The Social Representation and Moral Judgment of College Students on Lynching

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between social representation and moral judgment on lynching and to identify the position of studentes of Psychology and Exact Sciences on the act. This was a descriptive and explanatory research study, conducted with 122 participants who answered a semistructured questionnaire and justified their attitude towards a moral dilemma. The analysis was done using thematic content analysis, descriptive statistics and tests of association among variables. The results indicated different ways of representing the act of lynching, associated with the principles of each moral development level used by the participants. In general, the studied groups showed a negative view of the practice of lynching, with the favorable ones being predominantly students of Exact Sciences.

Keywords
lynchings; social representations; moral judgement; attitude