Everyday Research Methods

Racial disparities in media coverage

The study evaluated both victims and defendants in criminal cases. Compared to white victims, the media were much less likely to depict photos of Black victims of crime with family or friends. How might this choice impact people's empathy for Black pain and suffering? Credit: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a human-rights organization whose mission is to challenge racial injustice and "end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States." EJI was founded by attorney Bryan Stevenson, who wrote the book Just Mercy about his experiences advocating for people who were unjustly imprisoned. (The book is also a feature film).

The EJI recently worked with Global Strategy Group to document ways that the criminal cases of white and Black defendants have been portrayed by the media. The infographic created by their study provides a social-justice themed example of a correlational study or quasi-experiment.

In the study, the GSG:

conducted a comprehensive media analysis of national and local coverage around 10 criminal cases – 5 with a Black defendant and 5 with a white defendant. We collected and collated information on more than 20 different topics, including the use of imagery, language choices, framing of defendant and victim, and reporter background.

The main findings of the GSG/EJI study are depicted in this colorful infographic. Here are a few highlights.

First, the study found that 

Stark disparities exist between the types of images used for Black and white defendants

The study found that media outlets were four times more likely to run the mugshot of a Black defendant compared to a white defendant. How might this bias people's impressions of defendants? 
Credit: nimito/Shutterstock

Specifically, the study measured the types of photos that media outlets chose to depict white vs. Black defendants. 9% of the time, the media used mugshots for white defendants, but 45% of the time, the media used mugshots for Black defendants. In contrast, 13% of the time, the media showed white defendants in a suit and tie, but only 6% of the time for Black defendants.

Second, the media also differed in how the victims of crime were depicted. The infographic reports:

White victims [79%] were nearly 4x than Black victims [21%] to have a photo with friends or family included alongside coverage, reinforcing existing tendencies to dehumanize Black pain and suffering and, by the same token, put a face to white victims.

Third, the study also found that race was associated with whom the media quoted about the defendant. They write: 

Quotes from family and friends were nearly twice as likely to appear in articles about white defendants [50%] than articles about Black defendants [25%]. Black defendants were more likely to have judges or lawyers weigh in instead, which presents readers with a less humanizing account of Black defendants.

Questions

a) Select one of the three quoted findings above (or, find your own from the infographic). Identify the variables in the finding you chose. What are the levels of each variable?

b) All of the studies above can be described as correlational. Why? (refer to the terms "measured" and "manipulated" in your answer).

c) If you've studied Chapter 13, you might wish to describe these studies as quasi-experimental instead of correlational. (In studies like these, you could make the case either way). Why do both labels (correlational and quasi-experimental) make sense here? 

d) How might the GSG and EJI take this study further with an experimental method? What would they manipulate and what could they measure? 

Scientific reasoning questions: 

At the bottom of the infographic, the GSG included the following detail about their methodology:

Audit was conducted among ten criminal cases, 5 cases featuring a white defendant and 5 featuring a Black defendant. All cases had criminal proceedings that occurred in the past seven years. GSG analyzed 20 to 30 articles for each case, for a total of 257 articles, all of which were randomly selected and included a combination of national and local online coverage.

e) Why was it important that the media articles about each case were selected randomly? 

f) The GSG is not very clear on how they selected the 10 initial cases (the 5 with a white defendant and the 5 with a Black defendant). Why do we need to know more about how these specific 10 cases were selected? 

g) Scroll to the bottom of the infographic and consult the 10 criminal cases they selected. Do you notice any systematic differences in the cases selected for white vs. Black defendants? 

That baby smell...

The study found an interaction effect: Gender of participant interacted with the smell condition they were in. Credit: HayDmitriy/Deposit Photos

If you’ve ever smelled a baby’s head (I know....it can be irresistible!), you probably inhaled a variety of chemicals, including one called HEX.

A group of researchers recently published a study in which they exposed men and women to this particular chemical. They suggested that, given human evolutionary theory and emerging research on how different smells affect us, the smell of HEX might impact people's behavior. In the study, they focused on the behavior of aggression, using a laboratory game. The research was summarized by a journalist for the Voice of America.

The researchers’ hypotheses were derived from human evolutionary theory related to aggression:

…lead author Eva Mishor, who was studying signals of aggression for her doctorate at the Weizmann Institute, noted that in animals, female aggression is usually aimed at defending their young, while male aggression is often directed at the offspring themselves.

Specifically, the authors demonstrated that in a childrearing context, smelling HEX (the baby-head chemical) led to different responses in males than females.

The study tested people's responses to HEX using rigged games designed to aggravate the player. In one game, when the aggravated player is allowed to win, he or she gets to blast the opponent with a loud noise. The louder the noise, the higher the scientists rated the player's aggression level.

[Among players who] sniffed HEX before playing [compared to players who had sniffed a control chemical], women's blasts were louder and men's were quieter.

In case you didn't notice, this study used a 2x2 factorial design with an IV and a PV. Let’s walk through it.

a. What is the first factor (the independent variable?) What are its 2 levels? Was it manipulated as independent-groups or within groups?

b. What is the second factor (the participant variable?) What are its 2 levels? Was this variable independent groups or within groups?

c. What was the dependent variable?

d. Read the description of the results in the last quoted paragraph above. Then, sketch a little graph of the results they are describing (please assume that, in the non-HEX control condition, men are a bit more aggressive than women).

e. The results of the study show an interaction. Describe the interaction in your own words. 

f. The journalist describes the results like so:

The effect was somewhat subtle. On a six-point scale, the differences were, on average, roughly between half a point and less than a point in either direction.

Here the journalist seems to be characterizing the effect size, and seems to be referring to the 95%CI of the difference. This is unique; most journalists do not mention the size of such effects or their CI.

Suggested answers:

a. The first factor was exposure to HEX (or not). This variable was manipulated as a between-groups variable—people played the aggression-inducing game either after smelling HEX OR after smelling a control (non-HEX) scent (i.e., there were different people in each condition). 

b. The second factor was the participant variable of participant gender. It’s a participant variable because there are two levels (male and female) that cannot be truly manipulated. This is an independent-groups variable because people were either male or female.

c. The dependent variable was level of aggression, as operationalized as noise blasts.

d. Here's a sketch I made, based only on the journalist's description. You should look at the actual results in Figure 2 of the open-access article in Science Advances.  Because the researchers also coded noise blast intensity over time, their results figure includes that factor as well.