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Abstract
Given the popularity of comedy, humor is an important avenue for examining the racial/ethnic stereotyping effects. Grounded in social identity theory, this study explores the effects of stereotypical comedy on Latino audiences. A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial experiment was conducted to explore how Latino participants’ (N = 150) racial/ethnic identification level (high/low) and comedians’ race/ethnicity (Latino/White) influence evaluations of a target alleged offender (Latino/White) in subsequent scenarios. Findings revealed that participants rated the comedy more favorably when the comedian was Latino compared to when the comedian was White. Moreover, participants with high levels of racial/ethnic identification rated the comedy script as significantly more stereotypical and the White target alleged offender as significantly more culpable than the Latino alleged offender.
Notes
1Institutional Review Board approval was obtained from the period of July 2010–2011, during which time data collection and analysis took place.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Amanda R. Martinez
Amanda R. Martinez (Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 2011) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and Sociology at Davidson University. Her research interests include media effects of racial, ethnic, and gender stereotyping, cultural influences in health communication contexts, and identity intersectionality.
Srividya Ramasubramanian
Srividya Ramasubramanian (Ph.D., Penn State University, 2004) is Associate Dean for Climate & Inclusion in the College of Liberal Arts and an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. Her research interests include media stereotyping, social-psychology of race and gender, and media literacy.