Examples of Research

1. Examples of Research

2. Pornography Effects Research: Donnerstein Paradigm • Procedure: • Subject and female confederate • Told it’s a learning task under threat of punishment • Subject is learner first, then teacher • Part 1: Subject writes essay • Confederate evaluates with shock and written feedback • Condition: positive vs. negative evaluation • Intermission: Film preview • Condition: aggressive vs. aggressive erotic vs. erotic vs. control film • Part 2: Subject evaluates task performance • Administration of shock to confederate

3. Pornography Effects Research: Donnerstein Paradigm O1 R Subject praised Aggressive O1 R Subject angered Aggressive O1 R Subject praised Aggressive erotic O1 R Subject angered Aggressive erotic O1 R Subject praised Erotic O1 R Subject angered Erotic O1 R Subject praised Control O1 R Subject angered Control

4. Pornography Effects Research

5. Pornography Effects Research Donnerstein & Berkowitz (1981) Aggressive erotic: -Positive ending (victim enjoys) -Negative ending Confederate: -male vs. female

6. Pornography Effects Research Donnerstein & Berkowitz (1981) DEBRIEFING EFFECTS

7. Research on Third-person Perception • Example of research that embeds an experiment into a survey • (c.f., class research project) • Respondents get different versions of a questionnaire • Different stimulus messages presented to different groups Warning:Slides for this research contain text and audio-visual materials of a graphic violent and sexist nature.

8. Basic Third Person Concepts • The Third Person Perception (3pp): • “Others are more affected by negative media messages than I am” • The Social Distance Corollary: • “The more different someone is from me, the more they are affected by media messages”

9. Theoretical Underpinnings of the Third-person Phenomenon • Why do we see others as being more affected by negative media messages than ourselves? • Ego-enhancing motivational bias? • “I am better than you” • “I am less affected by negative media messages” • “I am not as easy to manipulate as you”

10. Past Research on 3pp • Research has found support for 3pp for a variety of negative content: • TV violence (Innes and Zeitz, 1988) • Pornography (Gunther, 1995: Rojas, Shah, & Faber, 1996) • Libelous news stories (Cohen et al., 1988; Gunther, 1991) • Product advertisements (Thorson & Coyle, 1994) • Negative political ads (Cohen & Davis, 1991) • Several other forms of potentially harmful media content

11. Findings from a Previous Study: McLeod, Eveland, & Nathanson (1997)

12. Third-person Research: Example • Eveland, Nathanson, Detenber & McLeod (1999). • Research Questions: • Do perceived effects increase as comparison group gets more distance? • Based on logic of Ego Enhancement rationale • What if we expand the dimensions of social distance? • 1. Traditional: • UD students, Average American • 2. Education: • other college students, people your age with a high school education, people your age with a grade school education • 3. Age: • 8 years younger, 4 years younger, same age, 8 years older, 40 years older • Does perceived impact increase as social distance increases along each of the dimensions?

13. Third-person Research: Methods • Participants: • Participants: • 359 U. of Delaware students • Stimulus: • Different music lyrics embedded in different surveys • 1. Violent anti-social rap • 2. Misogynic anti-social rap • 3. Violent anti-social death metal • 4. Misogynic anti-social death metal

14. Third-person Study Design O1 R Violent Rap O1 R Misog. Rap O1 R Violent Death Metal O1 Misog. Death Metal R

15. Violent Rap “Out one night, Yo, just chillin’ with my crew we were actin’ wild cuz I didn’t have nothing better to do Got a nine at my waist, Stay out of my face. You mess with me, Right here’ll be your resting place....” -South Central Cartel

16. Misogynistic Rap It’s late one night and I’m ready to dip Cuz I’m kinda drunk with an ugly chick Big butt, big chest, and kinda stacked Six foot two and she’s also fat.... ....Be my girl what? It ain’t all that Got weed in your head, knock-kneed and fat Get some understanding, you’re just a skeez I’m out for booty and to be pleased.... ....Get an ugly chick. -Too Live Crew

