Online and Retrospective Negation of Media Stereotypes

• In Event: Analyses of Stereotypes, Gender Roles, and Expectancy Violations in Media

Abstract

The present study investigated the negation (e.g., “No! This is not true!”) of media stereotypes and its consequences on media-induced changes of prejudice. This study is the first to measure negation during exposure by utilizing a process-oriented continuous measurement approach with eye tracking methodology. The data show that individuals negated the repeated depictions of the “criminal foreigner” stereotype during reception (online) as well as in a subsequent situation (retrospective). However, they rarely negated the stereotypic information directly at the moment of encoding. This is unfortunate, because scholarship has indicated that negation directly at the moment of encoding may have important beneficial consequences. In addition, this study investigated negation’s consequences on media-induced attitude change: Whereas some scholars have argued that media effects on attitudes typically occur during exposure, others highlighted the situation when the attitude judgment is constructed. Our data emphasize the importance of the judgment construction situation.

Authors

• Florian Arendt, U of Vienna

• Jorg Matthes, U of Vienna