The Impact of Terrorist Attack News on Moral Intuitions and Outgroup Prejudice

Abstract

Using logic suggested by the model of intuitive morality and exemplars, we examined the impact of exposure to terrorist attack news coverage on the salience of moral intuitions and prosocial behavioral intentions toward outgroup members. In an experiment, participants were randomly assigned to watch news of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks or a control news story. Afterward, we measured the salience of five moral intuitions (sensitivity to care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity) and the participants' prejudice (i.e., the lack of intentions to help outgroup members). Results showed that exposure to terrorist attack news (a) increased the salience of respect for authority and subsequently (b) reduced prosocial behavioral intentions toward outgroup members. Closer inspection revealed that authority salience mediated the effect of terrorist news exposure on these behavioral intentions toward outgroup members. In a second study using the same design as in the first study, we ensured that the ingroup and the outgroup addressed in the first study were indeed perceived differently on dimensions of ingroup membership. AbstractUsing logic suggested by the model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME), we examined the impact of exposure to terrorist attack news coverage on the salience of moral intuitions and prosocial behavioral intentions toward outgroup members. In an experiment, participants were randomly assigned to watch news of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks or a control news story.Afterward, we measured the salience of five moral intuitions (sensitivity to care, fairness, loyalty, authority, and purity) and the participants' prejudice (i.e., the lack of intentions to help outgroup members) toward ingroup versus outgroup members. Results showed that exposure to terrorist attack news (1) increased the salience of respect for authority and subsequently (2) reduced prosocial behavioral intentions toward outgroup members. Closer inspection revealed that authority salience mediated the effect of terrorist news exposure on these behavioral intentions toward outgroup members. In a second study using the same design as in the first study we ensured that the ingroup and the outgroup addressed in the first study were indeed perceived differently on dimensions of ingroup membership.

Incidental fear reduces empathy for an out-group’s pain.

“…For example, U.K. government records show that hate crimes more than doubled following a number of terrorist attacks during 2017 (Home Office, 2018). Also, simply reading about a terrorist attack can cause individuals to express more prejudicial attitudes (Das, Bushman, Bezemer, Kerkhof, & Vermeulen, 2009) and fewer prosocial intentions toward out-group others (Tamborini et al, 2017). Politicians often use this fear of the other to stoke ethnic or cultural tensions, thereby mobilizing constituents toward right-wing nationalism (Valentino, Hutchings, & White, 2002).…”

Moral “foundations” as the product of motivated social cognition: Empathy and other psychological underpinnings of ideological divergence in “individualizing” and “binding” concerns

“…These respondents also exhibited greater prejudice toward Muslims and immigrants after the attack. Furthermore, Tamborini, Hofer, Prabhu, and Klebig [ 61 ] demonstrated that exposure to news about a terrorist attack increased the salience of obedience to authority and, relatedly, undermined prosocial behavioral intentions with respect to outgroup members. The results of these studies suggest that theories of moral foundations and motivated social cognition are in fact compatible rather than incompatible, as noted by Van Leeuween and Park [ 45 ].…”

Narrative Media’s Emphasis on Distinct Moral Intuitions Alters Early Adolescents’ Judgments

“…The MIME suggests that narrative media content can influence audiences’ moral judgments and behaviors through the activation of biologically rooted moral sensitivities ( moral intuitions ). A growing body of research grounded in the MIME has demonstrated that media content highlighting specific moral intuitions can activate those intuitions’ salience and strengthen the role they play in audiences’ decision-making (Tamborini, Lewis, et al, 2016; Tamborini et al, 2017).…”