An Examination of the Effects of Mediated Intragroup and Intergroup Interactions among Latino/a Characters

Abstract

Content analytic work has consistently shown that Latinas are consistently found to be one of the most sexualized social groups in the media. In this study we experimentally examined the implications of exposure to the sexualized depiction of Latinas (among non-Latino viewers), when presented in the media in a within group context (Latina-Latino portrayal) and an intergroup context (Latina-White male portrayal). Findings suggest that when in an intergroup interaction, sexualized Latinas are evaluated more favorably and elicit less negative emotion than sexualized Latinas in an intragroup interaction. Implications are discussed within the context of mediated intergroup contact and intergroup emotion.

Keywords:

• race/ethnicity
• sexuality
• mediated intergroup contact

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Though we recognize that responses to the intra/intergroup dynamic in question would also be valuable to examine for Latinos, their limited sample size and the dispersion of that group across experimental conditions prohibited any meaningful data analysis.