Bah, bah black sheep, have you any political pull?
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http://hdl.handle.net/11603/2146Metadata
Show full item recordDate
2014-02-072014-01
Type of Work
application/pdfiv, 28 pages
Text
theses
Department
Towson University. Department of PsychologyRights
Copyright protected, all rights reserved.There are no restrictions on access to this document. An internet release form signed by the author to display this document online is on file with Towson University Special Collections and Archives.
Abstract
This study examined the Black Sheep Effect and its underlying causes in the context of political groups. 128 participants read a mock news article describing politicians in both the Republican and Democratic parties who had failed to cast their votes in sessions of congress. Participants provided lower approval ratings for ingroup black sheep politicians than for outgroup politicians indicating that the Black Sheep Effect does occur within political groups. However, hypotheses regarding the causes of this effect in political groups were not supported by the results. Implications of the Black Sheep Effect on political issues such as congressional gridlock and voter behavior are discussed.