Mass Media, Social Perception, and the Third-Person effect

Why Thee (and them) More Than Me? Book Conclusions

TPE is a subset of universal human tendency to percieve the self in ways that make us look better than others

If we believed every piece of media we encountered had strong effects on us, it would drive us mad

Projection: People are actually influenced by media but cannot consciously acknowledge media influence

We assume that others have greater dispositional shortcomings than ourselves (gullibility)

People presume they have the prerequisite knowledge to know what the media is trying to do to them

In-groups/Out-groups (people in your group get it, but that other group doesn't)

TPE is a relatively new concept that needs to be studied in more depth

The Hostile Media Effect

More Theories:

TPE is Difficult to Study

Selective recall- we're most likely to remember the parts of the argument that contradict our own views

Social judgement- "the greater the distance between one’s attitude

position and that found in communications, the greater the likelihood that the

communications will be contrasted from one’s position" (Hovland, Harvey, & Sherif,

1957).

Self-categorization- where do I fit versus where do THEY fit? In-groups and out-groups.

End

In the case of TPE, the way questions are framed can make it very hard to get an accurate/truthful response from particpants

Order of the questions is extremely important

Studies have been conducted just to see what the most effective way to examine TPE is

Research Findings about TPE

"The hostile media effect is a phenomenon in which partisans on both sides of an issue

perceive neutral media reports to be biased against their side."

One Theory:

"Biased assimilation is a

phenomenon in which people uncritically accept information that confirms their

views, but ignore or discount contrary information "(Lord, Ross, & Lepper, 1979).

pg. 254-255

Conditions that Foster TPE

• Individuals perceived that others were more influenced than themselves by commercials related to household products
• German adults believe others are more likely than they are to gravitate towards undesirable TV viewing behaviors such as escape and habit. By contrast, respondents percieved they were inclined to use TV for information seeking.... (sure)

Antisocial messages --> Them

Violent messages--> Them

Socially desirable--> Us

Positive emotion content--> Us

Continued...

Relatable Experiences:

If you've ever avoided a store during a sale because you don't want to deal with the massive amounts of customers

Going on a diet before summer because you assume everyone will be in "beach shape"

When they were asked to judge other people's interest in the same stories respondents answered:

25% of people are fascinated with Clinton's sex life

49% were mildly curious

only 18% of people weren't interested at all

Consequences of TPE

Example

CBS conducted poll during the famous Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky Scandal:

• Only 7% indicated they were fascinated with Clinton's sex life
• 37% admitted they were mildly curious
• 50% claimed they weren't interested at all

Censoring of books,movies, TV, and music

Music controversy (guns, violence, etc.)

Finger pointing amongst different

groups (all fourth graders assume

that the sixth graders smoke, etc.)

Bill Jennings

The Third-Person Effect Hypothesis:

"The Third-person effect hypothesis predicts that people tend to perceive that mass communicated messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves, based on personal biases; additionally, because of this perception, people tend to take action to counteract the messages’ influence." -Wikipedia

"Most people appear to be willing to subscribe to the logical inconsistency inherent in maintaining that the mass media influences others considerably more than themselves" -James Tiege (1991)

It assumes that perceptions of media trigger behavioral effects

Start

Mass Media, Social Perception, and the Third-Person Effect

HME Experiment: Self-categorization

A political article w/ a fictitious author was issued to participants

Participants indicated their political affiliation early in the survey

The article provided equal amounts of information on the campaigns of one democrat and republican candidate

In the article:

For Clinton, polling showed that

she ‘‘has rebounded to a 15 percentage-point lead over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama

for the Democratic presidential nomination,’’ whereas for Giuliani it was stated that

‘‘Among Republicans, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani maintained a 14-point

lead over Arizona Sen. John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination.’’