Media and the priming of stereotypes
Direct effect of news articles racial stereotypes on individuals judgements of people of foreign extraction.
SamhällsvetenskapSocial sciences - psychologyHumanioraThe humanities - psychologySocial sciences - sociologyStereotypesMediaPriming
The present research examined both automatic and controlled processes in
newpapers ability of priming racial stereotypes via the portrayals of people of
foreign extraction. The automatic process were examined through articles which;
a) involved an illegal act or b) the act was not illegal but morally
questionable. Swedish-born subject?s explicit opinions against foreign people
were also measured through ?The Modern Racial Prejudice Scale?. In the
experiment participants read four different articles which included; Swedish
person/noncrime, foreign person/noncrime, Swedish person/crime and foreign
person/crime. The central hypothesis was that news containing people of foreign
extraction primes racial stereotypes which are subsequently brought to bear on
subject?s evaluations of that person?s characteristics. A 2 ´ 2 ´ 2 ANOVA
splitt-plot design revealed that there was no significant difference in
judgments of the different articles depending on race or content . A
distinction between sterotype activation and sterotype application are
discussed.