Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Arendt:
Journalof Cultivation
Media Psychology Ef fects
©2010;
2010 of22(4):147–159
Vol. a Newspaper
Hogrefe Publishing
Original Article
Abstract. This paper explores the cultivation effect of a newspaper on its readers’ reality estimates and attitudes. Additionally, the study
tries to advance cultivation research by examining implicit attitudes (i.e., automatic affective reactions toward an object). A content
analysis of four months of news coverage in one particular newspaper showed that foreigners were overrepresented as offenders and that
the newspaper had a negative view of the EU. According to cultivation theory, it is assumed that the more people read a newspaper, the
more their reality estimates and attitudes correspond to the most recurrent, stable, and overarching patterns of the newspaper’s content.
To test this hypothesis, a total of 453 students participated in a study that used a cross-lagged panel design with two waves and a time-lag
of two months. Consistent with the cultivation hypothesis, those who spent more time reading the newspaper were more likely to
overestimate the frequency of foreigners as offenders (i.e., first-order cultivation) and had more negative self-reported attitudes toward
the EU (i.e., second-order cultivation). Additionally, those who read more of the newspaper showed more negative implicit attitudes
toward the EU (i.e., implicit cultivation). The data show evidence of a significant causal influence of newspaper exposure on implicit
attitudes, and a marginally significant causal effect on the overestimation of foreigners as offenders and on explicit attitudes toward the
EU. The consideration of implicit attitudes as an additional dependent variable could advance cultivation theory and research.
Introduction reality. For example, content analyses have shown that par-
ticular occupations such as doctor, judge, and police officer
occur with much greater frequency on television than in
We live in a mass mediated society. The mass media play reality (Weimann, 2000). The central hypothesis of this the-
important roles in our daily lives. For that reason, the mass ory, called cultivation hypothesis, states that people who
media are considered important social agents, transmitting watch more television are more likely to perceive the real
social perceptions and attitudes (Weimann, 2000). In fact, world in ways that reflect the most common and recurrent
the content of the mass media and their possible effects on messages from television, as compared to people who
recipients have been major concerns of social scientists for watch less, but are otherwise comparable in terms of im-
decades (Bryant & Oliver, 2009). portant demographic characteristics (Morgan et al., 2009).
The empirical work reported in this article investigated For example, if there is an overrepresentation of doctors on
the possible cultivation effects that reading a newspaper television, heavy viewers should overestimate the real-
had on readers’ social perceptions and attitudes. The study world incidence of doctors.
also attempted to advance existing cultivation research by Although the original formulation of the cultivation hy-
using implicit attitudes as an additional dependent variable. pothesis and much of the subsequent research focused on
television, several studies have investigated the cultivation
effect of newspapers (Arendt, 2008, 2009; Bauer, 2005;
Previous Cultivation Research Grabe & Drew, 2007; Guo, Zhu, & Chen, 2001; Hicks &
Lee, 2004; Nisbet & Wang, 2004; Reber & Chang, 2000;
Many studies have claimed to show the effect of exposure Reimer & Rosengren, 1990; Stroman & Seltzer, 1985; Ver-
to a mass medium on recipients’ social perceptions and at- geer, Lubbers, & Scheepers, 2000). The focus on television
titudes. One prominent theory in this area is cultivation the- is due to the assertion that television is the “central cultural
ory (Gerbner & Gross, 1976; Morgan, Shanahan, & Signo- arm of American society” (Gerbner & Gross, 1976, p. 175).
rielli, 2009). Cultivation theory is based on the findings that No claim has been made regarding the validity of this state-
television content often presents a systematic distortion of ment outside of the American context (see Reimer & Ro-
sengren, 1990). It must be noted that the specific media concerning the cultivation effect of specific newspaper
structure of the country and context that is being studied is products (Vergeer et al., 2000).
of major importance. In Austria, where more than 75% of Shanahan and Morgan (1999) conducted a meta-analy-
the population reads a newspaper daily, but only 63% of sis based on a database consisting of 5,799 separate find-
the population watches television daily (Verein Arbeitsge- ings, derived from 97 cultivation studies conducted since
meinschaft Media-Analysen, 2008), the omission of news- 1976. Average Pearson r’s were about .10. Partial r’s were
papers from a cultivation discussion would be absurd. slightly lower at .09. The authors concluded that the culti-
Whether there are different cultivation effects for different vation literature has demonstrated that there is a small pos-
media channels due to different content (e.g., television is itive relationship between watching television and various
mostly fictitious; newspapers are mostly factual) is an em- dependent variables. Another meta-analysis conducted by
pirical question (see Grabe & Drew, 2007). Rossmann (2008) verified Shanahan and Morgan’s results.
