Personality correlates of susceptibility to biasing information

Asked 113 undergraduates to score 2 drawings, one allegedly made by a high-status child and the other by a disadvantaged child. The difference between the scores that each S attributed to the 2 drawings (compared to the objective base level) was the S's bias score. High-bias Ss (with bias scores 1 standard deviation or more above the overall mean bias) described themselves as more reasonable than no-bias Ss (bias scores of zero) and as less emotionally extreme in the directions of toughness, tenderness, and level of enthusiasm. This pattern is interpreted as reflecting the need system suggestive of the dogmatic personality. In a 2nd study with 179 undergraduates, no differences were found between the extreme-bias groups in responses to self-report questionnaires and the Embedded Figures Test or in political views. However, high-bias Ss responded more extremely than no-bias Ss to direct questions pertaining to their political ideology, independent of its content and direction, in line with the conception of dogmatism as a style of thinking independent of ideological content. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).