Do popular films activate authoritarianism? We theorize that, because of the willing suspension of disbelief, films encourage social learning, which primes viewers to respond to messages activating latent personality traits such as authoritarianism. This activation then affects citizens’ political attitudes. To test our theory, we use a 1 × 3 posttest experimental design where treatment groups watch feature-length films. As treatments, subjects watch 300 and V for Vendetta, and the control film is 21 Jump Street. Consistent with our hypotheses, we find that 300 activates authoritarianism while V for Vendetta activates antiauthoritarianism. As expected, 21 Jump Street has no effect. In addition, we show that the activation of authoritarianism produces significant differences in attitudes on U.S. primacy, rights of protestors, immigration, and military service. This research demonstrates how the causal mechanism between entertainment media and latent personality activation affects political attitudes, which advances both the American political behavior and media politics literature.
AbramowitzA. I. (1989). Viability, electability, and candidate choice in a presidential primary election: A test of competing models. The Journal of Politics, 51, 977-992.
2.
AbramowitzA. I.SaundersK. L. (1998). Ideological realignment in the U.S. electorate. The Journal of Politics, 60, 634-652.
3.
AdkinsT.CastleJ. J. (2014). Moving pictures? Experimental evidence of cinematic influence on political attitudes. Social Science Quarterly, 95, 1230-1244.
4.
AdornoT. W.Frenkel-BrunswikE.LevinsonD. J.SanfordR. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. Oxford, UK: Harpers.
5.
AltemeyerR. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press.
6.
AltemeyerR. (1996). The authoritarian specter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
BanduraA.WaltersR.H. (1963). Social learning and personality development. New York, NY: Holt Reinhart and Winston.
10.
BaumM. A. (2003a). Soft news and political knowledge: Evidence of absence or absence of evidence?Political Communication, 20, 173-190.
11.
BaumM. A. (2003b). Soft news goes to war: Public opinion and American Foreign policy in the new media age. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
12.
BaumM. A. (2005). Talking the vote: Why presidential candidates hit the talk show circuit. American Journal of Political Science, 49, 213-234.
13.
BaumgartnerJ.MorrisJ. S. (2006). The daily show effect: Candidate evaluations, efficacy, and American youth. American Politics Research, 34, 341-367.
14.
BondR. M.MessingS. (2015). Quantifying social media’s political space: Estimating ideology from publicly revealed preferences on Facebook. American Political Science Review, 109, 62-78.
15.
BongcoM. (2014). Reading comics: Language, culture, and the concept of the superhero in comic books. New York, NY: Routledge.
16.
BrookeyR. A. (2010). Hollywood gamers: Digital convergence in the film and video game industries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
17.
BryantJ.OliverM. B. (2009). Media effects: Advances in theory and research. New York, NY: Routledge.
18.
ButlerL. D.KoopmanC.ZimbardoP. G. (1995). The psychological impact of viewing the film “JFK”: Emotions, beliefs, and political behavioral intentions. Political Psychology, 16, 237-257.
19.
DotyR. M.PetersonB. E.WinterD. G. (1991). Threat and authoritarianism in the United States, 1978-1987. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 629-640.
20.
DowlerK. (2003). Media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: The relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness. Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture, 10(2), 109-126.
21.
DowningJ. D. H. (1988). “The Cosby Show” and American racial discourse. In SmithermanG.van DijkT. A. (Eds.), Discourse and discrimination (pp. 46-73). Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press.
22.
DruckmanJ. N.KamC. D. (2011). Students as experimental participants: A defense of the “narrow data base.” In DruckmanJ. N.GreenD. P.KuklinskiJ. H.LupiaA. (Eds.), Cambridge handbook of experimental political science (pp. 41-57). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
23.
DuriezB.Van HielA. (2002). The march of modern fascism. A comparison of social dominance orientation and authoritarianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 1199-1213.
EvansR. I.RozelleR. M.MaxwellS. E.RainesB. E.DillC. A.GuthrieT. J.. . . HillP. C. (1981). Social modeling films to deter smoking in adolescents: Results of a three-year field investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 66, 399-414.
