Abstract
In wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack, New Zealanders were forced to question whether we were ever free of prejudice and bigotry as our peaceful reputation might have previously led us to believe. In my thesis, I used the DRM paradigm to examine whether false memories arise as the result of the negative stereotypes that people might harbour for Muslims. To do this, in Experiment 1, I established a new ethnic-stereotype DRM word list based on stereotypes held about Muslims. In Experiment 2, I examined whether participants showed false memory for a critical lure that was consistent with stereotypes held about Muslims than for a stereotype-inconsistent critical lure. I also examined whether there were any differences in participants' responses on individual difference measures, such those assessing their warmth towards Muslims, as a function of whether they showed the false memory error for the ethnic-stereotype list. Participants showed a small but significant stereotype-consistent false memory error for the ethnic-stereotype list. In addition, participants who showed the false memory error reported significantly lower levels of warmth towards Muslims and a greater percentage of these participants reported experiencing no distress in response to the Christchurch terrorist attack at the present time than did participants who did not make the false memory error. The attitudes and stereotypes that some individuals harbour about Muslims may lead them to falsely associate stereotype-consistent information with being Muslim. This susceptibility might also influence their general evaluations and daily interactions with Muslims, without their conscious awareness.