The media market in Austria (Steinmaurer, 2009) is a There is no meta-analysis regarding newspaper cultivation.
typical example of a small state market with a giant next- Based on the findings from the small number of available
door neighbor sharing the same language. The print media studies mentioned above, we can assume that newspapers
market is highly concentrated. Kronen Zeitung (Krone for are also able to produce a cultivation effect.
short) is the dominant player. Because Krone has approxi- In Austria, two cultivation studies have been conducted
mately 3 million readers a day in a country of 8 million to investigate the effects of television. Both studies found
inhabitants (Verein Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analysen, support for the cultivation hypothesis (Appel, 2008; Barth,
2008), it can be seen as the mainstream of the Austrian 1988). Additionally, two cultivation studies have tested the
print-based symbolic environment. This newspaper has cultivation hypothesis with regard to the effects of a partic-
been criticized by many observers for its biased news cov- ular newspaper product and found supporting empirical ev-
erage. For example, Wise (2002) wrote: idence (Arendt, 2008, 2009).
“With three million readers a day, Austria’s Kronen Zeitung
has perhaps the highest per capita circulation of any newspaper
in the world. It gained this preeminence with an almost dadaist Implicit Cultivation
collage of stories fanning fears that Vienna is being swamped
by undesirable refugees, editorials tinged with anti-Semitic in- In cultivation research, a distinction is made between two
nuendo, and articles trivializing the Holocaust” (p. 12). kinds of dependent variables. First-order cultivation refers
to effects on social perceptions (set-size and probability
In addition, many people in the Austrian public think that judgments; see Shrum, 2009), while second-order cultiva-
Krone has a strong impact on its readers (Plasser & Leng- tion refers to effects on attitudes and values (Shanahan &
auer, 2010). In the words of one former Austrian Chancel- Morgan, 1999). This article tries to advance cultivation the-
lor, “it is impossible to govern without the support of the ory and research by using implicit attitudes as an additional
Krone” (Art, 2007, p. 336). dependent variable, and thus investigate the phenomenon
From a theoretical point of view, there is a difference of implicit cultivation. Shrum (2007) referred to this new
between assuming that newspapers in general (e.g., Aus- dimension as a “promising area of research” (p. 265).
trian newspapers) produce a cultivation effect and claim- In Gawronski and Bodenhausen’s (2006) associative-
ing a cultivation effect from one particular newspaper propositional evaluation (APE) model, implicit attitudes
(e.g., Krone). However, in the case of Austria, it seems are interpreted as “automatic affective reactions resulting
appropriate to study the effect of Krone for at least two from the particular associations that are activated automat-
reasons. First, the constructed realities in different news- ically when a person encounters a relevant stimulus”
papers are not the same. Like many other scholars who (p. 697). This process does not require much cognitive ca-
promote content-specific cultivation research, Bilandzic pacity or an intention to evaluate an object. Associations
and Rössler (2004) criticized Gerbner and Gross’ (1976) can be activated irrespective of whether a person considers
assumption regarding the homogeneity of the media con- these evaluations as accurate or inaccurate. Processes of
tent. There are too many differences among, for example, propositional reasoning assess the validity of automatic, af-
Der Standard (quality newspaper, leftist), Die Presse fective reactions. This assessment provides the basis for
(quality newspaper, conservative), and Krone (tabloid, evaluative judgments, which are reflected in explicit (i.e.,
opportunistic/conservative) with regard to constructed self reported) attitudes that are termed second-order judg-
realities (Berkel, 2006; Stark & Kraus, 2008). Second, ments in cultivation research. Research on explicit and im-
according to cultivation theory, different media realities plicit attitudes has shown that implicit attitudes predict
lead to different cultivation hypotheses and thus, should spontaneous behavior better while explicit attitudes predict
have different cultivation effects. Consistent with this no- controlled behavior better (Gawronski & Conrey, 2004).
tion, research has found content-specific cultivation ef- Arendt (2009) included implicit attitudes for the first
fects (Bilandzic & Rössler, 2004). Although the majority time in cultivation research. That research, which involved
of newspaper-cultivation studies have investigated the ef- a sample of 92 participants, demonstrated a small cross-
fects of general newspaper use, there is empirical work sectional correlation between newspaper exposure and im-
plicit attitudes toward the EU. This finding must be repli- Variables
cated with a larger sample. Because of the cross-sectional
nature of both Arendt studies, and their lack of first-order Each EU-related article was coded in terms of whether it
measures, an empirical investigation that addressed these exhibited a positive, negative, ambiguous, or no evaluation
drawbacks was needed. of the EU. The coding was made according to a coding
schema from Früh (2007, pp. 249–260), which was used in
previous studies (Arendt, 2008, 2009). An article was cod-
ed “negative” if the EU was associated with negative con-
cepts such as “corruption” or “democratic deficit.” An ar-
Overview of the Present Empirical ticle was coded “positive” if the EU was associated with
positive connotations. The code “ambiguous” was used
Work when both positive and negative associations were present.
