Who Likes What Kind of News? It appears that men have higher interest in news categories characterized by competition aspects

Who Likes What Kind of News? The Relationship Between Characteristics of Media Consumers and News Interest. Kai Kaspar, Lisa Anna Marie Fuchs. SAGE Open, March 25, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211003089

Abstract: Stimulated by the uses-and-gratification approach, this study examined the joint relation of several consumer characteristics to news interest. In total, 1,546 German-speaking participants rated their interest in 15 major news categories and several personal characteristics, including gender, age, the Big Five personality traits, self-esteem, as well as general positive and negative affect. Regression analyses examined the amount of interindividual variance in news interest that can be explained by this set of consumer characteristics. Overall, the amount of explained variance differed remarkably across news categories, ranging from 4% for entertainment-related news to 25% for news about technology. The most powerful explaining variables were participants’ gender, age, openness to experiences, and their amount of general positive affect. The results suggest that news interest should be defined and operationalized as a concept with multiple facets covering a huge range of content. Also, the results are important for media producers and journalists with respect to the conflict between increased need gratification of consumers and information filtering via personalized news content.

Keywords: mass media, news interest, uses-and-gratification, Big Five, self-esteem, general affect

Discussion

We examined the relation between several consumer characteristics and people’s interest in 15 different news categories. We found that participants’ gender showed the strongest relation to their interest in many news categories (H1). Men reported more interest in news about economy, technology, science, politics, and sports. In contrast, women were more interested in news about health, nutrition, fashion, crime, accidents and disasters, entertainment, environment, traveling, and culture. Although each of these categories is very broad and covers a huge range of subthemes in general, it appears that men have higher interest in news categories characterized by competition aspects. Men’s higher propensity to enjoy competition has been extensively discussed in the literature (e.g., Gneezy & Rustichini, 2004) and it is discussed in the light of socialization, whereby this gender bias does not appear to be universal but contingent on environmental factors (e.g., Gneezy et al., 2009). In Western culture, men opt to compete more often than women (Gneezy et al., 2009). In this sense, the present results found for a sample of German-speaking participants in Europe are limited regarding their generalizability to other cultural environments. Nonetheless, gender apparently plays a central role when it comes to news preferences.

Age also showed significant relations to news interest (H2), but the direction of the relation depended on the specific news category. In accordance with the core assumption of the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Mather & Carstensen, 2005), increasing age was associated with a positivity bias, indicated by a decreased interest in crime as well as accidents and disasters. Also, and in accordance with the Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, increasing age was negatively related to participants’ interest in news that addresses the exploration of new horizons and information about new societal trends, namely fashion, traveling, and career. In addition, age was positively related to interest in economy, politics, and culture. However, and surprisingly, participants’ interest in entertainment-related news was negatively related to their age. While such news may be light and thus conducive to a positive mood, a substantial amount of this type of news is about celebrities and popular culture (cf., Gow et al., 2012). Such issues are likely to be of less interest to older people. To conclude, people do not show a generalized positivity bias with increasing age, but the configuration of their interests apparently changes with age.

The Big Five personality traits were differently influential (RQ1): While extraversion showed a relatively weak relation to news interest across all categories, neuroticism, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness showed more pronounced relations with varying signs across categories. Neuroticism was negatively related to news about economy, technology, and politics, but neuroticism was positively related to news about entertainment, health, nutrition, crime, as well as accidents and disasters. Hence, participants high in neuroticism reported to be less interested in news that primarily addresses societal topics on a large scale, but they were more inclined to consume news about topics that may have a more direct utility for the individual consumer. In this context, the positive relation between neuroticism and interest in news about crime as well as accidents and disasters may indicate that individuals high in neuroticism want to feel prepared to actively avert potential risks. Openness showed a negative relation to participants’ interest in news about entertainment, sports, crime, career, as well as accidents and disasters, but openness was positively related to interest in news about health, technology, politics, science, environment, nutrition, traveling, and culture. Overall, openness was the most powerful independent variable besides participants’ age, gender, and amount of general positive affect. Agreeableness was mainly negatively related to news interest. This was the case for news about economy, technology, science, and career. Only one positive relation could be observed regarding news about traveling. On a more general level, it seems that increasing agreeableness is negatively associated with the interest in domains usually characterized by competitive processes. This motivational tendency is in line with the definition of agreeableness as being trusting, sympathetic, and selfless (McCrae & Costa, 2003). Finally, conscientiousness showed a positive relation to interest in news about economy, health, sports, crime, and career, but a negative relation to news about culture. These results match well with previous findings according to which conscientiousness is positively related to different facets of health behavior (Chuah et al., 2006), job performance (Barrick & Mount, 1991), but negatively related to deviant behavior (Farhadi et al., 2012) and interest in modern art, as one part of culture (Furnham, Chamorro-Premuzic, 2004). To sum up, the present results regarding the Big Five personality traits complement previous research that has already uncovered correlations between these traits and different domains of vocational interests (Larson et al., 2002). Apparently, news interests are also strongly linked to the Big Five personality traits.

