Examining Interactive Effects of Group Membership and Untrustworthiness on Recognition Memory

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Grace C. Clark (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Brittany Cassidy

Abstract: Faces provide certain cues, such as untrustworthiness, that have been shown to be more memorable than others. To better understand the strength of this untrustworthiness advantage in recognition memory, it is important to study faces that vary in trustworthiness and provide other cues known to affect recognition memory at the same time. This research measured recognition memory of faces that varied in group membership and trustworthiness. Participants took a bogus personality test to establish their relative ingroup and outgroup. Then, they completed an encoding phase in which they viewed ingroup and outgroup faces that were either trustworthy or untrustworthy. Because ingroup faces have been shown to be especially memorable, the untrustworthy advantage was expected to disappear for ingroup trustworthy faces. In addition, untrustworthy outgroup faces were expected to be remembered more than outgroup trustworthy and ingroup untrustworthy faces. These hypotheses were not supported, however. The current research builds on previous findings by investigating how two facial cues, trustworthiness and group membership, interact together to affect recognition memory.

Additional Information

Publication
Honors Project
Language: English
Date: 2021
Keywords
psychology, social cognition, trustworthiness, untrustworthiness, group membership, memory, recognition memory

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