An Investigation of the Moral Stereotype of Scientists Master Thesis Alessandro Santoro
Evil, or Weird? An investigation of the moral stereotype of scientists Master Thesis Alessandro Santoro Student Number 10865135 University of Amsterdam 2015/16 Supervisors dhr. dr. Bastiaan Rutjens Second Assessor: dhr. dr. Michiel van Elk University of Amsterdam Department of Social Psychology Evil, or Weird? An investigation of the moral stereotype of scientists Alessandro Santoro University of Amsterdam A recent research by Rutjens and Heine (2016) investigated the moral stereotype of scientists, and found them to be associated with immoral behaviors, especially purity violations. We developed novel hypotheses that were tested across two studies, inte- grating the original findings with two recent lines of research: one suggesting that the intuitive associations observed in the original research might have been influenced by the weirdness of the scenarios used (Gray & Keeney, 2015), and another using the dual-process theory of morality (Greene, Nystrom, Engell, Darley, & Cohen, 2004) to investigate how cognitive reflection, as opposed to intuition, influences moral judg- ment. In Study 1, we did not replicate the original results, and we found scientists to be associated more with weird than with immoral behavior. In Study 2, we did not find any effect of reflection on the moral stereotype of scientists, but we did replicate the original results. Together, our studies formed an image of a scientist that is not necessarily evil, but rather perceived as weird and possibly amoral. In our discussion, we acknowledge our studies’ limitations, which in turn helped us to meaningfully interpret our results and suggest directions for future research. Keywords: Stereotyping, Moral Foundations Theory, Cognitive Reflection How far would a scientist go to prove a theory? In 1802, et al., 2015) has shown a lack of interest in people to a training doctor named Stubbins Ffirth hypothesized pursue a science related career.
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