Director of the Moral Psychology Lab in The University of Winnipeg’s Faculty of Arts, Assistant Professor Dr. Jeremy Frimer
Dr. Jeremy Frimer, Director of the Moral Psychology Lab at UWinnipeg and Assistant Professor, Psychology has a new publication in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), one of the world’s most-cited and comprehensive multidisciplinary scientific journals.
Attitudes toward politicians and political bodies vary quite markedly over time. In this interesting study, Dr. Frimer and his colleagues document that words matter – there is a robust correlation between attitudes toward Congress and the kind of language used in Congress sessions. Specifically, an increased use of the words like cooperate, tolerate, educate was associated with more positive attitudes toward Congress about six months later.
Dr. Jim Clark, Chair of UWinnipeg’s Psychology department, noted that “Frimer’s research addresses an interesting question about public attitudes toward political entities and is of both theoretical and applied interest. It should receive much attention by other researchers. The findings also raise numerous questions for further investigation and will undoubtedly stimulate new and productive lines of research for Frimer and his collaborators, including the University of Winnipeg Psychology students who work in his lab.”
One of the authors of the study is a former UWinnipeg student, Harrison Oaks, who is now doing graduate work at the University of Waterloo.
The research has received worldwide media coverage, including:
