The Black Lives Matter movement mitigates bias against racial minority actors
Name
lin-et-al-2024-the-black-lives-matter-movement-mitigates-bias-against-racial-minority-actors.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
255.76 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
950e573efb68adbadf0ae1b6ad9fecb9
Author(s)
Lin, Yu-Wei
Yang, Shiyu
Han, Wencui
Lu, Jackson G
Date Issued
July 16, 2024
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Watching movies is among the most popular entertainment and cultural activities. How do viewers react when a movie sequel increases racial minority actors in the main cast (“minority increase”)? On the one hand, such sequels may receive better evaluations if viewers appreciate racially inclusive casting for its novel elements (the value-in-diversity perspective) and moral appeal (the fairness perspective on diversity). On the other hand, discrimination research suggests that if viewers harbor biases against racial minorities, sequels with minority increase may receive worse evaluations. To examine these competing possibilities, we analyze a unique panel dataset of movie series released from 1998 to 2021 and conduct text analysis of 312,457 reviews of these movies. Consistent with discrimination research, we find that movies with minority increase receive lower ratings and more toxic reviews. Importantly, these effects weaken after the advent of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, especially when the movement’s intensity is high. These results are reliable across various robustness checks (e.g., propensity score matching, random implementation test). We conceptually replicate the bias mitigation effect of BLM in a preregistered experiment: Heightening the salience of BLM increases White individuals’ acceptance of racial minority increase in a movie sequel. This research demonstrates the power of social movements in fostering diversity, equality, and inclusion.
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
10.1073/pnas.2307726121
