Pit Bull Positivity: Changing Images and Opinions of a Stigmatized Group

• In Event: Pathways for Reducing Prejudice

Abstract

Our related work has found pervasive prejudice and discrimination against pit bulls in public opinion, news coverage, public policy and law. We also show that this prejudice and discrimination is racialized--rooted in the dog ’s association with Black culture and African American owners. But it’s not all bad news for pit bulls. While news stories have been consistently and overwhelmingly negative for several decades now, the rise of social media has provided a remarkable outlet for “pit bull positivity.” In fact, our automated content analyses of all social media postings since 2009 show that there are far more positive tweets and Instagram posts about pit bulls than any other dog breed.

Drawing on insights from the extensive political psychology literature on prejudice reduction, we argue that this influx of pit bull positivity should have a profound impact on public opinion about the breed. And it most definitely has. After first showing that public opinion about pit bulls has strongly shifted in the breed’s favor over the past decade, we deploy observational and experimental survey data to demonstrate how exposure to pit bull positivity on social media has led to even more favorable opinions of the breed--especially among white Americans who were randomly exposed to positive images of white owners’ loving relationships with their pit bulls. The paper then documents how the recent shifts in portraits and narratives of the breed helped create an enormous age divide between the attitudes of younger Americans, who were socialized amidst growing pit bull positivity, and older Americans whose impressions of the breed were formed in the pit bull panic era—much the way that young adults previously formed the vanguard of liberalizing attitudes towards racial, ethnic, and LBGT groups. We conclude by discussing how changes in societal portraits of stigmatized groups, including pit bulls, don’t just help change mass opinions but can also pressure politicians to change their positions and ultimately help dismantle discriminatory policies.

Authors

• Mary McThomas, University of California, Irvine

• Michael Tesler, UC Irvine