Can Social Norms Communicated Through Entertainment Television Media Reduce Prejudice?

Author
Publication Year
2018

Type

Thesis
Abstract

Prejudice continues to be a deeply entrenched problem throughout the world today. Entertainment media are among the most powerful communicators of information that shape social attitudes and norms. Recent studies show that entertainment media (e.g., sitcoms) can effectively reduce prejudice towards targeted minority groups, but little is known about the psychological processes occurring when such changes take place. Research has demonstrated that social norms and perceptions of them are highly predictive of people‚s attitudes and behaviors. The current research explores how entertainment television media influence social norms and intergroup attitudes. In the Pilot Study, we completed a systematic multi-step process to create standardized experimental video stimuli for use in subsequent research including Studies 1 and 2. In Study 1, we examined whether entertainment television shows that make salient a social norm of valuing diversity and behaving inclusively influence people‚s perceptions of social norms regarding diversity and reduce prejudice compared to matched control shows. In Study 2, we compared entertainment television shows that make salient pro-diversity social norms to shows that make salient other psychological constructs related to prejudice reduction (i.e., intergroup friendship, minority counterstereotypicality). Across the studies, we found that television shows that make salient pro-diversity social norms can effectively improve intergroup attitudes and increase inclusive behaviors, and that, in some cases, they do this more strongly than shows that make salient other psychological constructs related to reducing prejudice.

Thesis Type
Dissertation
University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
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Type of Prejudice/Bias
Country