whereRU: Aresty Poster [160] - Risk Perseption and Phobia Formation by Aresty Posters 2009

Full Title: How Does Incidental Fear and Cognitive Reasoning Dissonance Affect Our Risk Perception and Phobia Formation.
Abstract: Throughout many studies it had been proven that fear, in a range of different magnitudes, can affect both attitudes and behaviors of an individual in various domains. In addition, if a person experiences a feeling of fear, perceptions and judgments are influenced as well. This study, however, focuses on how the dissonance between feeling of fear and cognition affects risk perception and how that in turn affects degree of responses on phobia questioner. The participants will be presented with a movie clip from either a comedy or scary movie depending on the condition they will randomly be assigned to. Afterwards, all will take part in an implicit and explicit testing, followed by a FSS-III questioner. Assumption is that, the greater the dissonance between feelings of fear and cognition, the greater the risk perception which will cause higher scores on phobia questions. Thus, if proved correct, this hypothesis could help in finding ways to decrease both dissonance and risk perception and could aid in understanding of phobia formation.
Social Perception Lab at Rutgers University
Contact Information:
Anna Urbaniak--anna.b.urbaniak@gmail.com
Lee Jussim--jussim@rci.rutgers.edu
Thomas Cain--trcain@gmail.com