Can implicit homophobic attitudes be reduced using short-term written exposures to the topic?

Mäkelä, Maria (2021) Can implicit homophobic attitudes be reduced using short-term written exposures to the topic? Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).

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Abstract

Implicit attitudes held towards minority groups can have far-reaching consequences when it comes to how members of the groups are perceived and treated in many areas of society. As people are increasingly consuming information online, oftentimes in the form of short pieces of information, it is important to understand how this information can be portrayed to incite attitude change. This study will address homophobia. Previous studies have identified components that affect attitude change, including the strength of the attitude, motivation to process information, and emotions. A control group and three experimental groups were included, out of which one read a personal story, one read facts about the status of the LGBTQ+ community, and one read a combination of these two. After, participants completed an Implicit Association Test, and the means were compared. The results show no significant difference in IAT scores between the four groups. This could have been due to no interest in the exposure, the texts being too short to have any difference or too long for people to take the time to read it, or the sample size being too small. The study shows that even though people are exposed to a topic in a positive light, it does not mean it will have a noticeable effect on the IAT scores. More research is required on the way information could be more efficiently presented to change opinions.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Name supervisor:	Geiger, J.L.
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2021 08:45
Last Modified:	16 Sep 2021 08:45
URI:	https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/83

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