Self-esteem, in contrast, was a weak independent variable across all 15 news categories (H3). Participants with a lower (vs. higher) self-esteem reported an increased interest in news about culture only by trend and they did not report a significantly increased interest in politics. Also, the expected positive relation between self-esteem and achievement/performance-related topics, namely economy and sports, was not found. Thus, our data do not support the findings of Knobloch-Westerwick et al. (2006) and Knobloch-Westerwick and Alter (2007) who found that participants characterized by low trait self-esteem spent more time reading news stories covering social and interpersonal topics, whereas participants characterized by high self-esteem read longer about topics addressing achievement and performance aspects. This difference might be explained by methodological differences, as Knobloch-Westerwick et al. (2006) and Knobloch-Westerwick and Alter (2007) examined the real exposure time to self-selected news articles, whereas we asked participants to report their general interest in news belonging to different categories. A potential moderating role of the sample type is also conceivable: Although Knobloch-Westerwick et al. (2006) exclusively examined German university students, the link to the present online study was broadly disseminated across numerous social networking sites and German mailing lists. This procedure may have led to a more heterogeneous sample, although the mean score and standard deviation of the self-esteem ratings (same instrument) was comparable across samples (Knobloch-Westerwick et al., 2006; M = 2.21, SD = 0.46; present study: M = 2.16, SD = 0.58). Future research might address the role of self-esteem in more detail by examining potential moderators and the effect of situational factors. However, we can resume that self-esteem, when being examined in combination with further consumer characteristics, seems to be a relatively weak contributor to news interest.

In contrast, participants’ amount of general positive affect showed a strong relation to interest in many news categories (RQ2). Thereby, positive affect was always positively related to interest in news about economy, entertainment, sports, technology, science, environment, nutrition, traveling, and career. Negative affect only showed a positive relation to news about technology and a negative relation to news about the environment. In a nutshell, these results may indicate a significant role of emotion regulation effects associated with news consumption, as already suggested by studies that focused on the relationship between one’s current mood state and preferences for specific media content (e.g., Biswas et al., 1994; Kaspar, Gameiro, & König, 2015; Knobloch-Westerwick, 2007).

Limitations and Implications for Future Research and Practice

In this study, consumer characteristics explained a significant amount of interindividual variance in people’s general news interest. However, the amount of explained variance in news interest differed remarkably across categories, ranging from only 4% for entertainment-related news to 23% for news about culture and 25% for news about technology. This result suggests, on one hand, that news interest should be defined and operationalized as a concept with multiple facets that covers a huge range of qualitatively different content. On the other hand, it indicates that people’s news interest in some domains may be more susceptible to situational factors not considered here, whereas other domain-specific interests can be fairly explained by a rather small set of relatively stable and time-invariant consumer characteristics. For example, one’s interest in news about health and politics may be strongly influenced by the current global pandemic due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) (cf., Cucinotta & Vanelli, 2020). It is conceivable that such a dramatic event of high personal relevance attenuates the role of other consumer characteristics. Also, the amount of health-related news in mass media has recently changed dramatically due to the global pandemic, so that salient news coverage may act as a moderator of the relationship between consumer characteristics and news interest in terms of agenda setting effects (cf., Wanta & Ghanem, 2007). Another line of research emphasizes the significant role of the framing of a news story on consumers’ news interest (Kaspar et al., 2016), the role of the motivational valence of a news article’s content and the effect of color cues on news interest (Kaspar et al., 2017), and the effect of font type on news interest (Kaspar, Wehlitz, et al., 2015). However, these studies did not consider individual differences in consumers’ characteristics. Thus, to get a more complete picture, future studies should expand the focus on potential moderators, including situational factors, consumers’ cultural background, news framing, news valence, and visual properties of news presentation.

