Equal Mind hypothesis

Equal Mind hypothesis

Ian with a slideshow showing data

Winter 2020 Remote Research

Over this winter break my graduate mentor and I met weekly to refine our survey based experimental project. In the pursuit of this goal, we have refined our hypothesis given the data from experiment one and are looking forward to implementing the second phase of the experiment, made possible in part by this grant. We completed our statistical analysis of experiment one showing initial report for what we call the Equal Mind hypothesis. Essentially, we hypothesize that when individuals merely imagine helping other people, it will impact the way individuals think about hierarchal systems in society. Initial support for this hypothesis is encouraging, especially since it replicates previous results. However, one alternate explanation for these results is a malleability of group membership as a result of imagined helping, or that baseline group membership differences may be affecting this difference in hierarchal thinking. Experiment two aims to do this and more, further exploring the stability of our hierarchal thinking measurement, how this interaction works when interacting with alternate species, and verifying our previous result. We are currently seeking final IRB approval and will conclude the project by the beginning of summer.