An Exploratory Study of Anti-Black Racism in Social Media Behavior Intentions: Effects of Political Orientation and Motivation to Control Prejudice

Authors

Cynthia J. Najdowski, University at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow
Samantha A. Wilcox, University at Albany, State University of New York
Justine K. Brace, University at Albany, State University of New York
Melissa Anderson, University at Albany, State University of New York

Author ORCID Identifier

Cynthia J. Najdowski: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3624-9188

Melissa Anderson: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9444-4195

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2024

DOI

10.1037/tps0000395

Abstract

Considering the widespread prevalence of racist content and opinions on social media, there is a pressing need to understand how users react to such content in ways that might lead them to be drawn into echo chambers of racism, hate speech, and potentially even violence. We conducted an online study to investigate how two individual differences—political orientation and motivation to control prejudice (MCP)—may predispose people to accept anti-Black racism expressed in social media messages. Non-Black participants viewed racist and egalitarian mock social media posts and reported how likely they would be to respond favorably and/or engage in supportive social media behaviors. People who identified as conservative and those who reported having low internal MCP were equally accepting of racist and egalitarian posts, whereas people who identified as liberal and those who reported having high internal MCP were less accepting of the racist versus egalitarian post. External MCP did not affect judgments. We consider how these effects might contribute to racism, hate, and violence.

Comments

This is the Author's Accepted Manuscript. The Version of Record can be found here: Najdowski, C. J., Wilcox, S.A., Brace, J.K., Anderson, M. (2024). An exploratory study of anti-black racism in social media behavior intentions: Effects of political orientation and motivation to control prejudice. Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 10.1037/tps0000395

Recommended Citation

Najdowski, Cynthia J.; Wilcox, Samantha A.; Brace, Justine K.; and Anderson, Melissa, "An Exploratory Study of Anti-Black Racism in Social Media Behavior Intentions: Effects of Political Orientation and Motivation to Control Prejudice" (2024). Psychology Faculty Scholarship. 44.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/psychology_fac_scholar/44