The effect of disgust-eliciting media portrayals on outgroup dehumanization and support of deportation in a Norwegian sample

Abstract

a b s t r a c tPublic discourse regarding the Roma has been heated in many western European countries. This study investigates whether feelings of disgust, elicited through negative media portrayals, can lead to more dehumanization and support of deportation toward this minority. While Study 1 (N = 30) validated a measure of dehumanization in the Norwegian context, Study 2 (N = 195) experimentally tested whether disgust-eliciting media portrayals would increase dehumanization tendencies on this validated measure and support of deportation toward the Roma. As expected, reading a newspaper article focusing on allegedly low hygienic standards among the Roma increased the feeling of disgust, which, in turn, led to higher degrees of dehumanization and support of deportation. While being the first study experimentally showing that disgust leads to dehumanization of a real societal minority group, the results also have important implications for how media discusses and presents social issues regarding devalued minority groups.

Blatant Dehumanization of People with Obesity

“…Other approaches are required to reduce dehumanization. For example, disgust‐eliciting media portrayals can increase racial outgroup dehumanization , and common media portrayals of people with obesity, such as headless bodies , may similarly promote blatant dehumanization. Understanding whether contrasting approaches (e.g., pairing obesity with humanizing images) can reduce dehumanization may be valuable.…”

Setting the Agenda for Research on Media and Migration: State-of-the-Art and Directions for Future Research

“…Another important results concerns the effects of dehumanization of migrant groups in media coverage. When individuals migrants are denied to be human, it may lead to justifications of their exclusion, mistreatment, and even support for deportation (Dalsklev & Kunst, 2015;Esses, Hamilton, & Gaucher, 2017;Esses, Medianu, & Lawson, 2013). Finally, Schlueter and Davidov (2013) demonstrate that negative immigration-related news reports increase perceived group threat.…”

The Challenge of Equity in Health Policies Aimed at the Roma Population in Spain

“…Estos ejemplos ilustran la permeabilidad e interacción de las inequidades en salud con otros graves problemas del PG como el analfabetismo en personas adultas, el fracaso escolar, el desempleo a largo plazo (Brüggemann, 2012) y los déficits estructurales y de servicios en sus barrios (WHO, 2014). Todo ello pone de manifiesto que el fracaso en las políticas dirigidas a asegurar la integración y bienestar del PG fracasan como consecuencia de relaciones asimétricas de poder dentro del Sistema Público de Salud (SPS), de la sutil discriminación contra esta minoría entre los y las profesionales y la ciudadaníaque incluso llegan a sentir asco contra el Pueblo Gitano, deshumanizándolo (Dalsklev & Rønningsdalen Kunst, 2015;La Parra, 2009).…”