult oriented television show, and as such it can only be aired after a certain time in order to follow the laws regarding television obscenity. Due to the television obscenity laws being tightened by the FCC, the FX television network would ordinarily have to pay a fine of $250,000. This case has not yet made it to the courts. Due to the fact that transmission erred by only one minute, the FX network is protesting paying the fine.
11. LPSS |_______________________________|
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Strongly Uncertain Strongly
Disagree Agree
____ 1. The fine of $250,000 dollars is a fair sanction.
____ 2. In reality, FX probably planned the “accidental” nude scene.
____ 3. If it is found that the airing of the nude scene really was an
accident, then FX should not have to pay the fine, even though the
law requires it. (reverse-scored)
Reliabilities
LPSS: TV Nudity = .56; Homosexuality = .64; Abortion = .51;
Terrorism = .67
Religious Fundamentalism Scale = .91
12. Procedure Pretest (2 weeks)
Informed Consent & Code
Religious Fundamentalism Scale
North Dakota Null Hypothesis Brain Inventory
Experiment
Groups
Priming (Religious Beliefs Scale)
No Priming
Political Situations & LPSS
Debriefing
13. Critical Judgment: Within-Subjects F (3,111)=15.5, p < .001
Political Situations
TV Nudity (M = 11.65, SE = .89)
Homosexuality (M = 12.78, SE = .87)
Abortion (M = 9.62, SE = .82)
Terrorism (M = 16.64, SE = .77)
14. Critical Judgment: Within-Subjects
15. Critical Judgment:Priming X Situations F (3,111) = 4.7, p < .01
Political Situations
TV Nudity
Primed (M = 9.36, SE = 1.21)
Not primed (M = 13.93, SE = 1.23)
Homosexuality
Primed (M = 12.42, SE = 1.19)
Not primed (M = 13.14, SE = 1.27)
Abortion
Primed (M = 11.16, SE =1.11)
Not primed (M = 8.08, SE = 1.20)
Terrorism
Primed (M = 16.12, SE = 1.09)
Not primed (M = 17.15, SE = 1.09)
16. Critical Judgment:Priming X Situations
17. Critical Judgment:Fundamentalism X Situations F (3,111) = 2.1, p = .10
Political Situations
TV Nudity
High fundamentalism (M = 13.56, SE = 1.25)
Low fundamentalism (M = 9.74, SE = 1.25)
Homosexuality
High fundamentalism (M = 15.42, SE = 1.35)
Low fundamentalism (M = 10.14, SE = 1.23)
Abortion
High fundamentalism (M = 10.01, SE = 1.16)
Low fundamentalism (M = 9.23, SE = 1.16)
Terrorism
High fundamentalism (M = 17.15, SE = 1.09)
Low fundamentalism (M = 16.12, SE = 1.09)
18. Critical Judgment:Fundamentalism X Situations
19. Critical Judgment: Between-Subjects Priming (non-significant)
Fundamentalism (F [1, 37] = 6.6, p < .05)
Low (M = 11.31, SE = .75)
High (M = 14.04, SE = .75)
No Interaction
20. Critical Judgment: Fundamentalism
21. Discussion of Hypotheses Ps who are religiously primed will judge political situations more critically than Ps who are not religiously primed. (Reject)
Ps who are high in fundamentalism will judge political situations more critically than Ps who are low in fundamentalism. (Retain)
22. Future Research Possibilities Gender differences
Different stimulus material
Different religiosity scale
23. Impact on Society Although priming was not a significant factor in the ratings of situations by participants, religion clearly was. Religion is a far reaching element in our society today and has significant influence on the way in which that people react to political issues.
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