Comedy for Racial Justice? The Mediating Roles of Narrative Mechanisms and Perceived Humor Types on Persuasive Outcomes Related to Racially Biased Policing

ABSTRACT

Despite the greater attention brought to systemically racist policing practices through protest movements in recent years, police in the United States continue to target racial minorities with aggressive tactics at higher rates than White people, while White people are more likely to show high levels of support for police. This study uses an online experiment to examine whether three different comedic television narratives about racially biased policing, compared to a serious nonfiction news depiction and a no video control condition, can persuade White viewers to feel more emotional about racial injustice, to take future actions to contest racist policies, and to develop attitudes that are less racist and more critical of police. This study also investigates whether these persuasive outcomes may be mediated through narrative mechanisms (perceived entertainment value, narrative transportation, emotional involvement) and perceived types of humor (critical, harsh, light-hearted). Results indicate that a comedic depiction of racially biased policing can be just as persuasive as a nonfiction news treatment, particularly when the narrative is experienced as emotionally involving and the humor is perceived as critical.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data available on request.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badge for Open Materials. The materials are openly accessible at https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2023.2289650

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2023.2293967

Notes

¹ Three additional reverse-coded items from Henry and Sears (2002) were also measured: “Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for Black people to work their way out of the lower class”; “Over the past few years, Black people have gotten less than they deserve”; and “How much discrimination against Black people do you feel there is in the United States today, limiting their chances to get ahead?” Those items loaded on a separate factor and were excluded from the final scale. Including these items would increase the Cronbach’s α to .82, and additional analyses showed the results would not be meaningfully affected.

² Two additional reverse-coded items from Peyton et al. (2019) were also measured: “they make decisions based on their biases or opinions” and “they are often dishonest.” Those items loaded on a separate factor and were excluded from the final scale. Including these items would reduce the Cronbach’s α to .81, and additional analyses showed the results would not be meaningfully affected.

³ “Funny” also served as a manipulation check among video stimuli. All three comedy videos were rated as significantly funnier than the Frontline video.

⁴ Two additional reverse-coded items from Green and Brock (2000) were also measured: “after finishing the show, I found it easy to put it out of my mind”; “I found my mind wandering while watching the show.” However, those items loaded on a separate factor and were thus excluded from the final scale.

⁵ The three mediators are highly correlated with one another (NT x PEV = .707; NT x EI = .749; PEV x EI = .715). However, a collinearity test showed that the VIF did not exceed 2.8, minimizing concerns.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Corinne Weinstein

Corinne Weinstein (MA, New York University) is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on how television depictions communicate ideas about culture, social identity, and neoliberalism.

Lauren Feldman

Lauren Feldman (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is a professor in the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. Her research interests include comedy and social change, climate change communication, and partisan media and misinformation.