Supernatural Enemies Affect Outgroup Attitudes Through Strength of Human Identity?

Abstract: Previous research investigated how a shared human identity may promote interracial inclusion in the context of mass media ( Ellithorpe et al., 2018 ). The original study found promising results of reduced intergroup prejudice through watching the supernatural genre. However, the original results had mixed support to theory, that is, the Common Ingroup Identity Model (CIIM). To test whether the expected and unexpected results of Ellithorpe et al. (2018) would exhibit again with a different sample, we replicated and extended this research. The overall pattern of our findings is consistent with the original study, in that we again found a cross-over interaction between human identity cues (human villains vs. nonhuman villains) and diversity cues (all-White heroes vs. racially diverse heroes) on the strength of human identity. Participants reported stronger human identity when watching racially diverse heroes fighting against nonhuman villains compared to human villains. Participants also reported stronger human identity when watching White heroes fighting against human villains compared to non-human villains. However, we are hesitant to claim that Ellithorpe et al.’s results were fully replicated in our research as most simple main effects of group comparisons were statistically nonsignificant. Overall, our findings offered limited support to Ellithorpe et al.’s original study and minimal support to CIIM. Our experiment also extended the original research. We found that the impact of watching supernatural genre on ingroup relationship may be more likely to work through reduced negative attitudes rather than increased positive attitudes.