| Popis: |
This dissertation tests how contingency and personalization influence the way audiences engage with outgroup media characters. It is argued that the affordances of contingency and personalization can make exposure to media characters more akin to face-to-face social interaction. by experiencing social presence and parasocial interaction (PSI). As such, media with contingency and personalization should better elicit the psychological states of social presence and PSI will allow audiences to like these transgender media characters, which in turn reduces prejudice towards transgender people. After pretesting a stimulus that manipulates these affordances, a 2 (high contingency v. no contingency) x 2 (high personalization v. no personalization) factorial experiment was conducted on an online adult population. Results suggested that media with contingency caused audiences to experience more social presence and PSI. The personalization manipulation did not. Experiencing social presence predicted more liking of a transgender media character and lower prejudice towards transgender women. PSI predicted higher prejudice towards transgender women. Several theoretical implications and reflections are discussed. |