The code “no evaluation” was used when there were no
Cultivation research has two steps. First, researchers must evaluative associations. Because the same coding schema
conduct (or refer to) a content analysis to reliably outline was used in two previous studies in which articles about
selected features and trends in the world that newspapers the EU from the same newspaper were coded by the same
present to their readers. Based on this empirical evidence, person, and Cohen’s Kappa-values indicated a highly reli-
researchers formulate cultivation hypotheses. In a second able measurement (Arendt, 2008, 2009; κ > .90), no sepa-
step, researchers aim to determine whether those who rate reliability analysis was conducted for the coding of the
spend more time reading the newspaper are more likely to EU evaluation variable.
perceive social reality in ways that reflect the world of the With regard to the crime topic, units were coded accord-
mass medium. Following this research paradigm, Study 1 ing to whether an offender was labeled as an “Austrian” or
attempted to outline the Krone world with regard to specific as a “foreigner” or “no relevant information available.” A
aspects of social reality. Based on these findings, cultiva- total of 1,912 cases were analyzed. For the reliability anal-
tion hypotheses were formulated. Study 2 attempted to test ysis, a second trained coder coded 100 cases. The Cohen’s
these hypotheses. Kappa-value for the coded variable “nationality of the of-
fender” was .91, indicating a highly reliable measurement.
Results
Study 1
With regard to the EU, 48.5% articles were coded as neg-
As previously mentioned, Krone has been criticized by ative. Only 1.5% were coded as positive. Most of the re-
many observers. Two topics in particular were often men- maining articles had no evaluation, and only a few were
tioned: the European Union and crime coverage. Krone is considered ambiguous. Regarding the crime topic, the na-
accused of having news coverage that (a) is very negative tionality of the offender (Austrian or foreigner) was coded
toward the EU and (b) overrepresents foreigners as crimi- in 1,004 cases. For the rest of the articles, no information
nal offenders (Horvath, 2006). To produce empirical evi- pertaining to the nationality of the offender was available.
dence to deduce evidence-based cultivation hypotheses Based on these 1,004 cases, 65.3% of all those suspected
with regard to these two different topics, a content analysis of having committed an offense were labeled as foreigners.
that focused on these two aspects of social reality was con- Offenders from Serbia, 10.8%, and Hungary, 9.4%, were
ducted. the most frequently represented in the foreigner category.
Discussion
Method
First, the results of the content analysis indicate that Krone
Sample and Procedure has a very negative view of the EU. Second, data from the
Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, per-
The Krone news coverage between February and May 2009 sonal communication, January 28, 2009) show that in 2008,
was analyzed. All articles were selected and coded accord- 27.2% of all those suspected of having committed a crime
ing to the two topics. The unit of analysis for the EU topic were foreigners. This leads to the conclusion that there was
was an EU-related article. The unit of analysis for the crime a massive overrepresentation of foreigners in Krone’s
topic was a person who was suspected of having committed crime reporting (reality: 27.2%, Krone: 65.3%). Offenders
an offense. The coding was done by the author. 1,140 arti- from Serbia (reality: 3.26%, Krone: 10.8%) and Hungary
cles were coded as relating to the EU topic and 1,920 per- (reality: 0.91%, Krone: 9.4%) were the most overrepresent-
sons as pertaining to the crime topic. ed.
Frequency of Hungarians
Materials
Participants were asked: “What percentage of all people
The materials consisted of a questionnaire, a 13-page taped suspected of having committed an offense are Hungari-
booklet that contained the paper-format Implicit Associa- ans?” They had the following choices for answering the
tion Test (IAT, Greenwald, McGhee, & Schwartz, 1998; question: “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.” The first number, 1,
Lemm, Lane, Sattler, Khan, & Nosek, 2008) on the first six reflected the reality answer, and the last number, 9, reflect-
pages, and a survey on the following seven pages. The same ed the Krone answer.
questionnaire was used at both times.
