The Second-Person Effect and Its Role in Formation of Active Issue Publics

Abstract

This article explores the idea that the media encourage audience members to see issues as affecting both themselves and other members of the community—a perception termed second-person effects. The authors argue that second-person perceptions are an integral step toward the formation of active issue publics and significant predictors of a person's willingness to engage in behaviors necessary to resolve an issue. Results also show that second-person effects predominate when predicting intentions to take actions to address an issue. Thus, this supports the proposition that second-person effects are a key component in understanding the formation of active issue publics.

Notes

¹The “Whites” group included 3 participants who listed themselves as Asian on the posttest questionnaire and 10 participants who were White and another race and who listed themselves as “other.” The “African American” group included 15 participants who were African American and another race and who identified themselves as “other” on the posttest questionnaire.

²The initial questionnaire included questions about participants' perceived similarity to various population subgroups, racial social identity, perceived power, racial affective orientations, trait-based communication anxiety, and fear of embarrassment.

³The neighborhoods portrayed were located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a highly segregated Midwestern city. Kern Park is a predominantly minority lower socioeconomic neighborhood, and Washington Highland is a predominantly White, upper-middle-class neighborhood. The two actual newspaper articles in the packet included a story about a misconduct complaint against a local judge and the arrest of two vandals who had broken fire hydrants.

⁴A complete report (PDF) providing the aforementioned findings in greater detail is available from the authors upon request.

Note. n = 413. Values are standardized regression coefficients.

∗p < .05, ∗∗p < .01, ∗∗∗p < .001.

Note. n = 413. Unless otherwise noted, table entries are standardized betas controlling for demographics, third-person controls, identification variables, and estimated exposure and attention. 3PE = third-person effects; 2PE = second-person (transpersonal) effects. For 1PE/3PE, a positive Beta represents 1PE condition and a negative Beta represents 3PE condition.

∗p < .05, ∗∗p < .01, ∗∗∗p < .001.

Drs. Frederick and Neuwirth have published several articles and Presented numerous conference papers on the topics of public opinion, the Spiral of Silence, the Third-Person Effect, and risk communication.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Edward Frederick

Edward Frederick (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is an assistant professor in the Communication Department at the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater.

Kurt Neuwirth

Kurt Neuwirth (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati.