Automatic activation of stereotypes: The role of news exemplars' ethnic cues in perception of social issues

The effect of exemplification on the perception of social issues has received much attention from scholars. Building on Zillmann's exemplification theory and psychological theories of stereotyping, this study examined whether categorization and/or stereotyping of a news exemplar would influence perceptions of a social issue (domestic violence). Specifically, it asked whether perceptions of the issue would vary based on the news exemplar's ethnic group (non-Arab or Arab Muslim), and on the visual cues associated with the Arab Muslim woman's appearance (headscarf versus veil). In an experimental design, 154 male and female undergraduates read one of four versions of a news article, created by varying the victim's picture and name: no exemplar, a non-Arab woman, an Arab Muslim woman with a headscarf, and an Arab Muslim woman with a black veil.; Consistent with expectations, the findings showed that, compared to those who read the non-Arab and the no exemplar versions, participants who read the news article with an Arab Muslim exemplar perceived that Arab Muslim women had a higher risk of psychological and physical domestic violence during their lifetimes. The Arab Muslim exemplars also led to greater perceived risk for Arab Muslim women in comparison to women of other ethnic groups. Both the veil and the headscarf worked as visual cues for categorizing Arab Muslim exemplars and led to similar perceived risk for Arab Muslim women. Perceived severity of the domestic violence issue was higher among those who read the non-Arab and the Arab/headscarf versions than among those who read the Arab/veil and the no exemplification versions. The Arab/veil version, but not the Arab/headscarf version, led to a stronger submissive stereotype of Arab Muslim women compared to the no exemplification and the non-Arab versions. These results suggest that the selection of certain exemplars to accompany particular news issues may lead the audience to perceive the issue as more severe among the exemplar's social/ethnic group, and thus may enhance existing stereotypes about these groups. In general, the findings of this study support the assumption that people use exemplars as representative heuristics, and this leads to erroneous judgments about the exemplar's population.