Source: Donald Saucier, 785-532-6881, saucier@k-state.edu
Pronouncer: Saucier is Sahs-ee-UR
News release prepared by: Kristin Hodges, 785-532-6415, khodges2@k-state.edu

Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010

USING HURRICANE KATRINA AS MODEL, K-STATE PSYCHOLOGISTS FIND PEOPLE'S RACIAL BIASES CAN SKEW PERCEPTIONS OF HOW MUCH HELP 1xbet online sports betting NEED

MANHATTAN -- When assessing the amount of 1xbet online sports betting someone needs, people's perceptions can be skewed by their racial biases, according to a Kansas State University study.

Donald Saucier, K-State associate professor of psychology, and psychology graduate students Sara Smith, Topeka, and Jessica McManus, Maineville, Ohio, surveyed undergraduate students a year after Hurricane Katrina to examine their perceptions of the hurricane 1xbet online sports betting and the helping response.

The researchers created a questionnaire that evaluated the participants' perceptions of Hurricane Katrina 1xbet online sports betting . The questionnaire evaluated whom the participants perceived to be the 1xbet online sports betting based on measures like gender, race and socioeconomic status. The results showed that participants generally thought people impacted by Hurricane Katrina were black and lower class.

"What we wanted to do was see how perceptions of 1xbet online sports betting of Hurricane Katrina would interact with things like racism," Saucier said. "We wanted to look at how much the participants felt that the 1xbet online sports betting may have been to blame for their own situation in Katrina."

The researchers measured differences in the participants, including their levels of conservatism, empathy and racism. The findings showed that when recalling 1xbet online sports betting of Hurricane Katrina, participants who were less racist thought the 1xbet online sports betting did not receive adequate help from the government. Participants who were more racist thought the 1xbet online sports betting received adequate government assistance and were at fault for their situation. The survey also asked questions that measured whether the participants thought the 1xbet online sports betting had enough time to evacuate and whether they had enough resources to get out before the hurricane hit.

"We asked the participants to make personality attributions about individuals, such as whether they thought the 1xbet online sports betting were lazy, stupid, sinful or unlucky," Saucier said. "If they said they were lazy, stupid or sinful, they were putting more blame on the 1xbet online sports betting for the situation. If they said they were unlucky, they took away the blame."

The results suggest that perceptions of the 1xbet online sports betting and the Hurricane Katrina situation depended on the participants' individual differences, including their levels of racism. Negative perceptions and placing blame on the 1xbet online sports betting were generally associated with the participants' perceptions that the situation was less of an emergency and that the 1xbet online sports betting needed less help.

Saucier said although the findings can't fix what happened to the 1xbet online sports betting , the study helps show how people interpret the situation. He said when something negative happens, people often evaluate the situation and see whether they can fix it, and sometimes they avoid the situation by blaming the victim.

The researchers study the effects of group membership, and groups can be categorized in various ways, including by gender, race and socioeconomic status. Studies show there are specific factors that cause someone to help a member of their own group more than others. In 1xbet online sports betting situations, discrimination is often expressed by not giving help to those of a different group than the helper, Saucier said.

"Rather than doing something bad, the person who chooses not to 1xbet online sports betting the out-group member fails to do something good," Saucier said. "I think this illustrates the complexity of how prejudice is expressed in contemporary society despite the social norms that usually serve to suppress the expression of prejudice."

Saucier said discrimination is often expressed only when other factors are present that would justify the action and rationalize it as something other than an expression of prejudice. Factors that contribute to the justification of not 1xbet online sports betting someone include the time it would take to help; the risk, effort, difficulty and financial cost involved; the distance between the potential helper and the person needing help; the level of emergency and the ambiguity of the 1xbet online sports betting situation.

The researchers said the Hurricane Katrina situation had several elements that studies show trigger acts of discrimination, such as a high cost of help, a high level of emergency and a large amount of time and effort required to help. The researchers are exploring other 1xbet online sports betting situations and how other group memberships affect the 1xbet online sports betting response.

"We want to examine how the perception of someone that you're going to be 1xbet online sports betting is going to affect your perception of how much help they need and how much help you'll want to give," Saucier said.

Though it's unlikely that researchers can fix the beliefs and attitudes that lead to discrimination, studies are being done to try to change the behavior that is expressed when related to discrimination, Saucier said.

The researchers' findings on Hurricane Katrina 1xbet online sports betting are included in a chapter about discrimination against out-group members in helping situations in "The Psychology of Prosocial Behavior: Group processes, intergroup relations and helping," published in September 2009.