Manipulation checks Clause Samples

Manipulation checks. The manipulation check consisted of four questions: 1) “Did you get the joke?” for checking participants’ understanding for the nature of the message (i.e., a joke); 2) “What was the ethnicity of the comedian?” for checking comedian racial group membership manipulation; and 3) “What was the stereotype the performer joked about?” for checking the content valence manipulation. These manipulation checks were conducted with false options to decrease the chance participants picked the correct answer by luck alone. If a participant failed anyone of the three manipulation checks, they were not presented with survey questions pertaining to the joke s\he just read. Instead, the participant was redirected to the next joke. Of the total screened sample (N =220), 166 passed the manipulation checks for all four jokes. Among the remaining 54 participants, 5 failed the manipulation checks for all jokes, 23 failed three, 15 failed two, and 11 failed one.