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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
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News

On the Automatic Association Between America and Aggression for News Watchers

Melissa J. Ferguson

Cornell University, mjf44{at}cornell.edu

Ran R. Hassin

The Hebrew University

Across three experiments, the nonconscious perception of American cues increase the accessibility of aggressive constructs in memory, aggressive and negative judgments of other people, and aggressive displays of behavior following a mild provocation. These effects emerge only for American participants who regularly follow the American political news media. For American participants who do not follow the news, these effects are absent or tend to be in the opposite direction. Participants' political party orientation (Republican vs. Democratic) does not moderate any of the results. Interpretations and implications of the findings are discussed.

Key Words: implicit social cognition • nationalism • ideology • aggression

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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 12, 1632-1647 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167207307493
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