What do the present results mean for research focusing on the U&G approach? First of all, as highlighted by Kaspar and Müller-Jensen (2019), we must recognize that U&G “is not a homogeneous theory but rather a collective term for many theoretical models varying in complexity and conceptual nuances” (p. 1). Twenty years ago, Ruggiero (2000) already provided a comprehensive overview of the historical development of the U&G approach and suggested that future models must include concepts associated with new media and forms of computer-mediated communication in the digital age, such as interactivity and asynchroneity in the communication process. Similarly, Rubin (2009) emphasized the role of changes in technology for the development of contemporary U&G models. In contrast, this study focused on a classic form of mass media (news) not characterized by high interactivity or asynchronous interpersonal communication processes. Nonetheless, the present results indicate at least three implications for theory development: First, the U&G approach stresses the notion of an active audience selecting media content to fulfill certain needs. Given that news is not a unidimensional but multifaceted concept covering very different types of content, the societal and personal needs underlying the specific news preferences may vary a lot. Hence, U&G research should not only consider technological constraints of specific media but also nuances of the media format and its content. Second, although the role of individual predispositions for media use have already been examined and discussed in the context of U&G research (cf., Rubin, 2009), the role of rather situation-invariant personality traits has been neglected so far. Indeed, U&G models usually focus on needs and motives as well as associated gratifications sought (cf., Rayburn & Palmgreen, 1984), while an elaborated link to personality is still missing; current research in the field of personality aims to address this issue (e.g., Dweck, 2017). Third, from a methodological viewpoint, research on U&G is based on the assumption that media users can provide accurate self-reports of their needs and motives driving media selection. Many studies in this field apply interview and survey techniques to detect those motives influencing media choice (e.g., Park et al., 2009). However, given that personality traits as well as affect showed relationships to news preferences in this study, the question arises to what extent users can be aware of the influence of these factors on media selection, whereby a causal influence also remains to be shown. For example, Reinecke (2017) pointed out that, while the U&G approach assumes that media selection processes are rational and consciousness, “mood management theory assumes that media users may but do not necessarily have to be cognizant of the motivational processes driving their selective exposure to media content” (p. 2). In the light of the present results, it seems fruitful to overcome this speculative distinction to broaden the perspective to all those processes and variables that may affect media selection.

Another aspect to be mentioned is the fact that this study was solely based on participants’ reports about their news interest. In general, there is a long controversy about the (in)consistency between attitudes and behavior (e.g., Gross & Niman, 1975; Liska, 1974). With respect to media use, the examination of real behavior outside the laboratory is a challenging task. Weaver et al. (1993) examined the relationship between personality and movie preferences and have already concluded that

while the data at hand demonstrate that personality and attitudes toward particular media content themes are interrelated, evidence that actual media use behaviors (e.g., medium and content selection, time spent consuming) are consistent with the observed personality-preference patterns remains a promising avenue for future research. (p. 313)

Many studies in the field are actually based on self-reports (e.g., Kraaykamp & Van Eijck, 2005), but tracking of media selection and consumption processes has already successfully applied (e.g., Knobloch-Westerwick & Alter, 2007), whereby people’s awareness of behavioral tracking usually elicit information privacy concerns and affect use motivation (e.g., Kaspar, 2020; Ketelaar & Van Balen, 2018). However, Jones-Jang et al. (2020) recently found promising results when comparing self-reported and logged data of smartphone use over 7 days. Effect sizes of correlations based on self-report data tended to be smaller compared to effect sizes based on logged data. The authors concluded that “this could mean that extant survey results have not erroneously inflated communication findings” (Jones-Jang et al., 2020, p. 1). Nonetheless, with respect to research on news preferences and selection processes, methods that allow the collection of valid data and, at the same time, preserve the privacy of media users as best as possible would be highly desirable.

