Graduation Year
2020
Date of Submission
5-2020
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Psychology
Reader 1
Piercarlo Valdesolo
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2020 Lindsey M Seidner
Abstract
Initiatives intended to “level the playing field” often seek to help low performers without harming high performers. The current 2x2 design tested whether intuitions about the fairness of such initiatives are rooted in beliefs about the true self. Specifically, perceived legitimacy of these initiatives could be driven by the cause of one’s capacities (i.e., innate or developed), and the degree to which these initiatives are thought to reveal the “true selves” of low performers. On Amazon mTurk, participants (n = 98) considered a drug-administration initiative which would level the intellectual capacities of either lower or higher performers, whose capacities were either innate or developed over time. Participants completed identity-change, fairness, and morality measures. Results suggested greater perceived fairness and morality of the initiative when it increased intellectual capacity of lower performers, especially when their capacity developed over time (i.e., caused by brain tumor), because doing so revealed the true self.
Recommended Citation
Seidner, Lindsey, "Leveling the Playing Field: Identity Perception and the Fairness and Morality of Drug-Induced Intelligence Change" (2020). CMC Senior Theses. 2442.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2442
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
