Suchergebnisse

This article describes the ways in which music is an important part of identity, and hence serves some similar functions to other forms of identity-related communication (e.g., language). It will describe how music is used to incite intergroup hatred (e.g., among soccer fans, military music) and to support valued identities (anthems, etc.). Relevant literature on stereotyping (including stereotyping of groups related to music) is included. The article also discusses how music is used to reduce intergroup hostility (e.g., via cross-cultural musical collaboration and contact). The article connects the various literatures from communication, social psychology, sociology, and ethnomusicology, providing a broad overview of the many connections between communication, music, and social identity. It closes with a research agenda for those interested in studying intergroup communication and music.

Participants read a crime news story featuring two perpetrators. Building on subjective group dynamics, we predicted that a perpetrator would be evaluated differently depending on the partner's ethnicity and participants' prior media use. Results show that heavy news consumers were more likely to (a) give a harsher sentence to a white perpetrator acting with a white (vs. Latino) partner, and (b) develop more negative attitudes toward Latinos when members of that group were portrayed in intergroup criminal partnerships. The implications of intergroup portrayals for perceptions of the ingroup, as well as the outgroup, and the moderating effects of news viewing on such effects, are discussed.

In an experiment, participants exposed to depictions of an intergroup interaction between a border patrolling U.S. citizen and an illegal immigrant demonstrated changed attitudes toward illegal immigrants depending on the valence of the portrayal. Negative effects were enhanced among people who identified more strongly with the U.S. citizen character, and positive effects were moderately, although nonsignificantly enhanced among those who viewed the illegal immigrant character as more typical of illegal immigrants in general. Liking of the illegal immigrant character was a significant mediator of the effects. The positive effects on attitudes toward illegal immigrants transferred to more positive attitudes toward other social groups as well. The study is framed in terms of a social cognitive theory approach to vicarious intergroup contact.

Guided by the intergroup contact hypothesis, the authors examined the associations among Japanese sojourners' (N = 94) perceived linguistic competence with English, communication accommodation of their most frequent American contact, relational solidarity with the contact, and their attitudes toward Americans as a cultural group. Results indicated that participants' linguistic competence with English and perceptions of Americans' communication accommodation positively predicted their relational solidarity with their most frequent American contact. In addition, relational solidarity mediated the relationships between both linguistic competence and communication accommodation and cognitive and behavioral attitudes. Results were discussed in light of communication accommodation theory, the contact hypothesis and prior literature in intergroup and intercultural communication.