Trust and mixed signals : a study of religion, tattoos and cognitive dissonance
Abstract
This paper examines trust judgements in the context of ‘mixed signals’, whereby the medium through which a signal is projected suggests untrustworthiness, but the signal itself suggests trustworthiness. Under conditions of ‘mixed signals’, trusters are left in a potential state of cognitive dissonance. The results of the research suggest that the presence of a tattoo lowers evaluations of trust across the board, but that Christian respondents rated faces with a Christian-themed tattoo significantly higher than non-Christian respondents. Nevertheless, among Christian respondents, there was no significant difference on trustworthiness ratings between a Christian-themed tattoo and non-Christian-themed tattoo. The results of the research have implications in relation to the psychological study of trust, religion and body art.
Citation
Timming , A R & Perrett , D I 2016 , ' Trust and mixed signals : a study of religion, tattoos and cognitive dissonance ' , Personality and Individual Differences , vol. 97 , pp. 234-238 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.067
Publication
Personality and Individual Differences
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0191-8869Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2016, Elsevier Ltd. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.03.067
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