Effects of Framing Counter-Stereotypes as Surprising on Rethinking Prior Opinions About Outgroups: The Moderating Role of Political Ideology

In this paper we address the unmet potential of counter-stereotypes (CS) by explicitly expressing feelings of surprise in media frames, to acknowledge the possible surprising effect attached to an encounter with a CS. Using a two-study survey-experiment (Nstudy 1 = 475, Nstudy 2 = 565) in the context of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, we demonstrate the moderating role of political ideology in the effect of exposure to surprise framing of CS on attitudes toward an outgroup. The results indicate that when the feeling of surprise is explicitly expressed in media articles (compared to control), right-leaning individuals expressed more liking toward Arabs, were less inclined to social distance from Arabs, and perceived Arabs as less homogeneous. Left-leaning participants, however, remained unaffected by this explicit expression. The cause of this difference between political-ideological groups is further discussed, along with implications of such findings for research on prejudice, stereotypes, and media effects, and practices of changing dynamics between groups in conflict.本研究聚焦于反刻板印象（counter-stereotypes, CS）尚未得到充分挖掘的潜力，通过在媒体框架中明确表达惊讶情绪，以呼应与反刻板印象相遇时可能伴随的惊讶效应。本研究以巴以冲突为研究场景，开展两项调查实验（研究1样本量N₁=475，研究2样本量N₂=565），验证了政治意识形态在接触反刻板印象惊讶框架对外群体态度的影响中所起到的调节作用。结果显示，当媒体文章中明确表达惊讶情绪时（相较于对照组），右翼倾向个体对阿拉伯群体的好感度更高，更不愿与阿拉伯群体产生社会距离，且认为阿拉伯群体的同质性更低。然而，左翼倾向参与者并未受到该明确表达的影响。本研究进一步探讨了不同政治意识形态群体间出现该差异的成因，并讨论了本研究发现对偏见、刻板印象及媒体效应相关研究的启示，以及改变冲突中群体间互动动态的实践举措。