The Effects of Photo-Journalism on the Outgroup Empathy Gap

• In Event: Experiments in Empathy

Abstract

Common explanations of media influence on bias toward out-groups focus on racial biases. Empathy is a psychological trait ostensibly capable of minimizing perceived differences between in-group and out-group members, but evidence suggests that for some, empathetic capacity is limited for out-group members.We ask whether and how media depictions of refugees and domestic natural disaster victims as in-group and out-group members influence attitudes. We conduct a series of experiments in which the skin tone and group size of refugees depicted in news story images varies by condition. We test whether photo-journalistic portrayals of refugees as more human decreases outgroup bias in people’s empathetic responses. We further explore whether individual differences in empathy and racism condition the effects of media images on empathic responses to outgroups.

Authors

• Johanna Dunaway, Texas A&M University

• Kevin Arceneaux, Sciences Po

• Bert Bakker, University of Amsterdam