Date of Award

6-15-2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

First Advisor

Max Weisbuch

Second Advisor

Timothy Sweeny

Third Advisor

Heidi Vuletich

Fourth Advisor

Andrew Schnackenberg

Keywords

Belonging, Emotion, Ensemble perception

Abstract

Research in vision science suggests that people possess a perceptual mechanism – ensemble perception - which enables them to rapidly identify the characteristics of groups (e.g., emotion, sex-ratio, race-ratio). This work examined whether ensemble perceptions of groups are driven by the characteristics of group members whose behavior is most likely to impact the perceiver. Specifically, we predicted that more self-relevant group members would be weighted more heavily in ensemble perceptions than less self-relevant group members. Study 1 (n = 83) found that young adult participants’ ensemble perceptions of emotion were biased in favor of more self-relevant (younger adult) group members’ emotional expressions, compared to less self-relevant (older adult) group members’ emotional expressions, and that these ensemble perceptions informed judgments of belonging in the group. Study 2 recruited older (n = 94) and younger (n = 97) adult participants and again found a general pattern of bias in favor of more self-relevant (younger adult) group members’ emotional expressions in ensemble perceptions of emotion and that these ensemble perceptions informed evaluations of belonging in the group. Finally, Study 3 (n = 193) and Study 4 (n = 152) directly manipulated the relevance of older and younger adult group members and found that the extent of bias in ensemble perceptions of emotion depended on whether younger or older adults were made more self-relevant. Results suggest that incidental cues of social identity can bias ensemble perceptions of emotion and influence downstream judgments of belonging.

Copyright Date

6-2024

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Spencer T. Dobbs

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

119 pgs

File Size

4.0 MB



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