Research on news interest would also benefit from a validated catalog of criteria that helps to categorize news topics. Although this study referred to categories already used in previous research as well as in current media, the typology appears to be a bit arbitrary and some of the categories are rather broad, reducing their discriminatory power. A promising avenue for future research might be a combination of an analysis of news content and an analysis of the cognitive framework consumers use to classify and process news content, similar to the methodology applied in research on framing effects (cf., Entman, 1993).

Also, it should be noted that media producers may tailor news agendas to individual consumers on the basis of few personal and demographic data. The present results indicate that this might be possible, at least for some news categories. This possibility emphasizes the need for transparency in news production and dissemination processes and indicates the critical potential of echo chambers encircling individual consumers. Although consumers’ selective exposure to specific news content is not a new phenomenon (cf., Cotton & Hieser, 1980), the emergence of so-called filter bubbles and echo chambers is a highly relevant phenomenon in the era of online news (e.g., Flaxman et al., 2016; Garrett, 2009). Kaspar and Müller-Jensen (2019) recently emphasized that with respect to Facebook as an information source, the variety of perceived information is not only reduced due to users’ own selective seeking behavior, because “prioritized information is selectively assigned to the users’ individual news feed by Facebook’s algorithms” (p. 10). In fact, this critical role of algorithms is not limited to Facebook as it is a general attribute of current search engines and social media. In offline media, the agenda of a newspaper or television program is set by human producers and journalists. This also leads to a selective arrangement of the presented news, but such rather traditional media do not adjust content to each individual consumer but only to a larger group of potential recipients sharing similar interests and characteristics. Hence, the risk of creating filter bubbles is omnipresent but appears to be higher in the context of computer-mediated news. However, in more positive terms, a better knowledge about information preferences of individual consumers may also help to create more interesting news offers and, as a consequence, to better satisfy personal needs and to increase perceived gratification in terms of the U&G approach. In this sense, producers and journalists should be very sensitive toward this conflict between need gratification and information filtering by means of agenda setting processes.

Authoritarian family types are, against Todd's predictions, linked to increased levels of the rule of law & innovation; communitarian family types are linked to racism, low levels of the rule of law, & late industrialization, as predicted

Gutmann, J., & Voigt, S. (2021). Testing Todd: Family types and development. Journal of Institutional Economics, 1-18. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-institutional-economics/article/abs/testing-todd-family-types-and-development/08591ED67D7CBF6B79F0A06A2659C20D

Abstract: Many years ago, Emmanuel Todd came up with a classification of family types and argued that the historically prevalent family types in a society have important consequences for its economic, political, and social development. Here, we evaluate Todd's most important predictions empirically. Relying on a parsimonious model with exogenous covariates, we find mixed results. On the one hand, authoritarian family types are, in stark contrast to Todd's predictions, associated with increased levels of the rule of law and innovation. On the other hand, and in line with Todd's expectations, communitarian family types are linked to racism, low levels of the rule of law, and late industrialization. Countries in which endogamy is frequently practiced also display an expectedly high level of state fragility and weak civil society organizations.

People with schizophrenia, and possibly forensic personality disorders populations, demonstrate a range of reading skills deficits

Reading skills deficits in people with mental illness: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Martina Vanova et al. European Psychiatry, Volume 64 Issue 1, November 3 2020. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-psychiatry/article/reading-skills-deficits-in-people-with-mental-illness-a-systematic-review-and-metaanalysis/2EE4FD903FF4FA7FED80B8DC62E18E62

Abstract

Background: Good reading skills are important for appropriate functioning in everyday life, scholastic performance, and acquiring a higher socioeconomic status. We conducted the first systematic review and meta-analysis to quantify possible deficits in specific reading skills in people with a variety of mental illnesses, including personality disorders (PDs).

Methods: We performed a systematic search of multiple databases from inception until February 2020 and conducted random-effects meta-analyses.

