Expanding the third-person effect: an analysis of third-person perceptions and behavioral consequences in the context of news coverage of social protest
Date
2015
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The third-person effect occurs when participants who see a stimulus material
think that others are more affected by media content than they are affected, and as a
result of this effect, are likely to support censoring this media material.
In this study, news stories were shown for both pro choice and pro life protests;
on either side of the abortion issue, versions portrayed the protesters positively or
negatively. It was predicted that third person effects would be greater as social
distance increased and when the news story was perceived to be contrary to one’s own
beliefs about abortion. In addition, it was predicted that as third-person effects
increased in size, so would the desire to censor the media content in question.
Students enrolled at a large mid-Atlantic university completed surveys that were
designed to test the hypotheses of this study.
Overall, results supported the predicted relationship between the third person
effect and viewing a news story that contradicted one’s own beliefs on the abortion
issue. Pro life participants’ third-person effects were affected by gender and prior
attitudes toward protest, while pro choice participants’ third-person effects were more
affected by the treatment of the news story they viewed. In addition, results showed
support for relationship between the third-person effect and social distance. No
support was found for the relationship between the third-person effect and the desire to
restrict or censor protesters’ expressive rights.
The results of this study support prior third-person research by showing a
third-person perception as well as support for social distance. The major contribution
of this study is that it found that a third-person perception can be detected when
exposing subjects to a news story about protest. In addition, third-person effects do
differ when participants are able to judge for themselves whether the stimulus material
in question is pro social or anti social in nature.