Public policies are typically established to eliminate important social problems (e.g., minority discrimination, crime, poverty). In addition, the importance of these problems, and urgency people feel about addressing them, is influenced by perceptions of their prevalence. These perceptions, however, can be unwittingly biased by extraneous sources of information that lead some people to either overestimate or underestimate the seriousness of the problem at hand. The authors review empirical work on the construction of perceptions of frequency and representativeness and the processes that underlie them. They show that these perceptions are often biased in ways that differ over segments of the population. They conclude with a discussion of implications of these findings for developing public policy initiatives and de-biasing strategies.
American Institutes for Research (2012), “Youth Crime Declines Continue as Polls Show Public Fear of Youth Remains High,” Center for Collaboration and Practice webpage, (accessed March 24, 2012), [available at http://cecp.air.org/juvenile_justice_highlight.asp].
2.
Americans for a Fair Chance (2003), “The History of Affirmative Action Policies,”In Motion Magazine, (August), (accessed November 30, 2012), [available at http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/aahist.html].
3.
BlairIrene V., CharlesM. Judd, and KristineM. Chapleau (2004), “The Influence of Afrocentric Facial Features in Criminal Sentencing,”Psychological Science, 15 (10), 674–79.
4.
BrileyDonnel A., ShrumL.J., and RobertS. Wyer (2007), “Subjective Impressions of Minority Model Frequencies in the Media: A Comparison of Majority and Minority Viewers’ Judgments and Underlying Processes,”Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17 (1), 36–48.
5.
BullockHeather, WycheKaren Fraser, and WilliamsWendy (2001), “Media Images of the Poor,”Journal of Social Issues, 57 (2), 229–46.
6.
ChoHyejeung, and SchwarzNorbert (2010), “I Like Those Glasses on You, but Not in the Mirror: Fluency, Preference, and Virtual Mirrors,”Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20 (4), 471–75.
7.
Coleman-JensenAlisha, NordMark, AndrewsMargaret, and CarlsonSteven (2011), Household Food Security in the United States in 2010 (ERR-125).Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture.
8.
CraikFergus I.M., and RobertS. Lockhart (1972), “Levels of Processing: A Framework for Memory Research,”Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 11 (6), 671–84.
9.
DeLouthTara-Nicholle Beasley, and CindyJ.P. Woods (1996), “Biases Against Minorities in Newspaper Reports of Crime,”Psychological Reports, 79 (2), 545–46.
10.
DeNavas-WaltCarmen, BernadetteD. Proctor, and JessicaC. Smith (2011), “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010,” U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Reports. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
11.
DorfmanLori (2007), “Using Media to Influence Policy,” in Prevention Is Primary: Strategies for Community Well Being, CohenL., ChavezV., and ChehimiS., eds. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
12.
EberhardtJennifer L., PaulG. Davies, ValerieJ. Purdie-Vaughns, and SheriL. Johnson (2006), “Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes,”Psychological Science, 17 (5), 383–86.
13.
FazioRussell H., and MarkP. Zanna (1981), “Direct Experience and Attitude-Behavior Consistency,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 14, BerkowitzLeonard, ed. New York: Academic Press, 161–202.
14.
GandyOscar, and BaronJonathan (1998), “Inequality: It's All in the Way You Look at It,”Communication Research, 25 (5), 505–527.
15.
GerbnerGeorge, GrossLarry, Jackon-BeeckMarilyn, Jeffries-FoxSuzanne, and SignorielliNancy (1978), “Cultural Indicators: Violence Profile No. 9,”Journal of Communication, 28 (Summer), 176–207.
16.
GilliamFranklin D., and IyengarShanto (2000), “Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public,”American Journal of Political Science, 44 (3), 560–73.
17.
GilliamFranklin D., and IyengarShanto (2005), “Super-Predators or Victims of Societal Neglect? Framing Effects in Juvenile Crime Coverage,” in Framing of American Politics, CallaghanKaren, and SchnellFrauke, eds. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 148–66.
18.
HamiltonDavid L., and RobertK. Gifford (1976), “Illusory Correlation in Interpersonal Perception: A Cognitive Basis of Stereotypic Judgments,”Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 12 (October), 392–407.
19.
KinderDonald (1998), “Attitude and Action in the Realm of Politics,” in Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th ed., GilbertD., FiskeS., and LindzeyG., eds. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 778–867.
20.
KubeyRobert, and CsikszentmihalyiMihaly (1990), Television and the Quality of Life: How Viewing Shapes Everyday Experience.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
21.
KumkaleG. Tarcan, and AlbarracinDolores (2004), “The Sleeper Effect in Persuasion: A Meta-Analytic Review,”Psychological Bulletin, 130 (1), 143–72.
22.
LichterRobert S., LindaS. Lichter, and RothmanStanley (1994), Prime Time: How TV Portrays American Culture.Washington, DC: Regnery.
23.
MantsiosGregory (1995), “Making Magic: Making Class Invisible,” in Race, Class and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study, RothenburgP.S., ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 131–43.
