Explicit and implicit attitudes, and discriminatory behavior in a Lebanese student sample :an ERP study using the ultimatum game -

Abstract

Lebanese youth claim to have positive social emotions towards their own sect. However, explicit self-reports of such attitudes may not be in line with implicit attitudes that might lead to discriminatory behavior. Several studies supported the idea that there are discrepancies between explicit and implicit attitudes. The following study examined the discrepancies between implicit attitudes, behavior and explicit beliefs on one kind of intergroup interaction: ingroup favoritism. We turned to the ultimatum game, which is a widely used decision-making task. We tested for possible reflection of implicit attitudes at the electrophysiological level. We also explored discriminatory behaviors by examining the rejection rates of different kinds of offers (fair, moderately unfair and strongly unfair) in different conditions. Explicit attitudes were measured using self-report sectarianism scale. The study recruited 45 participants to play as responders in this game while having their electrophysiological activity recorded using EEG. A 3x3 mixed design was implemented. The within-group factor was the fairness of the offer. Each participant received fair, moderately unfair and strongly unfair offers. The second between-group factor was group interaction. We manipulated three different group interactions, those with someone from the same sect, interaction with someone from a different sect and a condition where the sect was not mentioned. Separate mixed ANOVAs of behavioral and electrophysiological results were carried out. For the behavioral results, there was no significant effect of the group interaction. However, as expected, the fairness of the offers affected rejection rates. For the electrophysiological results, the observed effect was on the kind of offer where the MFN elicited more negativity as the offers became more unfair. P300 was significant in all the different condition with no within-group difference. Results also showed that LPP did not reflect implicit sectarian attitudes. The limitations of this study are