What are You laughing at? Examining Predictors of Whites' Enjoyment of Black Entertainment
Open Access
- Author:
- Banjo, Omotayo Oyindamola
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 02, 2008
- Committee Members:
- Mary Beth Oliver, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Mary Beth Oliver, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
S. Shyam Sundar, Committee Member
Matthew Paul Mcallister, Committee Member
Deborah Frances Atwater, Committee Member - Keywords:
- in-group bias
ethnic humor
enjoyment - Abstract:
- Studies of race and media have established significant negative effects of stereotype on viewers, both Black and White. Audience reception studies have also revealed that regardless of perceived offensiveness of stereotype entertainment, audience consumption is not necessarily inhibited. Whereas ethnic humor scholars purport that groups disparaged through stereotype derive enjoyment through a sense of connection and identification, few studies have examined out-group members’ enjoyment experience of the same disparaging content. The present study aims to examine possible predictors of Whites’ enjoyment of stereotype entertainment when Black and Whites are the target. According to disposition theory, this study argued that negative attitudes towards Blacks through the lens of White racial superiority would predict greater enjoyment of Black disparagement. As a competing hypothesis, distinctiveness theory would imply that White audiences may be more likely to report enjoyment of stereotype, regardless of the target. However, these findings are argued to be influenced by a contemporary form of racism, aversive racism, such that in the case that audiences enjoy Neutral or White stereotype more than Black stereotype, this could be explained by higher motivations to control prejudice reactions. Consistent with similar research, findings reveal no significant effects of sense of racial superiority. However, Whites’ perceived cultural competence emerged as an important indicator of enjoyment of Black entertainment. Findings suggest that viewers who are low in cultural competence experience less positive affect when exposed to stereotype, and more strongly prefer entertainment devoid of stereotype than those with a higher sense of cultural competence. While preferences for neutral clips were significantly greater than preferences for Black and White stereotype, motivations to control prejudice reactions did not emerge as a significant predictor of this relationship. Implications of this study are discussed in more detail in the last chapter.