Title

Spontaneous Evaluations Versus Delayed Consideration: The Effect of Evaluation Mode Upon Attitude Moralization

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology and Special Education

Date of Award

Spring 2014

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the mode of information evaluation influences the process of attitude moralization. Participants evaluated a series of sentences describing a potentially moral issue either on-line or based on memory. It was hypothesized that spontaneous evaluations during on-line processing would act as affect integrators, enhancing the ability of moralizing emotions to inform the attitude construction process. The results agreed with this hypothesis. Moralization was highest when the target information was both high in emotional content and evaluated on-line. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Advisor

Stephen Reysen

Subject Categories

Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences

COinS