Anthony F. Lemieux

Heterosexist Ambivalence and Heterocentric Norms: Drinking in Intergroup Discomfort

Eighty two participants read about either a gay male target who felt discomfort in a straight bar or a straight male target who felt discomfort in a gay bar. Participants explained the discomfort, rated the target’s actions, and produced counterfactuals that ‘undid’ his discomfort. Explanations of the targets’ discomfort focused on gayness more than on straightness, suggesting that they were affected by heterocentric norms. The straight target’s expressions of discomfort were perceived as more appropriate than the gay target’s, particularly among participants with strong anti-gay attitudes. Counterfactuals which undid these events also suggested implicit inequities in the perceived norms for interactions between gay and straight persons. These results are explained in terms of ambivalence between support for egalitarianism and anti-gay affect and the continued operation of heterocentric norms that limit the degree to which egalitarianism translates into equal treatment of persons of all sexual orientations.

A Music-Based HIV Prevention Intervention for Urban Adolescents

OBJECTIVE This research examines the process of conducting and evaluating a music-based HIV prevention intervention among urban adolescents, and is informed by the information, motivation, behavioral skills (IMB) model. DESIGN Musically talented opinion leaders were recruited to write, record, and distribute HIV prevention themed music to their peers to increase HIV prevention motivation, behavioral skills, and behaviors. In this 3-month field experiment, participants were 306 students enrolled in health classes at each of three large multiracial urban high schools (one treatment school; two control schools). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Measures of HIV prevention information, motivation, behavioral skills, and behaviors, both pre- and postintervention. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Results indicate that the intervention influenced several aspects of HIV prevention motivation, behavioral skills, and condom use and HIV testing behaviors. This research demonstrates that the incorporation of music into HIV prevention interventions for adolescents has the potential to be effective.

Inspire Magazine: A Critical Analysis of its Significance and Potential Impact Through the Lens of the Information, Motivation, and Behavioral Skills Model

This article presents an analysis of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsulas English language publication Inspire that was conceptualized and conducted on the basis of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) framework. The IMB model has been widely tested, validated, and applied across a range of behavior change interventions, and provides both a conceptual and analytic framework to examine the range and quality of content featured across the 11 issues of Inspire that were published and distributed online starting in July of 2010. Inspire has been implicated in multiple instances of terrorism cases in the U.S. and its impact and potential can be analyzed on the extent to which it effectively targets core attitudes, perceptions of social normative support for violence, and its regular featuring of behavioral skills such as bomb making, weapons training, and emphasizing a creative and do-it-yourself ethos.

Exposure to Muslims in Media and Support for Public Policies Harming Muslims

Few studies have empirically examined how media stereotypes of Muslims influence Americans’ support for public policies exclusively harming Muslims. Across three studies, we tested the short-term and long-term effects of news portraying Muslims as terrorists on Americans’ support for public policies harming Muslims domestically and internationally. Study 1 revealed that exposure to news portraying Muslims as terrorists is positively associated with support for military action in Muslim countries. Study 2 revealed that exposure to news portraying Muslims as terrorists is positively associated with support for public policies that harm Muslims domestically and internationally; this effect was fully mediated by perceptions of Muslims as aggressive. Experimental results from Study 3 revealed that exposing participants to negative Muslim media footage, relative to neutral or no-video footage, increased perceptions of Muslims as aggressive, increased support for harsh civil restrictions of Muslim Americans, and increased support for military action in Muslim countries. Exposure to positive Muslim footage yielded opposite results. We discuss the importance of media in exacerbating aggressive attitudes and public policies in the context of intergroup relations.

Poverty and Prejudice

The realities of poverty are striking, but certainly not uncommon. Malnourished children with distended stomachs, small and crowded dwellings without running water, and people walking among heavily armed military personnel are but a few of these stark images. Promises of economic development have yet to materialize for the vast majority of the world’s citizens, despite an unprecedented growth in the global economy (Isbister, 2001, p. 3).

Grievance, social dominance orientation, and authoritarianism in the choice and justification of terror versus protest

The present research examines the extent to which grievance and social-personality factors including Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) influence support for and justification of both peaceful and violent forms of political action. Using an experimental design that manipulated level of grievance, we asked a sample of 2932 US adult participants to read a vignette, and then to indicate their likelihood of engaging in any form of political action as a result of the experiences portrayed in the vignette. In addition, participants were asked to choose between violent actions and peaceful protest, and to indicate the extent to which each form of action was justified. We found that participants who were in the high grievance condition were more likely to favor taking action, and felt that both forms of action were more justified. Those who were higher on SDO and RWA generally indicated less likelihood of taking any action, although those higher on SDO were more likely to both choose the terror attack and indicate that it was more justified.

The medium is terrorism: Transformation of the about to die trope in Dabiq

Abstract Daesh’s ability to successfully recruit foreign fighters from more than one hundred countries worldwide raises the importance of understanding the group’s strategic media campaign. Recognizing that visual images, in particular, often increase viewers’ attention, recall, and emotional response, this study of Daesh’s official magazine, Dabiq, moves beyond earlier studies primarily focused on the magazine’s textual content to analyze the group’s visual communication strategy. This study’s content analysis of the 1,144 images appearing in the magazine’s first twelve issues reveals how Dabiq has relied extensively on a historic American media trope, the about to die image, to bolster image recirculation over time. This essay examines both the form and content of Dabiq’s use of three about to die image types as they have evolved across the twelve issues. Rather than seek to win the “hearts and minds” of the Muslim public, Dabiq’s use of about to die images transforms the online medium into terrorism in ways that have lasting implications for the global culture.

Images of death and dying in ISIS media: A comparison of English and Arabic print publications:

Images of death and dying in the media around the globe have a symbiotic relationship with nation states as they can bolster state control by defining who has the right to take lives in the interests of the community, by identifying enemies of the state, by demonstrating dominance over enemies, and by lending a moral posture to the state’s war efforts. Previously, the growing corpus of research on media’s display of death and about to die images has focused almost exclusively on media outlets that bolster established states on the global stage. By analyzing 1965 death and about to die images displayed in Dabiq, ISIS’s English-language magazine, and al-Naba’, the same group’s Arabic-language newspaper, this study adds an understanding of the messaging strategies deployed by groups striving to challenge, rather than reinforce, existing national boundaries. The findings suggest that while ISIS adopts some standard media practices, it also utilizes unique and audience targeted approaches regarding the frequency of image use, the identify of the corpses, the display of dead bodies, and the presentation of those responsible for the pictured dead bodies in its media campaign.

Across the divide: reflections of a collaborative class on terrorism

Abstract This paper provides some initial reflections on a collaborative online cross-cultural class on the study of terrorism as a means of contributing towards a general pedagogy of the subject. While the experiences highlighted in this paper correspond to this specific class, some general lessons may be applicable to other areas of pedagogy. In particular, this paper reflects on the added academic value of teaching terrorism as a sensitive topic in the context of cross-cultural interaction as experienced through a blended learning environment.

Political Action as a Function of Grievances, Risk, and Social Identity: An Experimental Approach

Abstract Why would individuals engage in or support contentious politics? This question is challenging to answer with observational data where causal factors are correlated and difficult to measure. Using a survey-embedded experiment, we focus on three situational factors: grievances, risk, and identity. We also explore how individual differences in sociopolitical orientations—social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA)—impact action. Grievances influence engagement in and support for protests. Risk influences engagement in protest, but not support for it. Regardless of condition, SDO and RWA help explain why some people engage in protest while others do not, particularly within the same context.