Symbolic Racism
Because of space limitations in the questionnaire, each di-
Measures
mension of symbolic racism was assessed with one item,
which could be rated on a seven-point scale from totally
Krone Exposure. Exposure was conceptualized as a latent
agree to totally disagree: (a) “Foreigners work as hard as
variable. Data for four manifest variables were collected:
Austrians,” (b) “Discrimination against foreigners is no
1. Bipolar measure (question: “How often do you read Kro-
longer a problem in Austria,” (c) “Foreigners are demand-
nen Zeitung?”; answer: seven-point bipolar scale from nev-
ing too much from the rest of society” and (d) “Foreigners
er to every day); 2. Days-per-week measure (question:
have received too many rights, but must not attend to a
“How many days a week do you read Kronen Zeitung?”);
comparable amount of duties.” The outcome of two com-
3. Minutes-per-week measure (question: “How many min-
mon factor analyses (one for Time 1 and one for Time 2)
utes a day do you read Kronen Zeitung?”; calculation: min-
was one factor at both times, which explained 57.83% of
utes-per-day multiplied by days-per-week); 4. Last-14-
the variance at Time 1 and 58.90% of the variance at Time
days measure (question: “On how many of the last 14 days
2. Correlation analyses were performed with the factor
did you read Kronen Zeitung?”). The outcome of two com-
scores of these latent variables. The composite reliability
mon factor analyses (one for Time 1 and one for Time 2)
indicated a reliable measurement at both times (Time 1:
was one factor at both Time 1 and Time 2, which explains
.87, Time 2: .86).
most of the variance of the indicator variables (Time 1:
85.77%, Time 2: 81.80%). Correlation analyses were per-
Explicit attitudes
formed with the factor scores of these latent variables. The
composite reliability (i.e., construct reliability; see Dia- The generalized attitude measure from McCroskey and
mantopoulos & Siguaw, 2007, p. 90) indicates a highly re- Richmond (1996) was used. This seven-point bipolar scale
liable measurement at both times (Time 1: .96, Time 2: .96). has six items (good-bad, positive-negative, beneficial-
harmful, fair-unfair, wise-foolish, right-wrong). The out- explicit attitude measure (good-bad, wrong-right, harmful-
come of two common factor analyses (one for Time 1 and beneficial, fair-unfair). Words related to Austria were “Vi-
one for Time 2) was one factor at both times, which ex- enna,” “Falco” (a celebrated Austrian musician), “Ste-
plained 69.25% of the variance at Time 1 and 69.29% of phansdom” (a famous Austrian cathedral), and “Red-
the variance at Time 2. Correlation analyses were per- White-Red” (the colors of the Austrian flag). Words related
formed with the factor scores of these latent variables. The to EU were “monetary union,” “Brussels,” “member
composite reliability indicated a highly reliable measure- states,” and “entry talks.” Arendt’s (2009) study showed
ment at both times (Time 1: .92, Time 2: .94). that the participants were able to categorize the word stim-
uli correctly. The design of the IAT was constructed accord-
Implicit attitudes ing to the procedure described by Greenwald et al. (1998).
Each participant completed the test for the incongruent
One method used to measure implicit attitudes is the IAT condition before the test for the congruent condition. The
(Greenwald et al., 1998). The implicit attitudes variable IAT score was calculated using the following formula: (A –
was measured with a paper-format IAT, which is a validat- B)/(A + B), where A represents the performance in the con-
ed method for measuring implicit attitudes (Lemm et al., gruent condition and B represents performance in the in-
2008). The same paper-format IAT was used by Arendt congruent condition.1 The higher the score, the more com-
(2009). Figure 1 illustrates an example. Participants had to patible are the combinations “EU” with “negative” and
classify words (e.g., good, bad, Vienna, Brussels) into four “Austria” with “positive” (than the combinations “EU”
categories (EU, Austria, positive, negative). Two of those with “positive” and “Austria” with “negative”). Thus, the
categories were concepts (EU, Austria) and two were eval- higher the score, the more negative is the automatic, affec-
uative attributes (positive, negative). There were two im- tive reaction toward the EU.
Free Associations
In a first step, participants were asked to write down up to
five spontaneous associations to the EU. In a second step,
they were asked to evaluate the valence of these associa-
tions on a seven-point scale ranging from very positive to
very negative (participant-as-coder method, see Quick &
Stephenson, 2008). The mean of the evaluations was used
as the free associations measure.
