Exposure to Immigration in the News: The Impact of Group-Level Emotions on Intergroup Behavior

Numerous empirical investigations demonstrate that exposure to the stereotypic and oftentimes threatening portrayals of race/ethnicity in the media predict a wide range of unfavorable intergroup outcomes. The current study extends this work by experimentally examining the role of emotions in this process. Specifically, a 2 (Immigration Threat: Present/Absent) × 2 (Ingroup Emotion Endorsement: Present/Absent) + 1 (Control Group) experimental design tests the influence of exposure to immigration news stories on group-level emotions and intergroup behaviors. Findings indicate that exposure to threatening immigration news coverage indirectly influences intergroup outcomes through group-level emotions. Exposure to immigration news indirectly produces active and passive harming behaviors through feelings of contempt. These results provide an important first step in understanding a broader array of media-related intergroup processes and effects.

[1]  Travis L. Dixon.  Psychological Reactions to Crime News Portrayals of Black Criminals: Understanding the Moderating Roles of Prior News Viewing and Stereotype Endorsement , 2006 .

[2]  Robert P. Abelson,et al.  A Variance Explanation Paradox : When a Little is a Lot , 1985 .

[3]  J Tudor-Hart,et al.  On the nature of prejudice. , 1961, The Eugenics review.

[4]  Eliot R. Smith,et al.  Intergroup emotions: explaining offensive action tendencies in an intergroup context. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[5]  Srividya Ramasubramanian.  Television Viewing, Racial Attitudes, and Policy Preferences: Exploring the Role of Social Identity and Intergroup Emotions in Influencing Support for Affirmative Action , 2010 .

[6]  Eliot R. Smith,et al.  “We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore”: Anger self-stereotyping and collective action , 2011 .

[7]  W. Stephan,et al.  Electromyographic Analyses of Responses to Intergroup Threat , 2011 .

[8]  Dana Mastro,et al.  EFFECTS OF RACIAL AND ETHNIC STEREOTYPING , 2009 .

[9]  Travis L. Dixon,et al.  Overrepresentation and Underrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos as Lawbreakers on Television News , 2000 .

[10]  Dana Mastro,et al.  A social identity approach to understanding the impact of television messages , 2003 .

[11]  Anita Atwell Seate,et al.  The Effect of Media Exposure on Perceptions of Group Entitativity: A Preliminary Investigation , 2015 .

[12]  Francine Segovia,et al.  The polls—Trends American Public Opinion on Immigrants and Immigration Policy , 2010 .

[13]  Amy J. C. Cuddy,et al.  A model of (often mixed) stereotype content: competence and warmth respectively follow from perceived status and competition. , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[14]  Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz,et al.  The Cultivation of Social Perceptions of Latinos: A Mental Models Approach , 2007 .

[15]  Nicholas A. Valentino,et al.  What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat , 2008 .

[16]  Shelly Rodgers,et al.  “Fixing”; stereotypes in news photos: A synergistic approach with the Los Angeles times , 2000 .

[17]  Eliot R. Smith,et al.  Intergroup emotions and intergroup relations. , 2008 .

[18]  Descriptors Higher.  Annual Meeting of the International Communication Association , 1974 .

[19]  Sei-Hill Kim,et al.  The View of the Border: News Framing of the Definition, Causes, and Solutions to Illegal Immigration , 2011 .

[20]  Travis L. Dixon,et al.  Race and the Misrepresentation of Victimization on Local Television News , 2000, Commun. Res..

[21]  Amy J. C. Cuddy,et al.  Warmth and Competence As Universal Dimensions of Social Perception: The Stereotype Content Model and the BIAS Map , 2008 .

[22]  Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz,et al.  Exposure to Television Portrayals of Latinos: The Implications of Aversive Racism and Social Identity Theory , 2008 .

[23]  J. Turner.  Social categorization and the self-concept: A social cognitive theory of group behavior. , 2010 .

[24]  Dhavan V. Shah,et al.  Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916 ORIGINAL ARTICLE A Communicative Approach to Social Capital , 2022 .

[25]  Florian Arendt,et al.  Cultivation Effects of a Newspaper on Reality Estimates and Explicit and Implicit Attitudes , 2010, J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl..

[26]  E. L. Fink,et al.  The FAQs on Data Transformation , 2009 .

[27]  Kevin Grieves,et al.  VILLAINS, VICTIMS AND THE VIRTUOUS IN BILL O'REILLY'S “NO-SPIN ZONE” , 2007 .

[28]  Dana E. Mastro,et al.  Latino Representation on Primetime Television , 2005 .

[29]  Dana E. Mastro,et al.  The Influence of Exemplar Versus Prototype‐Based Media Primes on Racial/Ethnic Evaluations , 2011 .

[30]  M. Garry,et al.  On cognition and the media , 2007 .

[31]  Monle Lee,et al.  The Determinants of Email Receivers' Disseminating Behaviors on the Internet , 2007, Journal of Advertising Research.

[32]  Dana Mastro,et al.  Group Membership in Race-Related Media Processes and Effects , 2012 .

[33]  Robert M. Entman,et al.  Modern racism and the images of blacks in local television news , 1990 .

[34]  A. Hayes.  Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach , 2013 .

[35]  H. Tajfel,et al.  The Social Identity Theory of Intergroup Behavior. , 2004 .

[36]  Srividya Ramasubramanian,et al.  The Impact of Stereotypical Versus Counterstereotypical Media Exemplars on Racial Attitudes, Causal Attributions, and Support for Affirmative Action , 2011, Commun. Res..

[37]  Abhik Roy,et al.  Social Identity Theory and Mass Communication Research. , 2005 .

[38]  Eliot R. Smith,et al.  I feel our pain: Antecedents and consequences of emotional self-stereotyping , 2009 .

[39]  Eliot R. Smith,et al.  Arousal, Processing, and Risk Taking: Consequences of Intergroup Anger , 2008, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[40]  Y. Fujioka.  Perceived Threats and Latino Immigrant Attitudes: How White and African American College Students Respond to News Coverage of Latino Immigrants , 2011 .

[41]  G. Bower.  Affect and Cognition , 1983, A Configuration Approach to Mindset Agency Theory.

[42]  Amy J. C. Cuddy,et al.  Social Structure Shapes Cultural Stereotypes and Emotions: A Causal Test of the Stereotype Content Model , 2009, Group processes & intergroup relations : GPIR.

[43]  Kai J. Jonas.  Exemplification in Communication , 2001, Z. für Medienpsychologie.

[44]  S. Fiske,et al.  Not an outgroup, not yet an ingroup: Immigrants in the Stereotype Content Model , 2006 .

[45]  J. Dovidio.  The SAGE Handbook of Prejudice, Stereotyping and Discrimination , 2010 .

[46]  Amy J. C. Cuddy,et al.  The BIAS map: behaviors from intergroup affect and stereotypes. , 2007, Journal of personality and social psychology.