My interests lie in the psychology of tribalism and how influential it is in modern society. The experiment I wish to conduct on this …show more content…
Prior to the experiment, the participants will be rated how strongly they identify with their party (i.e.-on a scale of "Very true" to "Not very true" to statements like "I identify strongly with my politics"). Participants would be separated into two groups, 20 each. After determining the strength of their political affiliation, participants would be separated into two groups--one group that scores high on their identification as a Democrat (Group A) and another group that scores low (Group B). Each participant would be instructed to go to another building, with directions, in order to complete the experiment and collect their reward for participation. However, of each group, half will be told that they are late to the appointment and will have to hurry if they want to collect their reward (Group A-1and B-1). The other half will be told that have plenty of time to collect their reward in the other building (Group A-2 and B-2). On the way to the other building, each participant would invariably come across a man on a cane--an accomplice to the experiment--who is dressed in stereotypical Republican garbs such as a white t-shirt with the Republican elephant and a red baseball cap with President Trump's campaign slogan written across it. The accomplice will fall down and will be in need of assistance. Then, it would be recorded how many of each group gave aid to the tumbled man.
The experiment is inspired by "Good Samaritan" experiment done by John Darley and Daniel Batson in 1973. I chose to have half of each group be rushed to get their reward in order to avoid the fundamental attribution error. If I did not, the experiment would have the flaw of not accounting for the situational factors which social psychologists have discovered to influence behavior, more so than dispositions. My experiment has to account for that if it is to be