Does outgroup media exposure reduce prejudice in real life? Testing mediated contact effects with media diets in South Africa

Mediated intergroup contact can reduce recipients’ prejudice. However, prior studies have mainly examined the effects of carefully selected stimuli, contents, and genres. We investigated whether outgroup exposure on the level of real-life, multi-channel media diets is associated with reduced prejudice. Prior scholarship offers contradictory expectations: We tested this with survey data from South Africa where the numeric group constellation and the media system should make blatant stereotyping in traditional media less likely. While social media interactions were associated with more positive attitudes, effects in traditional media varied across the type of medium and sample. This suggests that it will be difficult to associate a person’s general media usage with their prejudice. We discuss the challenges for future tests of the real-life potential of mediated intergroup contact. Altogether, our study dampens initial hopes and underlines the importance of targeted interventions and outstanding single contents.

媒介化群体间接触（Mediated Intergroup Contact）能够降低受众的偏见。然而，既往研究主要考察的是经过精心遴选的刺激素材、内容与体裁所产生的影响。本研究旨在探究：现实生活场景下，个体在多渠道媒体接触习惯中的外群体（Outgroup）接触，是否与偏见水平降低存在关联。现有学术研究对此存在相互矛盾的预期：我们借助南非的调查数据开展了相关检验——在南非，群体数量构成与媒体生态本应使得传统媒体中出现露骨刻板印象的概率更低。尽管社交媒体互动与更积极的态度存在关联，但传统媒体的影响则因媒介类型与研究样本的不同而存在差异。这表明，将个体的整体媒体使用行为与其偏见水平直接关联起来，将颇具难度。我们还探讨了未来检验媒介化群体间接触的现实潜力时可能面临的诸多挑战。总体而言，本研究打消了此前的初步预期，并凸显了针对性干预措施与优质单篇内容的重要性。