Physiological measures differentiate distinct domains of immanent justice reasoning

<p>Just-world theory research investigates how an individual's world-view influences his/her behavior when confronted with injustice. The purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of multiple continual physiological measurements as predictors of just-world motivated behavior such as immanent justice reasoning (IJR) in a replication of Callan, Ellard, and Nicol's (2006) study. Participants (N=109) were assigned to one of two narrative groups - either an adulterous scenario or a non-adulterous scenario. It was hypothesized that levels of IJR would be higher in the justice-threat than the non-threat condition, and that measures of physiological arousal would predict IJR. Results show that significantly higher responses of IJR were observed during the non-adulterous condition. Additionally, physiological indicators of emotional arousal correctly predicted IJR. These results indicate that physiological measures are useful in assessing justice-threat scenarios, and further research should use such indicators in addition to self-report affect measures.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Open Access Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Year dc:date.available

2014

Author dc:creator

• Bruner, Reino L.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Silvia von Kluge, PhD, Chair
• Tom Figurski, PhD
• Tanweer Shapla, PhD

• Justice
• emotions
• judgment
• Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://commons.emich.edu/theses/598

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:commons.emich.edu:theses-1975