When   Friday, November 6, 2009   Time   11:00 AM - 12:00 PM  
Where   Swift Hall/annex Room 414 2029 Sheridan Rd.   map it
Audience   - Faculty/Staff - Student
Contact   Bobby Cheon   847-467-9923  
Group   Social Psychology Program

This week's speaker is ERIC UHLMANN, a postdoctoral fellow in the Ford Center for Global Citizenship.  His talk will take place from 11 am to noon in 414 Swift Hall.

Implicit Puritanism in American Moral Cognition

Three studies provide evidence that the judgments and behaviors of contemporary Americans are implicitly influenced by traditional Puritan-Protestant values regarding work and sex. American participants were less likely to display traditional values regarding sexuality when implicitly primed to deliberate, as opposed to intuition and neutral primes. British participants made judgments reflecting liberal sexual values regardless of prime condition (Study 1). Implicitly priming words related to divine salvation led Americans, but not Canadians, to work harder on an assigned task (Study 2). Moreover, work and sex values appear linked in an overarching American ethos. Asian-Americans responded to an implicit work prime by rejecting revealing clothing and sexually charged dancing, but only when their American cultural identity was first made salient (Study 3). These effects were as strong among non-Protestant and less religious Americans as among devout American Protestants.