1 This formula was chosen because it was assumed that this algorithm performs better than the algorithm recommended by Lemm et al. (2008).
It must be noted that the two algorithms produce similar values, which correlate almost perfectly (see Arendt, 2009).
and the survey. The experimenter had a stopwatch, which cremental index of fit). Models with RMSEA values of less
was visible to the participants, to measure the time partic- than .05 are indicative of good fit, between .05 and under
ipants had for each condition. For each combined task, par- .08 of reasonable fit, between .08 and .10 of mediocre fit,
ticipants had 20 seconds. First, they took the test, then they and > .10 of poor fit (Diamantopoulos & Siguaw, 2007,
filled out the survey questions in the following order: ex- p. 85). CFI-values above .90 are desired (Holbert & Ste-
plicit attitudes, behavioral intentions, free associations, fre- phenson, 2008). Additionally, a power analysis was per-
quency of foreigners, frequency of Serbs, frequency of formed (MacCallum, Browne, & Sugawara, 1996). Be-
Hungarians, symbolic racism, Krone exposure. At Time 1, cause of the high statistical power of the models, a model
the experimenter told the participants that he would see cannot be considered bad with regard to the model-fit only
them again in two months. At Time 2, the experimenter because of a significant p-value. The probability of a Type
gave a debriefing after the data were collected. The data I error was maintained at .05 for all subsequent analyses.2
collection took approximately 15 minutes each time. Be-
cause Krone was not emphasized at Time 1, it is assumed
that data collection regarding Krone exposure at Time 1 had Results
no systematic influence on the dependent variables two
months later. Hypothesis 1 predicted a positive cross-sectional correla-
tion between the amount of exposure to Krone and first-or-
der measures. As Table 1 shows, this hypothesis was con-
Statistical Analysis firmed. Those who spent more time reading Krone were
more likely to overestimate the real-world incidence of for-
The correlational analyses were performed with SPSS for eigners, particularly Serbs and Hungarians, as people who
Windows (version 15; SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA). To were suspected of having committed crimes. The values of
test the causal influence of Krone exposure, two structural the Pearson-coefficients did not change substantially if
equation models (SEM) were calculated with Amos (ver- third variables (age, gender, nationality, rural/urban) were
sion 7.0; Amos Development Corporation, Spring House, controlled for using the partial correlation technique (not
PA, USA). According to Holbert and Stephenson (2008), shown in the table, all p’s < .01).
three indices are reported: 1. χ²-distributed test statistic ac- Hypothesis 2 assumed a positive cross-sectional corre-
companied by degrees of freedom, the sample size, and the lation between Krone exposure and the second-order mea-
p-value; 2. RMSEA (absolute index of fit); and 3. CFI (in- sure. As Table 2 shows, this hypothesis was confirmed. The
2 Some of the greatest misuses of structural equation modeling occur within the model respecification phase. This process should not be
approached with blind adherence to the data (Holbert & Stephenson, 2008). If there is only a data-driven model modification, the modified
model, while demonstrating an excellent fit in one particular sample, may fail when applied to a different sample. According to Diamanto-
poulos and Siguaw (2007, p. 102), model modifications should be firmly resisted unless a clear interpretation can be offered. Because of
that reason, no model respecification will be made until the a priori specified model is absolutely inadequate.
more someone read Krone, the more negative were that sure on explicit attitudes. This is illustrated in Figure 3 (in-
person’s explicit attitudes. After controlling for the same dicated by the cross-lag between Krone exposure at Time
third variables as above, the coefficients still showed al- 1 and explicit attitudes at Time 2).
most the same values (not shown in the table, all p’s < .01). The third and last part of hypothesis 4 assumed a causal
Hypothesis 3 predicted a positive cross-sectional corre- influence of exposure on implicit attitudes. The data fully
lation between Krone exposure and implicit attitudes. As supported this assumption, as shown in Figure 3 (indicated
can be seen in Table 2, there is a positive correlation be- by the cross-lag between Krone exposure at Time 1 and im-
tween exposure and implicit attitudes. Controlling for the plicit attitudes at Time 2). Surprisingly, Krone exposure
same third variables as above reduced the coefficients, in- showed the strongest causal effect on implicit attitudes. In
dicating that at least a part of the relationship is due to a summary, hypothesis four was only partially confirmed.
