Drifting further apart? How exposure to media portrayals of Muslims affects attitudes polarization

Author(s)
Desiree Schmuck, Raffael Heiss, Jörg Matthes
Abstract

Political discourses about Muslim immigration in the media and on social networking sites (SNSs) are highly contentious and have the potential to further polarize societal segments, which may ultimately harm democratic processes. Especially on SNSs, politicians and citizens can circumvent journalistic filters often resulting in blatant and emotionally charged content. Using a two-wave panel design (N = 559), we investigated how positive and negative portrayals of Muslims in traditional media outlets and on SNSs influence anti-Muslim immigration attitudes among people who either agree or disagree with the encountered information. Our findings indicate that exposure to negative portrayals further reinforces anti-Muslim immigration attitudes among those who agree with the encountered information. In contrast, for those who disagree with the negative information, a backfire effect emerges, showing that anti-Muslim attitudes even decrease. This effect occurs for both SNSs and traditional media. Positive information about Muslims did not result in attitude polarization.

Organisation(s)
Department of Communication
External organisation(s)
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, MCI Management Center Innsbruck
Journal
Political Psychology
Volume
41
Pages
1055-1072
No. of pages
18
ISSN
0162-895X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12664
Publication date
12-2020
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
508007 Communication science, 508014 Journalism
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Philosophy, Social Psychology, Political Science and International Relations, Sociology and Political Science
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/drifting-further-apart-how-exposure-to-media-portrayals-of-muslims-affects-attitudes-polarization(f6ba98fc-7f4e-47cf-9c4c-c85b16b0747d).html