Results: The search yielded 34 studies with standardized assessments of reading skills in people with one or more mental illnesses. Of these, 19 studies provided data for the meta-analysis. Most studies (k = 27; meta-analysis, k = 17) were in people with schizophrenia and revealed large deficits in phonological processing (Hedge’s g = −0.88, p < 0.00001), comprehension (Hedge’s g = −0.96, p < 0.00001) and reading rate (Hedge’s g = −1.22, p = 0.002), relative to healthy controls; the single-word reading was less affected (Hedge’s g = −0.70, p < 0.00001). A few studies in affective disorders and nonforensic PDs suggested weaker deficits (for all, Hedge’s g < −0.60). In forensic populations with PDs, there was evidence of marked phonological processing (Hedge’s g = −0.85, p < 0.0001) and comprehension deficits (Hedge’s g = −0.95, p = 0.0003).

Conclusions: <. Future studies are needed to establish how these deficits directly compare to those seen in developmental or acquired dyslexia and to explore the potential of dyslexia interventions to improve reading skills in these populations.

Discussion

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated existing evidence to identify the type and degree of reading impairments in different MIs, the reading assessment tools that might most consistently detect them, and possible differences in the pattern of reading skills deficits in people with different MIs in forensic and nonforensic settings. Most of the reviewed studies (27/34) included people with SZ. There were seven studies of reading skills deficits in people with different MIs (PD or general MI) in forensic settings. Our findings are discussed below.

Effect of diagnosis in nonforensic samples

We observed significant deficits in multiple reading skills in SZ, resembling the pattern typically seen in dyslexia [6], and consistent with previous evidence for shared genetic and psychophysiological traits in SZ and dyslexia [7]. In our meta-analysis, both phonological processing and comprehension were greatly impaired. These impairments may be associated with ineffective use of contextual information [91] and contribute to poor speech in SZ, especially in close association with thought disorder [92]. Reading rate was low but the deficit in reading accuracy was lower. This indicates relatively preserved single-word reading skills, most likely because they are usually acquired before illness onset and remain intact [47]. In contrast, there was evidence for impairments in vocabulary and spelling, presumably as a result of disrupted scholastic experience. Disrupted scholastic experience during adolescence can affect complex skills such as comprehension [44,45,47], which could precipitate difficulties with processing complex written information in SZ. People with SZ showed reading skills well below their achieved education level (see Education). Reading skills deficits in SZ also do not seem to be explained by other aspects of cognition (see Cognitive Function) although more comprehensive investigations are needed to substantiate this. Our findings (Symptoms and Medication) further indicated that while symptoms and high antipsychotic doses may worsen reading skills, they do not fully explain the profile of reading skills deficits in SZ. Impairment in comprehension and vocabulary was present even before the onset of symptoms [44,45] together with deficient phonological processing, which has been related to disrupted visual processing in SZ since early age [21]. The symptoms can, however, aggravate deficits in reading skills, such as comprehension, which are acquired with experience, and also depend on the earlier acquired skills [93]. Recent data [94] suggest that some aspects of language production (e.g., slower articulation) that can affect reading skills assessments are particularly sensitive to dopamine-D2 receptor blocking antipsychotics. Furthermore, most studies in SZ included more men than women or men solely and also included people with schizoaffective disorder. Further studies need to comprehensively examine specific reading skills in both men and women with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder (separately) while taking medication, symptoms, cognition, education, and socioeconomic status into account.

Unlike in SZ and psychosis [51,58,65], nonpsychotic bipolar disorder, and affective disorders, seemed to have comprehension and single-word reading skills comparable to HC [30,47]. Although not all studies specified the type of PD, it seems that reading skill deficits may not be as prominent in nonforensic psychopathy as in SZ.

Effect of diagnosis in forensic samples

Our findings suggest only a weak or no deficit in nonforensic psychopathy but indicate a marked phonological processing and comprehension deficit in the incarcerated group. It is possible that PD/psychopathic individuals with good phonological processing and comprehension are more able to evade incarceration [30,95]. Nonetheless, marked reading deficits in the incarcerated group may have contributed to their poor adjustment within the community [27], which, in turn, increased the risk of incarceration. Men with MIs within forensic settings had significantly lower general reading abilities and spelling than women with MIs [27], consistent with the pattern seen in healthy samples [22].

