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Abstract
Can a single, powerful sociopolitical event (government's response to Hurricane Katrina) produce changes in prevalent cultural beliefs such as the Protestant work ethic (PWE)? In a cross-sectional study conducted before, immediately after, and 5 months after Katrina (Study 1: Part a), in a longitudinal study tracking participants immediately after Katrina and 3 months later (Study 1: Part b), and in an experiment that primed thoughts about Katrina (Study 2), thinking about Katrina reduced African Americans' (but not European Americans') endorsement of the PWE. Preliminary evidence suggested that the shift in African Americans' endorsement of the PWE was due to lower trust in the government.
Notes
Note. Sample size varies slightly across questions because participants skipped some questions. All analyses were conducted as a 2 (time) × 2 (group) interaction and revealed only a main effect (significant or marginally significant) of race. MANOVA = multivariate analysis of variance.
1Reverse mediation (PWE as the mediator between race and trust) was not supported; the race effect remained significant in the mediated equation, F(1, 177) = 14.65, p = .001.
2Analyses using PWE-Equalizer missed significance levels.