Status Threat, Social Concerns, and Conservative Media: A Look at White America and the Alt-Right

Racial and ethnic division is a mainstay of the American social structure, and today these strains are exacerbated by political binaries. Moreover, the media has become increasingly polarized whereby certain media outlets intensify perceived differences between racial and ethnic groups, political alignments, and religious affiliations. Using data from a recent psychological study of the Alt-Right, we assess the associations between perceptions of social issues, feelings of status threat, trust in conservative media, and affiliation with the Alt-Right among White Americans. We find concern over more conservative social issues along with trust in conservative media explain a large portion of the variation in feelings of status threat among White Americans. Furthermore, more conservative social issues plus feeling of status threat significantly increase the odds of Alt-Right affiliation. Most surprisingly, however, trust in conservative media mitigated, instead of amplified, these associations. Implications and calls for future research are discussed.

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A Plea for Bystander Intervention

Industrial and Organizational Psychology ◽

10.1017/iop.2016.54 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. 558-561

Author(s):

Derek R. Avery

Keyword(s):

Law Enforcement ◽

Justice System ◽

Social Issues ◽

Future Research ◽

Minority Communities ◽

Racial Injustice ◽

The Media ◽

Media Reports ◽

Black Defendants ◽

The Impact

I would be remiss if I did not begin by admitting my sheer delight to see organizational scientists (e.g., Hall, Hall, & Perry, 2016; Ruggs et al., 2016) taking a greater interest in broader societal social issues like these. In 2007, when I was the chair of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology's (SIOP's) Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs (CEMA), I devoted part of a column in The Industrial–Organizational Psychologist to discussing what I perceived to be a law enforcement racial injustice perpetrated against several adolescents in Louisiana known as the “Jena Six” (Avery, 2007). The issue at hand in that case was the impact of race after an arrest was made. The media reports of the case at that time compelled many to believe that its handling by law enforcement and the criminal justice system had been influenced adversely by the racial composition of the White plaintiff and Black defendants. Like Ruggs et al., I felt then and continue to believe that we, as industrial–organizational (I-O) psychologists, could be doing more to redress societal injustice. I also commend them on the multifaceted nature of their discussion and appreciate that they highlighted a number of ways in which our existing knowledge base is, and future research products could be, pertinent to what's happening all too often between police and the minority communities they are intended to serve and protect.

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White Media Attitudes in the Trump Era

American Politics Research ◽

10.1177/1532673x20943566 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1532673X2094356

Author(s):

Jack Thompson

Keyword(s):

News Media ◽

Causal Effect ◽

Selective Exposure ◽

Unique Contribution ◽

2016 Election ◽

The Media ◽

Using Data ◽

Conservative Media ◽

Election News ◽

The Relationship

Scholars and political commentators point to Trump’s war on the media since the 2016 election as an unprecedented attack on a vital check to Presidential power. However, little attention has been paid to the role that White audiences play in this critical debate. In this article, I examine the relationship between Trump, the media, and White audiences. Using data taken from the American Trends Panel, I show that affect for Trump is conditional on Whites’ selective partisan exposure to conservative news media. My analysis also shows that exposure to political and election news directly from Trump intensifies the relationship between Whites’ perceptions of media bias and their distrust of national news organizations. The findings provide a novel and unique contribution to the existing scholarship by demonstrating the causal effect of selective exposure to conservative media outlets on affect for Trump.

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Workplace Ostracism and Its Negative Outcomes

Journal of Personnel Psychology ◽

10.1027/1866-5888/a000147 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 15 (4) ◽

pp. 143-151 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Xiaoming Zheng ◽

Jun Yang ◽

Hang-Yue Ngo ◽

Xiao-Yu Liu ◽

Wengjuan Jiao

Keyword(s):

Affective Commitment ◽

Psychological Capital ◽

Intention To Leave ◽

Future Research ◽

Conservation Of Resources ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Negative Outcomes ◽

Workplace Ostracism ◽

Using Data ◽

The Relationship

Abstract. Workplace ostracism, conceived as to being ignored or excluded by others, has attracted the attention of researchers in recent years. One essential topic in this area is how to reduce or even eliminate the negative consequences of workplace ostracism. Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the current study assesses the relationship between workplace ostracism and its negative outcomes, as well as the moderating role played by psychological capital, using data collected from 256 employees in three companies in the northern part of China. The study yields two important findings: (1) workplace ostracism is positively related to intention to leave and (2) psychological capital moderates the effect of workplace ostracism on affective commitment and intention to leave. This paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings for organizations and employees, along with recommendations for future research.

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