Images of Illness: How Causal Claims and Racial Associations Influence Public Preferences toward Diabetes Research Spending

Abstract

Despite the salience of health disparities in media and policy discourse, little previous research has investigated if imagery associating an illness with a certain racial group influences public perceptions. This study evaluated the influence of the media’s presentation of the causes of type 2 diabetes and its implicit racial associations on attitudes toward people with diabetes and preferences toward research spending. Survey participants who viewed an article on genetic causation or social determinants of diabetes were more likely to support increased government spending on research than those viewing an article with no causal language, while participants viewing an article on behavioral choices were more likely to attribute negative stereotypes to people with diabetes. Participants who viewed a photo of a black woman accompanying the article were less likely to endorse negative stereotypes than those viewing a photo of a white woman, but those who viewed a photo of a glucose-testing device expressed the lowest negative stereotypes. The effect of social determinants language was significantly different for blacks and whites, lowering stereotypes only among blacks. Emphasizing the behavioral causes of diabetes, as is common in media coverage, may perpetuate negative stereotypes. While drawing attention to the social determinants that shape these behaviors could mitigate stereotypes, this strategy is unlikely to influence the public uniformly.

Framing Childhood Obesity: How Individualizing the Problem Affects Public Support for Prevention

“…Small and colleagues found that people are more punitive toward identified “wrongdoers” than unidentified wrongdoers, just as Slovic and colleagues found that people are more sympathetic toward identified victims than unidentified victims. Previous research assessing the impact of personalized depictions on attitudes toward diabetes also found that presenting any image of a person with diabetes—compared to a photo of a medical device—was associated with more negative attitudes toward people with diabetes (Gollust, Lantz, & Ubel, ).…”

Development and Early Implementation ofThe Bigger Picture, a Youth-Targeted Public Health Literacy Campaign to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

“…Some Americans attribute social conditions to personal flaws while others attribute them to societal factors, and this is strongly associated with support for policies addressing these factors (Iyengar, 1989). For example, adults were more likely to support government spending on research of DM2 after viewing an article on social determinants of DM2 compared to those viewing an article with no causal language (Gollust, Lantz, & Ubel, 2010). People’s attributions of responsibility for health disparities therefore shape support for policy, and more effective messaging to emphasize social determinants of health has potential to influence policy support (Niederdeppe, Bu, Borah, Kindig, & Robert, 2008).…”

Explanatory Reporting in Video Format: Contrasting Perceptions to Those of Conventional News

“…Extant research on potential genre-based variations in the eliciting of (2) attitude change and emotional response paints a more mixed picture. This is because all reporting can influence attitude formation and touch audiences emotionally, but this may be as Coleman and Thorson (2002), Wilkins (2011), Gollust, Lantz, andUbel (2010), Gross (2008), Hart (2011), Kühne, Weber, and Sommer (2015), Major (2009), Major (2011), Major and Jankowski (2020), Shen et al (2012), Springer and Harwood (2015), Sun et al (2016), Waheed et al (2015) Emotions -↑ Aarøe (2011), Gross (2008), Kühne, Weber, and Sommer (2015), Major (2011), Shen et al (2012…”

“…Macro-level Micro-level Coleman and Thorson (2002), Wilkins (2011), Gollust, Lantz, andUbel (2010), Hart (2011), Major (2009, Major and Jankowski (2020), Matthes (2009a), Sun et al (2016) much a function of issue specificities, context and individual predispositions as one of reporting styles (Iyengar 1991;Druckman and McDermott 2008). Thus, the evidence is inconclusive.…”

“…Thus, the evidence is inconclusive. On the one hand, there are indications that explanatory reports using thematic frames are more successful in altering highly consequential attitudes, such as support for political reforms addressing the issue at hand (Coleman and Thorson 2002;Major 2009;Gollust, Lantz, and Ubel 2010;Coleman, Thorson, and Wilkins 2011;Hart 2011;Springer and Harwood 2015;Waheed et al 2015;Sun et al 2016;Major and Jankowski 2020). On the other, some research has reported the opposite, specifically, that conventional episodic reports influence opinions more because they are more emotionally involving (Aarøe 2011;Shen et al 2012;Kühne, Weber, and Sommer 2015).…”