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Williams_Master Thesis_2022.pdf (346.77 KB)

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Well, What Did you Expect? Impact of Expectations on the Perceived Extremity of Scandalous Behavior

Williams, Sydney Nicole
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3975-8700
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1656505162646282

Abstract Details

2022, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Psychology.
News coverage of scandalous behavior in the present-day media is at an all-time high and being caught up in a widely covered scandal can have serious consequences for those involved. In most cases, being exposed as a perpetrator of scandal can do untold damage to one’s career and reputation. But for some, being caught in a scandal has few consequences, leaving the perpetrator virtually unaffected by news of their behavior going public. While previous research has pointed to several predictors than can produce different reactions to scandal, like the gender of the perpetrator and the type of scandal, they do little to explain why such variables produce different reactions. The current research seeks to bridge this gap and explores people’s pre-existing expectations about whether a scandal will occur as a driving factor for why some reactions to scandal are more severe than others. Two theories predicting separate and opposite mechanisms by which expectations would affect the perceived scandalousness of a scandalous behavior were considered. Specifically, it was predicted that the more a transgresssion was expected to occur, (1) the more unsurprised people would be by news of the scandal rendering judgments of it less scandalous (decision affect theory) and (2) the more they expected the transgression to occur, the more they would believe that the scandal actually occurred, rendering judgments of it more scandalous (self-validation theory). Results of two studies provide evidence that both of these hypothesized pathways play a role in determining how scandalous a perpetrator’s behavior is perceived to be.
Richard Petty (Advisor)
Russ Fazio (Committee Member)
Duane Wegener (Committee Member)
67 p.
Psychology; Social Psychology
Expectations; Decision Affect Theory; Self-Validation Theory; Scandal

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Williams, S. N. (2022). Well, What Did you Expect? Impact of Expectations on the Perceived Extremity of Scandalous Behavior [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1656505162646282

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Williams, Sydney. Well, What Did you Expect? Impact of Expectations on the Perceived Extremity of Scandalous Behavior. 2022. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1656505162646282.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Williams, Sydney. "Well, What Did you Expect? Impact of Expectations on the Perceived Extremity of Scandalous Behavior." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1656505162646282

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1656505162646282
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© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.