Investigating perceived ingroup harm as an explanatory mechanism for media’s effect on audiences’ support for extreme prejudice

Racist and xenophobic extremists often claim their prejudicial actions are morally justified to extinguish perceived threats from racial or national groups. Many violent and nonviolent perpetrators report learning about intergroup threats from news media, citing both fringe and mainstream sources as catalysts for their hatred. Integrating the theory of dyadic morality with research on intergroup threat and mediated contact, two studies (N_Study1=165; N_Study2=300) tested how threatening news influences prejudice. Results showed threatening news did not directly increase prejudice; however, it heightened audiences’ perceptions that their ingroup was harmed by an outgroup, which in turn increased justification for a range of nonviolent and violent prejudicial outcomes. Findings highlight perceived ingroup-harm as a key mechanism linking threat-based news coverage to extreme prejudice.