Clinical implications

Comprehension has a significant influence on decision-making capacity in SZ [96], and this is likely to be true also for people with other MIs, especially within forensic populations. Dyslexia is often underdiagnosed in people with MIs, and this might explain their inability to complete higher education and obtain jobs [15], or the expression of socially unacceptable behaviors [27]. Furthermore, progression and engagement in therapeutic activities within mental health services often depend on good reading and language skills. This highlights a need to accurately identify reading deficits and develop specific programs to improve reading skills of people in psychiatric services. It may be possible to target reading deficits in SZ and other MIs by building on the less affected aspects, such as lexical knowledge (access to words) [97,98], and access to familiar information that can compensate for some of the reading deficits [99], while implementing interventions to ameliorate reading skills [100].

Effect of assessments

Significant between-test differences were found only in tests detecting deficits in comprehension, accuracy, and rate in SZ. In comprehension and rate, the NDRT and GORT-4, and in accuracy, the GORT solely, consistently detected large deficits while the Alouette (French) test detected no deficits (Figure 2). It is conceivable that certain deficits emerge more often/strongly in English compared to some other languages, as is the case in developmental dyslexia [101]. This possibility requires further study.

Promoting a message that highlights threat to life may be effective in raising levels of adherence to measures of infection control, but may also lead to a reduction in health-promoting behaviours

Brown, Richard D., Lynne Coventry, and Gillian V. Pepper. 2020. “COVID-19: The Relationship Between Perceptions of Risk and Behaviours During Lockdown.” OSF Preprints. July 30. doi:10.31219/osf.io/dwjvy.

Abstract

Background: Understanding COVID-19 risk perceptions and their impact on behaviour can improve the effectiveness of public health strategies in the future. Prior evidence suggests that, when people perceive uncontrollable risks to their health, they are less likely to make efforts to protect their health in those ways which they can control (e.g. through diet, exercise, and limiting alcohol intake). It is therefore important to understand the extent to which the threat of COVID-19 is perceived to be an uncontrollable risk, and to assess whether this perceived risk is associated with differences in health behaviour.

Methods: We surveyed a nationally representative sample of 496 participants, shortly after the peak of the pandemic in the UK. We collected data to assess people’s perceptions of COVID-19-related risk, and how these perceptions were associated with behaviours. We examined self-reported adherence to behaviours recommended by the UK Government and National Health Service to prevent the spread of the virus, as well as more general health behaviours. We predicted that increased perceived extrinsic mortality risk (the portion of a person’s mortality risk which they perceive to be uncontrollable) would disincentivise healthy behaviour.

Results: Perceived threat to life was found to be the most consistent predictor of reported adherence to measures designed to prevent the spread of infection. Perceived extrinsic mortality risk was found to have increased due to the pandemic, and was also associated with lower reported adherence to Government advice on diet and physical activity, as well as smoking.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that promoting a message that highlights threat to life may be effective in raising levels of adherence to measures of infection control, but may also have unintended consequences, leading to a reduction in health-promoting behaviours. We suggest that messages that highlight threat to life should be accompanied by statements of efficacy, and that messages evoking feelings of concern for others may also be effective in promoting compliance with anti-infection measures.

No convincing evidence outgroups are denied uniquely human characteristics: Distinguishing intergroup preference from trait-based dehumanization

No convincing evidence outgroups are denied uniquely human characteristics: Distinguishing intergroup preference from trait-based dehumanization. Florence E. Enock et al. Cognition, Volume 212, July 2021, 104682, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104682

Highlights

• The dual model predicts outgroups are attributed human traits to a lesser extent.

• To date, predominantly desirable traits have been investigated, creating a confound.

• We test attributions of desirable and undesirable human traits to social groups.

• Attributions of undesirable human traits were stronger for outgroups than ingroups.

• We find no support for the predictions of the dual model of dehumanization.

Abstract: According to the dual model, outgroup members can be dehumanized by being thought to possess uniquely and characteristically human traits to a lesser extent than ingroup members. However, previous research on this topic has tended to investigate the attribution of human traits that are socially desirable in nature such as warmth, civility and rationality. As a result, it has not yet been possible to determine whether this form of dehumanization is distinct from intergroup preference and stereotyping. We first establish that participants associate undesirable (e.g., corrupt, jealous) as well as desirable (e.g., open-minded, generous) traits with humans. We then go on to show that participants tend to attribute desirable human traits more strongly to ingroup members but undesirable human traits more strongly to outgroup members. This pattern holds across three different intergroup contexts for which dehumanization effects have previously been reported: political opponents, immigrants and criminals. Taken together, these studies cast doubt on the claim that a trait-based account of representing others as ‘less human’ holds value in the study of intergroup bias.

