The effects of threat manipulation and positive information on implicit and explicit attitudes

The Implicit Association Test is one of the most commonly used measurement tools to measure implicit attitudes towards different groups in the literature. However, the use of this test in our country is very limited. In this thesis, it is the first aim to bring Implicit Association Test to Turkish language with open source code. Secondly, the effects of realistic and symbolic threat manipulations on implicit and explicit attitudes towards Kurds and Syrians will also be examined. Finally, the effect of positive informative texts on implicit and explicit attitudes towards the Kurds will be examined. In the first study, the participants in realistic threat manipulation condition were found to have a more negative attitude than those in control group. It was also found that interaction quality was a full mediator of the relationship between the amount of interaction and the desire for future interaction. These results are consistent with the Contact Theory and the Integrated Threat Theory. In the second study, it was found that negative implicit attitudes towards Kurds were increased in participants who exposed to realistic threat manipulation. In the groups exposed to the manipulation of threats originating from the Kurds, there was a relationship between implicit negative attitudes and commitment to ethnic identity. On the other hand, this relationship was not found in the group receiving manipulation for the Syrians. This finding supports the idea that implicit attitudes are shaped by early life events. In the last study, there was no effect of positive informative types on the implicit and explicit attitudes towards Kurds. When the findings obtained in three studies are evaluated as a whole, the interaction quality seems to be an important determinant of attitudes towards external groups. In addition to this, the Implicit Association Test was found as a valid and reliable measurement tool to measure implicit ethnic attitudes.