title: Young children's responses to media representations of intergroup threat and ethnicity.
abstract: Two studies are reported in which ethnic majority children's reactions to media representations of ethnic minorities are examined. In Study 1, 20 white Scottish 6-year-olds viewed short television stories in which white or ethnic minority children were depicted as hostile to the participants' in-group (threat present) or not (threat absent). A strong effect of threat on liking was obtained but no effect of ethnicity of target and no interaction. In Study 2, 4- and 6-year-old white Scottish children viewed PowerPoint displays in which Scottish people were shown only as white (traditional version) or as ethnically diverse (multicultural version). Intergroup threat was manipulated. Again, a strong effect of threat was obtained. However, when threat was absent, participants exposed to the traditional condition liked the white out-group more than the multi-ethnic out-group, while participants exposed to the multicultural condition liked the multi-ethnic out-group more than the white out-group. The results are interpreted as consistent with the predictions of Social Identity Development Theory.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. kevin.durkin@strath.ac.uk
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Durkin
authors.forename: Drew
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nesdale
authors.forename: Gemma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dempsey
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McLean
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003146:Communications Media; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups / Q000523:psychology; D011287:Prejudice; D012606:Scotland; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception; D013690:Television; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology