Converging Interracial Consequences of Exposure to Violent Rap Music on Stereotypical Attributions of Blacks

The present study explored how media, specifically violent rap music, may influence Blacks' and Whites' attribution of Blacks through stereotype priming. When compared to controls and participants exposed to nonviolent Black musicians, those exposed to violent Black musicians reported attributions of a target Black male's violent behavior that was particularly dispositional relative to attributions of a White male's violent behavior or to any other condition. The findings also indicated that the impact of exposure to violent rap music generalized to judgments involving other stereotype-related traits (i.e., intelligence) but not to judgments of nonstereotypical traits (i.e., spatial skills).

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