research contributed to the small but growing body of research that has advocated the SCM as a theoretical framework that can advance the study of media stereotypes in novel, theory- driven, and socially meaningful ways (Sink, Mastro, & Dragojevic, 2017). Of course, these studies were not without flaws, and the limitations of the research designs used in Studies 1- 3 will be discussed in detail. Finally, future areas of inquiry will be presented for researchers interested in continuing to integrate SCM with mediated intergroup contact theory to
understand the cognitive, affective, and behavior effects of media stereotypes.
Study 1: Warmth, Competence, and the Optimal Conditions of Mediated Intergroup Contact
The primary goal of the pilot study was to identify characterizations of gay men, lesbians, and transgender women that fell into distinct quadrants of the SCM and would later serve as stimuli in Studies 2 and 3. However, the pilot test was designed in such a way that findings would illustrate the utility of stereotype content measures in predicting the
analyses were run that tested structural relationships between warmth and competence evaluations of sexual minority characters with outgroup typicality and ingroup similarity. Across all the groups of interest, warmth and competence were effective in predicting feelings of closeness to characters at the intergroup level, such that audiences could more easily relate to and identify with characters of positive stereotype content. This is a
consequential finding when considering both the mediated intergroup contact and parasocial relationship literatures. Media characters often serve identity-related needs in similar ways to real world interpersonal relationships (Cohen, 2001), so having a standardized metric for evaluating a character’s potential to facilitate these relationships is useful to academics interested in understanding these bonds. Furthermore, these insights are equally valuable for industry professionals in advertising, marketing, and entertainment who are often concerned with creating characters audiences will care about. To maximize profits across diverse audiences, Study 1 suggests that HW-HC characters have the greatest mass appeal in terms of establishing feelings of connectedness.
However, important group-based differences emerged with regard to the utility of SCM measures in predicting levels of typicality. For gay male characters, deficiencies in competence were significantly related to perceived typicality, suggesting that to be “typically gay” is to be a member of a relatively low status group. In line with past SCM research, highly typical lesbians were defined by deficiencies in warmth with high levels of competence (i.e., ambivalent stereotype content). For transgender female characters, neither warmth nor competence was related to perceptions of outgroup typicality, as each of the two characters were seen as being moderately typical. This was suggested to be a result of the
fact that transgender individuals have only drawn mainstream attention in recent years when compared to gays and lesbians, so the norms for this group are less known.
In terms of the overarching goals of the dissertation project, Study 1 demonstrated that warmth and competence variables could be used to understand differences in cognitive responses to sexual minority characters following mediated contact. While the effectiveness of SCM measures in assessing typicality varied by group, positive evaluations of several effeminate gay and masculine lesbian characters suggested that warmth and competence measures are more reliable in assessing antipathy toward these characters than deviance from gender norms. As sexual minorities continue to gain mainstream acceptance
(especially among younger generations), the reliance traditional measurements of sex roles in understanding LGBT stereotypes may become obsolete and outdated. As these findings demonstrated, measurements of masculinity and femininity are not sufficient in
understanding overall evaluative responses toward sexual minority characters. Indeed, this was the first of several findings from the dissertation that demonstrate the advantages of universal measures of stereotypes over group-specific stereotype scales.
In terms of understanding why contact interventions are more beneficial for certain target groups than others, Study 1 demonstrated that outgroup exemplars from the same group can vary in terms of their potential to foster feelings of ingroup similarity. These findings offered compelling evidence that viewers feel closer to warm and high status sexual minority characters, as these characterizations are in line with the ingroup and other
culturally dominant reference groups. Thus, it may be the case that mediated contact interventions are more effective for certain target groups because the outgroup exemplars more closely represent positive stereotype content. A meta-analysis of the contact studies
that asks researchers to evaluate their stimuli in terms of warmth and competence would be a valuable endeavor. Furthermore, these results showed variability between social groups with regard to participants’ general knowledge of norms and typical outgroup features. Thus, it may be the case that an SCM approach to evaluating the optimal conditions of mediated intergroup contact is not appropriate for every social group. Because this integrated
theoretical framework was presented as being advantageous over other designs for its ability to facilitate comparisons across countless social groups, this could be a major shortcoming of this approach. As such, more work is needed that replicates this design across a broader range of target groups, especially those that are still developing mainstream recognition (e.g., asexuals, gender fluid individuals, Generation Z).
Study 2: Warmth, Competence, and the Affective Mediators of Mediated Intergroup