Research Experience in Social Psychology: Contagion

In intuitive thought, the law of contagion states that when two objects come into contact, some substance may be transmitted from the source to the target.  This research class will explore how ordinary people extend this pattern of thinking to domains unrelated to germs.   For example, do people believe that “evil” is contagious? Would you ever wear a washed and sterilized sweater that was previously worn by Adolf Hitler?  Students will gain experience designing and conducting social psychological experiments as well as analyzing results and presenting their findings.   Dept. permission required.  Preference given to senior psychology majors.