Social Identity Threat in Response to Stereotypic Film Portrayals: Effects on Self‐Conscious Emotion and Implicit Ingroup Attitudes

Abstract

Disadvantaged ethnic groups are often portrayed stereotypically in film, but little is known about how such portrayals affect members of those groups. Two experiments examined the affective and attitudinal reactions of Mexican and European Americans to stereotypic film clips of Latinos. Results of Study 1 revealed that stereotypic films cue negative affect among Mexican Americans, regardless of the realism of the portrayals. In Study 2, both Mexican and European Americans felt more self‐conscious when another ingroup member openly laughed at negative Latino stereotypes in a comedy. Across both studies, the importance of ethnic identity exacerbated negative reactions to stereotypic clips and predicted somewhat more negative implicit group attitudes among Mexican Americans. In contrast, group pride mitigated affective costs and predicted greater enjoyment of stereotypical film clips among European Americans. The implications for the role of mass media in creating social identity threat for disadvantaged ethnic groups are discussed.