Author: Elli Archbold Major: Psychology
Remote Research!
Hello everyone! My name is Elli Archbold and I recently graduated from the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas! Following graduation, I am planning to stay at the U of A where I will attend law school, hopefully, while figuring out what the ideal career looks like for me. I started my honors thesis research my junior year with Scott Eidelman, a social psychologist. We decided to study the impact of political ideology on an individual’s helping behavior. As a student majoring in psychology with minors in business and legal studies, I was super excited to dive into this unique field of research.
When trying to figure out who my thesis advisor would be, all I knew was that I wanted to be mentored by someone who was equally motivated by my research. Scott Eidelman is a friendly, intelligent, and caring professor with a relaxed attitude. He is outspoken and respectful about his political beliefs and during his lectures, I had an appreciation for his demeanor regarding controversial subjects in his Social Psychology class. As a social psychologist in today’s political climate, it seems as if every conversation about politics is a controversial topic. It has been inspiring to work alongside someone who is so educated and eloquent when dealing with these touchy subjects.
My research was really exciting for me because politics are something that I am curious about. I think that really helped motivate me to genuinely care about my research. In my study, participants were screened for their ideology before they performed the study, and only individuals that indicated as ‘more of a liberal’ or ‘more of a conservative’ could participate. We tested to see whether liberals or conservatives would be more willing to help a member of the opposing party (an out-group member). Following the ideas of previous researchers, Professor Eidelman and I predicted that liberals would help members of either party more than conservatives and that conservatives would be more reluctant to help liberal members. My second prediction was that if the first one was not accurate, that both parties would show equal reluctance to help one another, especially given the current polarization of the political climate.
All of our predictions ended up being incorrect, and the conservatives were actually more likely to help members of either party. There are many reasons this could have happened, and we think the most probable explanation is that liberals, being the minority group in the state of Arkansas, probably created sharper in-group preferences and boundaries due to the threat of the majority party.
As I mentioned above, I will be staying at the U of A for law school and my thesis definitely assisted in my excitement towards the next three years. This project has taught me to advocate for the things that I need as a student and as a researcher, as well as how important communication is, especially about things that have the potential of being overlooked. The results of my study have reiterated the importance of staying open-minded in all areas of my education and I am eager to bring these new pieces of wisdom into my law school journey.