Date of Award
5-11-2013
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Honors Thesis
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
John N. Bohannon III
Abstract
Participants (N = 656) from Butler University, Winston-Salem State University, and communities in Indianapolis, IN and Baltimore, MD, answered a questionnaire (two weeks, ten months, and four years after the election) consisting of several parts: a narrative and a set of probe questions regarding their discovery of the presidential announcement and a fact narrative and probed details about the election results. The narrative and probed recall data were scored in a fashion similar to flashbulb memory narratives with canonical election features. Whites generally remembered more than nonwhites. A fading affect bias was found in which the negative affect of conservative subjects faded faster over time in contrast to the liberal or moderate subjects. Affect influenced memory elaboration when there were few rehearsals. Memory elaboration with few recounts was greatest with those reporting high affect and decreased as affect decreased. Further, memories for Obama's election varied like other flashbulb events, such as 9/11, supporting affect at encoding as the flashbulb memory mechanism.
Recommended Citation
Rice, Jasmen, "Election 2008: Flashbulb Memories of Barack Obama's Election to Presidency" (2013). Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection. 233.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ugtheses/233