Citation

McAndrew J, Bonus JA. J. Homosex. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00918369.2021.1917222

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

People harbor unique biases about the relative influence of popular media on themselves compared to others. Broadly, they expect others to experience greater harm from exposure to negative depictions (e.g., violent content) and to derive fewer benefits from exposure to positive depictions (e.g., educational content). The current experiment examined if these biases impact how parents monitor their children's television exposure, specifically programs about same-sex attraction. Parents (N = 702) watched a cartoon about a young girl who expresses romantic interest in another girl. Although biases emerged with regard to parents' beliefs that this content would harm or benefit their own (vs. other) children, these biases did not influence their monitoring intentions. Instead, parents with conservative (vs. liberal) attitudes perceived the show as more threatening and less valuable for all children, which enhanced their desire to criticize, restrict, and censor that content.

Language: en

Keywords

Children’s media; first-person effect; LGBQ representation; parental mediation; third-person effect