Keywords: DehumanizationIntergroup biasPrejudiceSocial cognition

7. General discussion

In this paper, we question the central claims of one of the most prominent psychological accounts of dehumanization - the dual model - which holds that outgroup members are perceived as lesser humans than ingroup members by being denied human specific traits (Haslam, 2006). We first revisited work relating to how the lay concept of ‘human’ is best characterised. We then tested its predictions about outgroup dehumanization in a series of seven experiments. Our results present a serious empirical challenge to the dual model.

The dual model argues that there are two sense of humanness: human uniqueness and human nature. Uniquely human traits can be summarised as civility, refinement, moral sensibility, rationality, and maturity. Human nature traits can be summarised as emotional responsiveness, interpersonal warmth, cognitive openness, agency, and depth (Haslam, 2006). However, the traits that supposedly characterise ‘humanness’ within this model are broadly socially desirable (Over, 2020a; Over, 2020b). We showed that people also associate some undesirable traits with the concept ‘human’. As well as considering humans to be refined and cultured, people also consider humans to be corrupt, selfish and cruel.

Results from our pretest provided us with grounds for re-examining predictions made by the dual model of dehumanization about the nature of intergroup bias in trait attributions. The dual model account holds that lesser attribution of human specific traits to outgroup members represents a psychological process of dehumanization that is separable from ingroup preference. However, as the human specific attributes summarised by the model are positive and socially desirable, it is possible that previous findings are better explained in terms of ingroup preference, the process of attributing positive qualities to ingroup members to a greater extent than to outgroup members.

In seven highly-powered experiments, we tested the predictions of the dual model against this alternative. We pitted the two hypotheses against each other by comparing attributions of uniquely human traits that varied in whether they were socially desirable or undesirable to ingroup and outgroup members. The dual model holds that subtle dehumanization is evidenced by denying outgroup members uniquely human traits relative to ingroup members. We reasoned that whereas outgroup members may be denied desirable human traits, they are likely to be attributed undesirable human traits to a greater extent than ingroup members.

Across three distinct intergroup contexts, we found no evidence for either animalistic or mechanistic dehumanization of outgroup members. Instead, we found strong and reliable intergroup preference effects. Desirable traits were ascribed more strongly to ingroup members than outgroup members and undesirable traits more strongly to outgroup members than ingroup members, irrespective of perceived humanness.

A possible defence of the dual model account could be to argue that we chose three intergroup contexts in which animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization does not occur. However, we chose to investigate judgements of political opponents, immigrants and criminals specifically because previous research has suggested that they are dehumanized on a range of measures (Banton et al., 2020; Bastian et al., 2013; Markowitz & Slovic, 2020; Pacilli et al., 2016; Viki et al., 2013). In addition, we also showed in every experiment that outgroup members were explicitly rated as less human than were the ingroup on the blatant dehumanization scale (Kteily et al., 2015). Prior work shows that measures of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization correlate positively with blatant dehumanization scores (Kteily et al., 2015). Though they are not claimed to measure the same construct, they have been shown to reliably co-occur. These findings confirm that these are the sorts of intergroup contexts in which we would expect to see trait-based dehumanization should the process occur.

We acknowledge that without testing all possible intergroup contexts, it remains a possibility that some outgroups could be denied human specific attributes relative to ingroups even when valence is appropriately controlled for. In other words, it could be the case that trait-based dehumanization occurs independently of ingroup preference in some social settings. It may be particularly interesting for future research to investigate intergroup contexts that are not so strongly associated with competition, threat and animosity.

However, the possibility that some, as yet untested, groups may be denied human unique attributes does not detract from the importance of our critique. To accurately measure trait-based dehumanization in future research, studies must consider the central role of valence. Prior work utilising the dual model framework has reported dehumanization to be extremely widespread in society, affecting not just marginalised groups but doctors, patients and even cyclists (Delbosc, Naznin, Haslam, & Haworth, 2019; Haslam & Stratemeyer, 2016). Rigorous measurement and tighter experimental control may change some or all of the conclusions from previous research.

