Explaining the “Racial Contradiction”: An Experimental Examination of the Impact of Sports Media Use and Response Strategy on Racial Bias Towards Athlete Transgressors

Abstract

Previous studies have found that minority athletes were perceived more positively than their White counterparts, which is counterintuitive to previous research. In order to explain this “racial contradiction,” this study analyzes how an athlete's response strategy and the amount of sports news consumed by participants could impact differences in the perceptions of athletes of different races. A between-subjects, double-blind experiment was conducted among 464 participants to examine how an athlete’s race, an athlete’s chosen response strategy, and participants’ level of sports news consumption affect the perception of athletes accused of criminal allegations. Results show that while low sports news consumers did not differ in their perception of an athlete regarding whether he was Black or White, high sports news consumers perceived Black athletes more positively than White athletes, supporting the “racial contradiction.” Also, results showed that while participants who were low sports news consumers accepted the White athlete’s use of denial more than that of the Black athlete, participants who were high sports news consumers accepted the Black athlete’s use of denial more than that of the White athlete.

Audience Responses to Media Portrayals of Professional Athletes and Intimate Partner Violence

“…This is important because it may be assumed that Black athletes would be perceived as more responsible, due to past research on Black individuals being seen as criminals (e.g., Mastro et al, 2011). However, the findings of this study suggest that Black athletes were not perceived as more responsible, which is again in support of the racial contradiction (Brown et al, 2015, 2016, 2019). Furthermore, audiences perceived athletes as equally responsible regardless of the sport.…”

“…RQ 1 found that perceived severity of the news story differed based on the race of the athlete involved but not based on the nature of the sport. These findings largely supported the “racial contradiction” (Brown et al, 2015, 2016, 2019) when it came to news story severity. In other words, violence carried out by White athletes was rated as more severe than violence carried out by Black athletes.…”

“…The victims that were perceived as most credible were those who had suffered moderately violent IPV from White and Latino athletes. Here, the racial contradiction (Brown et al, 2015, 2016, 2019) was nearly reversed; victims of White and Latino athletes were more credible than victims of Black athletes. Participants likely perceived victims of Black athletes in a negative light and therefore, rated them lower on victim credibility.…”

“…There are several reasons why this might be the case. Brown et al (2019) proposed two mechanisms to explain the racial contradiction: cultivation (Gerbner et al, 1986) and generalized appraisals (Bodenhausen et al, 1995). It is possible that audiences have not been exposed to enough professional Latino athletes in the media to cultivate attitudes toward them.…”

“…Brown et al (2019) suggested two key mechanisms explain this racial contradiction. First, cultivation theory (Gerbner et al, 1986) would predict that those who consume a high amount of sports news coverage would be more likely to hold different perceptions of athletes based on their race as compared to those who consume a low amount of sports news coverage.…”