A total of 90 Mexican American and White American participants viewed 12 emotional television news stories, featuring Mexican Americans, that were positive or negative in valence and high or low in arousal. Participants completed a cued recall test and evaluated recalled news stories. Analyses revealed a strong main effect of arousal on participants’ attention and memory. Mexican American participants rated Mexican American news stories more favorably and as more arousing, recalled the news more, and evaluated recalled news more positively than did their White American counterparts. Consistent with the principles of self-schema and social identity theory, these findings demonstrate that people process and evaluate self-referencing information differently than they process nonself-referencing information. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are also discussed.
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