2012/04/24 by Scott A. Reid · 4 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Social Media and Politics #Media Influence and Politics #Categorization #Salient #Outgroup #Ingroups and outgroups #Social psychology #Psychology #Identity (music) #Phenomenon #Self-enhancement #Political science #Linguistics #Epistemology
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01647.x
openalex publication_date 2012/04/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The hostile media effect is a phenomenon in which partisans on both sides of an issue perceive neutral media reports to be biased against their side. Three experiments were performed to test a self-categorization explanation. In Experiment 1, the effect was amplified when partisan identity was salient and attenuated when a shared identity was salient. In Experiment 2, the effect manifested when the media source was an outgroup, but not an ingroup. In Experiment 3, an attack on Democrats was perceived as less biased when attributed to a Democrat than when attributed to a Republican. The effects in Experiments 2 and 3 were amplified by partisanship. The findings are consistent with self-categorization theory and difficult to reconcile with other explanations.