27.
FeldmanS. (2003). Enforcing social conformity: A theory of authoritarianism. Political Psychology, 24, 41-74.
28.
FeldmanS.StennerK. (1997). Perceived threat and authoritarianism. Political Psychology, 4, 741-770.
29.
FranklinD. P. (2006). Politics and film: The political culture of film in the United States. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield.
30.
GeenR. G.ThomasS. L. (1986). The immediate effects of media violence on behavior. Journal of Social Issues, 42(3), 7-27.
31.
GierzynskiA.EddyK. (2013). Harry Potter and the Millennials: Research methods and the politics of the Muggle generation. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
32.
HavensT. (2000). “The biggest show in the world”: Race and the global popularity of The Cosby Show. Media, Culture & Society, 22, 371-391.
33.
HetheringtonM. J.WeilerJ. D. (2009). Authoritarianism and polarization in America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
InglehartR.NorrisP. (2016). Trump, Brexit, and the rise of populism: Economic have-nots and cultural backlash (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 2818659). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2818659
LavineH.BurgessD.SnyderM.TransueJ.SullivanJ. L.HaneyB.WagnerS. H. (1999). Threat, authoritarianism, and voting: An investigation of personality and persuasion. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 337-347.
42.
LavineH.LodgeM.FreitasK. (2005). Threat, authoritarianism, and selective exposure to information. Political Psychology, 26, 219-244.
43.
LavineH.LodgeM.PolichakJ.TaberC. (2002). Explicating the black box through experimentation: Studies of authoritarianism and threat. Political Analysis, 10, 343-361.
44.
LordP.MillerC. (Director). (2012). 21 Jump Street [Motion picture]. United States: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
45.
MacWilliamsM. C. (2016). Who decides when the party doesn’t? Authoritarian voters and the rise of Donald Trump. PS: Political Science & Politics, 49, 716-721.
46.
MartinJ. L. (2001). The authoritarian personality, 50 years later: What questions are there for political psychology?Political Psychology, 22, 1-26.
47.
McCannS. J. H. (2008). Societal threat, authoritarianism, conservatism, and U.S. state death penalty sentencing (1977-2004). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 913-923.
48.
McTeigueJ. (Director). (2006). V for Vendetta [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
49.
MerollaJ. L.ZechmeisterE. J. (2009). Democracy at risk: How terrorist threats affect the public. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
50.
MilgramS. (1963). Behavioral Study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-378.
51.
MillerK. S. (1999). Public relations in film and fiction: 1930 to 1995. Journal of Public Relations Research, 11, 3-28.
PautzM. C. (2015). Argo and Zero Dark Thirty: Film, government, and audiences. PS: Political Science & Politics, 48, 120-128.
59.
PautzM. C.RoselleL. (2011). Are they ready for their close-up? Civil servants and their portrayal in contemporary American cinema. Public Voices, 11(1), 8-32.
60.
PerrinA. J. (2005). National threat and political culture: Authoritarianism, antiauthoritarianism, and the September 11 Attacks. Political Psychology, 26, 167-194.
61.
PriorM. (2007). Post-broadcast democracy: How media choice increases inequality in political involvement and polarizes elections. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
62.
RicheyS. (2012). Campaign advertising and the stimulation and activation of the authoritarian personality. Political Communication, 29, 24-43.
63.
RickertE. J. (1998). Authoritarianism and economic threat: Implications for political behavior. Political Psychology, 19, 707-720.
64.
SalesS. M. (1973). Threat as a factor in authoritarianism: An analysis of archival data. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 44-57.
65.
SnyderZ. (Director). (2007). 300 [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures.
66.
StennerK. (2005). The authoritarian dynamic. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
67.
SwiggerN. (2017). The effect of gender norms in sitcoms on support for access to abortion and contraception. American Politics Research, 45, 109-127.
WrightB. W. (2001). Comic book nation: The transformation of youth culture in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
71.
XuX.PetersonJ. B. (2017). Differences in media preference mediate the link between personality and political orientation: Personality, media, and political orientation. Political Psychology, 38, 55-72.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