third variable. Despite this fact, the coefficients had the Because the results of all of the cultivation hypotheses
right sign and had borderline significance at Time 1, have been reported, I will now present the results of the ex-
r(353) = .07, p < .10, and Time 2, r(280) = .09, p < .10. planatory data analyses for the research questions. Research
This leads to the conclusion that hypothesis 3 was only question one asked if there would be a cross-sectional rela-
partially supported. tionship between Krone exposure and symbolic racism. Table
The first part of hypothesis 4 assumed a causal effect of 1 shows that there was a significant correlation between
Krone exposure on first-order measures. A SEM was calcu- amount of exposure and symbolic racism. The second part of
lated to test this assumption. The model shows a mediocre fit Research Question 1 dealt with the question of whether Kro-
to the data (N = 247; χ² = 613.93; p < .001; power > .96; ne exposure had a causal effect on symbolic racism. This was
RMSEA = .099; 90% CI RMSEA [.090, .108]; CFI = .89). As not supported by the data. Moreover, symbolic racism had a
indicated in Figure 2, Krone only had a borderline significant small but significant effect on Krone exposure. Besides this
causal effect on the frequency estimate with regard to for- finding, the data in Figure 2 show that symbolic racism had
eigners (indicated by the cross-lag between Krone exposure a causal influence on the frequency estimate with regard to
at Time 1 and the foreigner variable at Time 2). The data did foreigners, and that the foreigner variable had a significant
not show a causal influence of Krone exposure on the fre- effect on the Serbs variable and the Hungarians variable.
quency estimate with regard to Serbs and Hungarians. Research Question 2 asked if there would be a cross-sec-
The second part of hypothesis 4 referred to a causal in- tional correlation between Krone exposure and the valence
fluence of exposure on the second-order measure. Because of the free EU associations, and if exposure would have a
the EU topic is not directly related to the crime topic, an- causal effect. As indicated by the data presented in Table
other SEM was calculated to test the second part of the 2, exposure correlated with the valence of the free associ-
fourth hypothesis. The model (N = 234; χ² = 624.68; p < ations. Those who read more Krone were more likely to
.001; power > .96; RMSEA = .075, 90% CI RMSEA [.067, remember negative EU associations. Figure 3 shows that
.083]; CFI = .92) showed a reasonable fit to the data. The there was only a borderline significant causal effect of ex-
data showed a borderline significant causal effect of expo- posure on free associations.
Figure 2. Cross-lagged panel analysis: first-order cultiva- Figure 3. Cross-lagged panel analysis: cultivation effects
tion. The figure shows the standardized coefficients. To on explicit attitudes, implicit attitudes, free associations,
keep the figure simple, we show only latent variables. All and behavioral intentions. The figure shows the standard-
links shown are significant, p < .05, except the dashed ized coefficients. To keep the figure simple, only latent
lines, which are borderline significant, .05 < p < .10. Mea- variables are shown. All links shown are significant, p <
surement model Krone exposure: all λ’s > .79 at Time 1 .05, except the dashed lines, which are borderline signifi-
and Time 2. The bipolar measure was used as the reference cant, .05 < p < .10. Measurement model Krone exposure:
variable. Measurement model Symbolic Racism: all λ’s > all λ’s > .79 at Time 1 and Time 2. The bipolar measure
.38 at Time 1 and Time 2. The comparatively small value was used as the reference variable. Measurement model
is because of only one item (denial of discrimination). All Explicit Attitudes: all λ’s > .53 at Time 1 and all λ’s > .67
other indicators show λ’s > .67. The work ethic measure at Time 2. The negative measure was used as the reference
was used as the reference variable. CR = composite reli- variable. CR = composite reliability; AVE = average vari-
ability; AVE = average variance extracted. ance extracted.
The third and last research question asked if there ingly, the data in Figure 3 show that behavioral intentions
would be a cross-sectional relationship between Krone had a small but significant causal effect on Krone expo-
exposure and behavioral intentions, and if exposure sure. Additionally, as indicated by the SEM in Figure 3,
would have a causal effect on that variable. The coeffi- within the dependent measures, explicit attitudes showed
cients in Table 3 show that those who read more Krone a causal influence on the rest of the EU-related dependent
were more likely to vote in favor of Austria exiting the variables and correlated significantly with implicit atti-
EU. There was no causal influence of exposure. Interest- tudes (also shown in Table 2).
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Quick, B. L., & Stephenson, M. T. (2008). Examining the role Date of acceptance: May 17, 2010
Florian Arendt
Department of Communication
University of Vienna
Lammgasse 8/8
1080 Vienna
Austria
Tel. +43 1 42-774-9342
Fax +43 1 42-774-9366
E-mail florian.arendt@univie.ac.at