Discrimination and Picking up Political Cues

Abstract

Sometimes people’s personalities and beliefs cause them to give off cues that indicate to others what their beliefs or personalities are (Motyl, 2016). Ideological ambient cues dictate desired social groups, work and school environment (Motyl, 2016). (Research finds that encountering ambient cues which indicate differences in ideology in school and work environments can lead to feelings of exclusion. For instance, women exposed to highly masculinized computer science labs feel felt excluded from the environment and expressed less willingness to join computer science programs (Cheryan et al., 2009; Oyserman et al., 2006). In this project, we hope to extend the findings from the previous literature to analyze how ambient cues affect individuals who have faced higher levels of discrimination. Specifically, we propose that those who have experienced discrimination more in the past are going to be more aware of what cues indicate someone’s political or ideological stance because they have learned through experience to pay attention to this. We will present participants with ambient cues which indicate that individuals within that environment hold different views than the self. We will then measure how likely people were to notice those cues within that environment and then measure their emotional response to those cues. We hypothesize that those who have experienced discrimination will be more likely to notice that the cues existed, and to show a stronger emotional reaction when they do notice them. These findings could indicate the importance of creating an environment that leads to greater levels of inclusion.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Craig Blatz