More than a Media Moment: The Influence of Televised Storylines on Viewers’ Attitudes toward Transgender People and Policies

Numerous studies have demonstrated the power of entertainment narratives to influence attitudes and behaviors; fewer have examined the effects of TV portrayals on attitudes toward marginalized groups. The present study is among the first to explore how entertainment narratives depicting transgender individuals influence viewers’ attitudes toward transgender people and related policies. The study examines the impact of exposure to a TV storyline on Royal Pains (USA Network) and cumulative effects of viewing other TV series featuring transgender individuals. An online survey of 488 U.S. viewers of Royal Pains was conducted (391 had seen the relevant episode). ANCOVAs revealed exposure to both the Royal Pains’ storyline and other storylines portraying transgender individuals were associated with more supportive attitudes toward transgender people and policies. Mediation models revealed that for viewers of the Royal Pains’ storyline, the relationships between political ideology and attitudes toward transgender people and policies were mediated by identification with the main characters and the emotion of hope. Disgust mediated viewers’ attitudes toward transgender people, but not policies. Post hoc analyses revealed that exposure to transgender narratives reduced the influence of viewers’ political ideology on their attitudes. The attitudes of more conservative viewers became increasingly positive as they saw more media portrayals of transgender individuals. These findings highlight the potential for entertainment narratives to influence attitudes toward marginalized groups, and they demonstrate the importance of emotion in the context of divisive topics. Social, political, and public health implications are discussed.     

Protestant work ethic's relation to intergroup and policy attitudes: A meta‐analytic review

The Protestant work ethic (PWE), the belief that hard work leads to success, is prevalent in many cultures and has been related to negative attitudes toward disadvantaged groups (prejudice) and social policies targeting them. Given recent theorizing and findings suggesting that PWE is not necessarily associated with prejudice among all people or in all contexts, this meta‐analysis examined the direction and strength of PWE's relation to prejudice (37 eligible studies) and policy attitudes (16 studies) among published and unpublished studies across 38 years. Results revealed not only significant positive relationships between PWE and both types of intergroup attitudes but also significant moderators of these relationships. There were significantly larger effect sizes for PWE's relationship with both prejudice and policy attitudes among samples in Western countries (Canada, England, New Zealand, USA), and marginally significantly larger effect sizes for PWE's relationship with both types of attitudes the older the mean age of the sample (within Western countries). PWE's relationship with intergroup attitudes also varied by the target group of the attitudes. Findings support a more nuanced view of PWE's relationship with intergroup attitudes, suggesting that PWE does not always promote greater prejudice; rather its consequences are culture and context bound. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Roles of Perceived Identity Compatibility and Social Support for Women in a Single-Sex STEM Program at a Co-educational University

Single-sex programs have been implemented in a variety of educational settings to help promote greater engagement of women in STEM fields. However, the mechanisms through which single-sex programs increase women??s engagement in STEM fields are unclear. Drawing from research in social and health psychology, we examined two theoretically-guided predictors of women??s sense of belonging in their STEM majors and belonging at the university: perceived identity compatibility between being a woman and being in a STEM field, and perceived social support. Participants were 65 racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse women enrolled in a single-sex STEM program at a co-educational university in Northeastern United States. Participants completed online surveys before the start of their first year of college, and again at the beginning of their second year of college. Findings from multiple regression analyses support hypotheses that across STEM women??s first or transitional year of college, perceived identity compatibility, perceived support from close others, and perceived support from the single-sex program for STEM women were each independently associated with greater sense of belonging in their major. Additionally, perceived identity compatibility and perceived support from the single-sex program were associated with greater sense of belonging at the university. These findings suggest that perceived support from sources such as single-sex programs and perceived compatibility between one??s field and being female may sustain women pursuing training in nontraditional fields such as STEM. Continued investigation of these factors may elucidate the impact of single-sex programs and inform interventions to increase the retention of women in STEM.     

Ethnic Pride and Cardiovascular Health Among Mexican American Adults Along the U.S.-Mexico Border

This study addressed the association between items from the General Acculturation Index (GAI) and cardiovascular health. Specifically, we assessed whether ethnic pride was associated with health outcomes after controlling for items regarding language, place where the childhood was spent and ethnic interaction. The study was a cross sectional analysis of demographic and clinical data from a border population of Mexican American adults (n=316) at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Outcomes included smoking and diabetes status, Framingham risk, and metabolic syndrome. Ethnic pride was associated with lower diabetes prevalence, lower Framingham risk, and fewer risk factors for metabolic syndrome, but was not associated with smoking status. Ethnic pride was not associated with the other acculturation items of the GAI. Among an at-risk border population, ethnic pride functioned independently of other acculturation indicators. Ethnic pride may act as a protective factor for diabetes, metabolic syndrome and CVD risk status.     

Empirical support for higher-order theories of conscious awareness

Higher-order theories of consciousness argue that conscious awareness crucially depends on higher-order mental representations that represent oneself as being in particular mental states. These theories have featured prominently in recent debates on conscious awareness. We provide new leverage on these debates by reviewing the empirical evidence in support of the higher-order view. We focus on evidence that distinguishes the higher-order view from its alternatives, such as the first-order, global workspace and recurrent visual processing theories. We defend the higher-order view against several major criticisms, such as prefrontal activity reflects attention but not awareness, and prefrontal lesion does not abolish awareness. Although the higher-order approach originated in philosophical discussions, we show that it is testable and has received substantial empirical support.     

Social influence in newly formed groups: The roles of personal and social intentions, group norms, and social identity

Intentions to participate in a group activity in newly formed groups were followed over time. Two forms of intentions were examined: traditional behavioral intention to take part in a group-based act (personal intention), and social intentions to act as an agent of the group (social intention). In addition, the study explored other group process variables as distinctive predictors of ‘social identification’. The paper concludes with a discussion of the role of social intentions, linking the findings to social identification development and maintenance over time.     

Gender-Based Navigation Stereotype Improves Men’s Search for a Hidden Goal

While a general stereotype exists that men are better at navigating than women, experimental evidence indicates that men and women differ in their use of spatial strategies, and this preference determines gender-differences. When both environmental geometry and landmark cues are available, men appear to learn to navigate using both types of cues, while women show a preference for using landmarks. Using a computer-generated task, 80 undergraduate students from North-East England learned to navigate to a hidden goal. Activating the general navigation stereotype improved the performance of men, compared to the control condition, both when only geometric cues and only landmark cues were present (stereotype lift), suggesting that activating a general stereotype can affect tasks both with (geometry) and without (landmark) established gender-differences in preference. In addition, in the test trial (hidden goal removed) women who learned to navigate using only landmarks spent longer in the correct location of the hidden goal than those who learned to navigate using only geometry. In contrast, the opposite result was found for men, suggesting that when only one cue-type is available, gender-differences still occur, with women better able to navigate using landmarks than geometry, while men seemed to learn more about the location of the goal with reference to geometric than landmark cues.