24.
McGuireWilliam J., and ClaireV. McGuire (1981), “The Spontaneous Self-Concept as Affected by Personal Distinctiveness,” in The Self-Concept, MervinD. Lynch, AdrythA. Norem-Hebeisen, and KennethJ. Gergen, eds. New York: Ballinger, 147–71.
25.
McLeodJack M., and StevenR. Chaffee (1972), “The Construction of Social Reality,” in The Social Influence Process, TedeschiJ.T., ed. Chicago: Aldine Atherton, 50–99.
26.
MosherClayton J., TeranceD. Miethe, and DrethaM. Phillips (2002), The Mismeasure of Crime.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
27.
NisbettRichard E., and RossLee (1980), Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgment.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
28.
O'GuinnThomas C., and ShrumL.J. (1997), “The Role of Television in the Construction of Consumer Reality,”Journal of Consumer Research, 23 (March), 278–94.
29.
PettyRichard E., and JohnT. Cacioppo (1979), “Issue Involvement Can Increase or Decrease Persuasion by Enhancing Message-Relevant Cognitive Response,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37 (December), 1915–26.
30.
RussellCristel Antonia, SchauHope Jensen, and CrockettDavid (2013), “Cultural Diversity in Television Narratives: Homophilization, Appropriation, and Implications for Media Advocacy,”Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 32 (Spring), 119–30.
31.
SanbonmatsuDavid M., ShavittSharon, and BryanD. Gibson (1994), “Salience, Set Size, and Illusory Correlation: Making Moderate Assumptions About Extreme Targets,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66 (6), 1020–33.
32.
SchwarzNorbert (2004), “Metacognitive Experiences in Judgment and Decision Making,”Journal of Consumer Psychology, 14 (4), 332–48.
33.
SchwarzNorbert, BlessHerbert, StrackFritz, KlumppGiesela, Rittenauer-SchatkaHelga, and SimonsAnnette (1991), “Ease of Retrieval as Information: Another Look at the Availability Heuristic,”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61 (2), 195–202.
34.
ShermanSteven J., and CortyEric (1984), “Cognitive Heuristics,” in Handbook of Social Cognition, Vol. 1, RobertS. Wyer, and ThomasK. Srull, eds. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 189–286.
35.
ShrumL.J. (1996), “Psychological Processes Underlying Cultivation Effects: Further Tests of Construct Accessibility,”Human Communication Research, 22 (4), 482–509.
36.
ShrumL.J. (2007a), “Cultivation and Social Cognition,” in Communication and Social Cognition: Theories and Methods, DavidR. Roskos-Ewoldsen, and JenniferL. Monahan, eds. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 245–72.
37.
ShrumL.J. (2007b), “The Implications of Survey Method for Measuring Cultivation Effects,”Human Communication Research, 31 (1), 64–80.
38.
ShrumL.J. (2009), “Television Viewing and Social Reality: Effects and Underlying Processes,” in Social Psychology of Consumer Behavior, WänkeMichaela, ed. New York: Psychology Press, 251–72.
39.
ShrumL.J., JamesE. Burroughs, and RindfleischAric (2005), “Television's Cultivation of Material Values,”Journal of Consumer Research, 32 (December), 473–79.
40.
ShrumL.J., and LeeJaehoon (2012), “Television's Persuasive Narratives: How Television Influences Values, Attitudes, and Beliefs,” in The Psychology of Entertainment Media: Blurring the Lines Between Entertainment and Persuasion, 2d ed., ShrumL.J., ed. New York: Taylor & Francis, 147–67.
41.
ShrumL.J., and LeeJaehoon, JamesE. Burroughs, and RindfleischAric (2011), “An On-Line Process Model of Second-Order Cultivation Effects: How Television Cultivates Material Values and Its Consequences for Life Satisfaction,”Human Communication Research, 37 (1), 34–57.
42.
SrullThomas K., and RobertS. Wyer (1989), “Person Memory and Judgment,”Psychological Review, 96 (1), 58–63.
43.
TverskyAmos, and KahnemanDaniel (1973), “Availability: A Heuristic for Judging Frequency and Probability,”Cognitive Psychology, 5 (2), 207–232.
44.
U.S. Bureau of the Census (2010), Statistical Abstracts of the United States.Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
WilsonBarbara J., KunkelDavid, LinzDaniel, WilliamJ. Potter, DonnersteinEdward, and StacyL. Smith (1998), “Violence in Television Programming Overall: University of California, Santa Barbara Study,” in National Television Violence Study, Vol. 2. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 3–204.
47.
WyerRobert S. (2004), Social Comprehension and Judgment: The Role of Situation Models, Narratives, and Implicit Theories.Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
48.
WyerRobert S., and HartwickJon (1980), “The Role of Information Retrieval and Conditional Inference Processes in Belief Formation and Change,” in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 13, BerkowitzLeonard, ed. New York: Academic Press, 241–84.
49.
WyerRobert S., and SrullT.K. (1989), Memory and Cognition in Its Social Context.Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