17. Violent Death Metal “...Kill the preacher’s only son, watch the infant die. Bodily dismemberment, drink the purest blood Unrelenting need to kill, death upon you now. Anxiously awaiting the next in line.” -Slayer

18. Misogynistic Death Metal “...Shave her head and throw her down. That’s where she belongs--on the ground. She’s just an object for him to crush. Pound her head until it’s mush.” -Visceral Eviscerations

19. Third-person Research: Results

20. Media and Collective Action • Collective action required to address social problems • Require social capital, connections among individuals • Erosion of social capital poses a threat to this necessity • Putnam critiques television as the source of erosion • “Mean world” and time displacement both discounted • But maybe nature of the media effect is different • Commercial media may foster consumption-centered culture, heightening individualism and devaluing social connections

21. Media and Consumption Orientations • Media may not only influence civic participation • Positive link to news use; negative link to entertainment • Also shape consumer attitudes and practices • Status conscious consumption • Spurred by status consciousness from commercial exposure • Stresses conspicuous consumption - discourages civic • Socially conscious consumption • Spurred mainly by environmental concerns from news use • Stress on social responsibility may displace other civic forms

22. “The Citizen-Consumer: Media Effects at the Intersection of Consumer and Civic Culture” Heejo Keum, Narayan Devanathan, Sameer Deshpande, Michelle R. Nelson, and Dhavan V. Shah, Political Communication, 21(3): 369-391, July-September 2004.

23. Bourdieu & Cultural Capital • Cultural goods - fashion, art, food, media - circulate as forms of power, markers of distinction among classes • Class status is gained and lost through consumption • We can acquire access to social circles by displaying appropriate taste, manners, culture • Consumption maintains patterns of power and inequality • Connects cultural capital with social practices of establishing hierarchies, maintaining distances, and legitimating class

24. Citizens and Consumers • Mistake to equate political action with public-spirited motives and consumption with self-interested ones • Both political behavior and consumer behavior can be public-spirited or self-interested. • Consumer choices can be expressly public-spirited • Boycotting Walmart, Buying Ben & Jerry’s, or Dumping Wine • Consumer behavior can serve democracy • Talk: Coffee houses in 18th c. London • Informal Networks: Harley Riders, Mac Enthusiasts • Political behavior often is not public-spirited but egocentric

25. Blurring Lines: The Consumer-Citizen • Growing alignment of consumptive and civic • Human Rights and anti-sweatshop • Unfair labor practices and fair trade coffee • Environmentalism and hybrid cars • Economic equality and discount designers • Patriotism and buying American • Localism and boycotting chain retailers • Anti-globalism and fast food retailers • Global poverty and health and “Red” campaign • Not less, just different - new form of participation

26. Questioning Political Consumption • Who is a socially conscious consumer and why? • What is the role of media and talk in this dynamic? • What about the Internet and political consumerism? • Is political consumerism really increasing? • If so, what explains change over time? • “Political Consumerism: How Communication Practices and Consumption Orientations Drive ‘Lifestyle Politics’,” Dhavan V. Shah, Douglas M. McLeod, Eunkyung Kim, Sun Young Lee, Melissa Gotlieb, Shirley Ho, and Hilde Brevik. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 611: 217-235, May 2007.

27. Theorized Model

31. “Lifestyle” Politics • Find direct and indirect connections of dispositional, communication, and consumption orientations • Conventional and online news encourage political consumption through opinions and actions • Environmental concerns • Political talk • Advertising Paternalism • Explains cross-sectional links and over time change • Strong evidence of a meaningful relationship

32. Communication and Consumption • Collective action not at odds with consumption • Status-consciousness corresponds to civic practices • Social-consciousness fosters a politics of the pocketbook • Rather than posing a threat to civic action, they may represent underlying elements of social capital • Status-consciousness creates entry to social circle • Social-consciousness may be type of status consciousness • Both correspond closely with news media and political talk