Author: Phoebe Fanning | Major: Psychology | Semester: Fall 2024

I am a senior honors psychology student, and during the Fall 2024 semester, I worked with Dr. Scott Eidelman and Ph.D. student Emily Vance in the Psychology Department to examine the role of moral disgust in prescribed punitiveness toward undocumented perpetrators. Over the summer, our research team completed a pilot study to refine the methodology and ensure the feasibility of our research design. Following this, we analyzed the data, made adjustments to the study design, and officially began data collection in the Fall semester. During this time, I gained hands-on experience navigating Qualtrics and learning how to pre-register research hypotheses in the Open Science Framework. As our data collection phase concludes, I am preparing for data analysis and writing the method section of my honors thesis in preparation for my thesis defense in Spring 2025.

In psychology, topics such as ingroup favoritism, sensitivity to moral disgust, and intergroup disgust have been areas of interest for over a decade. Research indicates that enhanced sensitivity to moral disgust toward outgroups may explain the tendency to prescribe harsher sentences to outgroup members. Our study investigates whether Americans’ moral disgust responses toward a criminal differ based on the perpetrator’s citizenship status and how these responses influence prescribed punitiveness. This research contributes to the broader understanding of prescribed punitiveness, nationality, and moral disgust, with potential implications for informing legal practices and emphasizing the importance of defendant-juror similarities in trial contexts.

My interest in studying ingroup biases began after taking Dr. Eidelman’s Social Psychology course, which aligned closely with my research aspirations. I reached out to Dr. Eidelman for more information about his work and the Social and Political Psychology (SAPP) Lab he directs. He connected me with graduate student Emily Vance, who shared her research experiences, solidifying my interest in joining the SAPP Lab. After a semester in the lab, I asked Dr. Eidelman to mentor my honors thesis. He encouraged me to independently identify a research topic, offering guidance and support when needed.

During the preliminary stages of my project, I faced challenges in finding and reviewing relevant empirical literature. With Dr. Eidelman’s and Emily’s advice on reading research efficiently and using meta-analytic texts, I significantly improved my research skills and gained confidence in my abilities. After finalizing my research topic, I collaborated with Dr. Eidelman and Emily to refine the study design, program the study in Qualtrics, obtain IRB approval, pre-register our hypotheses, and conduct a pilot study. As of the end of the Fall 2024 semester, data collection is concluding, and we are preparing for data analysis. In the Spring, I will complete my thesis, incorporating our findings, and defend my project before graduation in May. This research experience has been invaluable, providing me with a strong foundation in psychological research and inspiring confidence in my academic and professional pursuits.