Across our experiments, we observed strong intergroup preference effects, with desirable traits more strongly ascribed to the ingroup and undesirable traits more strongly to the outgroup. Our results demonstrate both ingroup favouritism (assigning greater positivity to the ingroup) and outgroup derogation (assigning greater negativity to the outgroup) (Brewer, 1999; Hewstone et al., 2002). However, we also suggest that group specific stereotypes are likely to play an important role in these processes. In many social contexts, trait attributions may reflect social stereotyping as well as intergroup preferences (Fiske et al., 2002). For example, previous work suggested that Anglo-Australians were ‘animalistically’ dehumanized both by themselves and by Ethnic-Chinese participants, whilst Ethnic-Chinese people were ‘mechanistically’ dehumanized both by themselves and by Anglo-Australians (Bain et al., 2009). These effects may be more compatible with stereotype content than with trait-based dehumanization. Future work would benefit from addressing the distinction between stereotyping and trait-based dehumanization.

An outstanding question relates to whether other psychological models of dehumanization more accurately capture the ways in which different social groups are perceived. For example, infrahumanisation theory predicts that people tend to believe ingroup members experience uniquely human emotions more strongly than do outgroup members (Leyens et al., 2000, Leyens et al., 2001). It would be valuable for future research to examine the utility of this theory by testing whether participants perceive ingroup members to experience human emotions more strongly overall or whether they perceive ingroup members to experience prosocial emotions more strongly but outgroup members to experience antisocial emotions more strongly. Further work could helpfully investigate how these findings bare on the claim that outgroups are sometimes dehumanized by being denied mental states (Harris & Fiske, 2006).

Taken together, our studies suggest that the dual model does not accurately characterise the ways in which outgroups are perceived in at least the social contexts examined here – political groups, immigrants and criminals. Prejudice and discrimination are pressing social problems. If psychological research is to contribute to the interdisciplinary mission to reduce prejudice and encourage more egalitarian behaviour, then it must start by accurately characterising the psychological biases underlying discriminatory behaviour. We suggest that the dual model of dehumanization conflates apparent evidence for dehumanization with ingroup preference. As a result, it may obscure more than it reveals about the psychology of intergroup bias.

Women were much more likely to report long-term mate attraction to the benevolent, vs to the hostile, sexist; the hostile sexist one generated greater distrust and dislike in both men & women, compared to the benevolent one

Grab 'em by the...: Hostile and benevolent sexism as signals of mating strategies. Adair, L. & Ferenczi, N. European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association, 15th Conference, Mar 2021. https://ehbea2021.com/

Abstract

Objective: Men’s hostile sexism is associated with many negative interpersonal consequences (e.g., lower relationship quality). Men’s benevolent sexism does not seem to similarly promote negative behaviours and interpersonal interactions but is still associated with harmful attitudes and stereotypes (e.g., endorsement of rape myths). Recent work finds that disclosures of benevolent sexism are associated with perceived attractiveness and provisioning qualities, even though they are perceived as patronising. Our work is designed to apply evolutionary and feminist perspectives to investigate this further – is sexism used to infer mating-relevant qualities, mate attractiveness, and mating strategy?

Methods: Using a nationally representative sample (N = 317; Female = 50%), participants were randomly assigned to evaluate descriptions of men varying along two criteria, sexism (hostile vs. benevolent) and social prestige (with vs. without prestige criteria).

Results: 2x2 Between-subjects ANOVAs highlighted several main effects: benevolent sexists were rated higher on long-term mate qualities, hostile sexists were rated higher on short-term mate qualities, and hostile sexists were rated as “more sexist” overall. Interaction effects indicated that having prestige decreased how “sexist” hostile sexists were perceived, the same was not true for benevolent sexists.

Conclusions: As predicted, disclosures of benevolent sexism were used to infer long-term mating qualities, while disclosures of hostile sexism were used to infer short-term mating qualities. We found that women were much more likely to report long-term mate attraction to the benevolent, compared to the hostile, sexist. The hostile sexist generated greater distrust and dislike in both men and women, compared to the benevolent sexist.