By John Clarvis, Data and Insights Director as originally featured in The Media Leader
In the first part of this series, I described the foundation of social identity and how it supports positive self-esteem, with perceived threats to the group potentially activating dangerous reactions in members of a group with high in-group affinity.
In particular, the three triggers that comprise Identity Threatening Media are:
>> Group conflict and the threat of group conflict
>> A threat to the distinctiveness of a group identity
>> Activation of the Limbic System and subsequent Cognitive Austerity
These rarely occur in isolation and in fact exist in a complex state of interconnectivity.
If a group is threatened, its members will become scared and angry, encouraging cognitive austerity and making recourse to conflict the only available solution.
Faces and fear
At its very essence, media is either an image or a word.
Both of which sound innocuous but, as the primary essence of our cognitive systems, are tremendously powerful. Indeed, images that we are not conscious of seeing can activate our fear response.
In a study using MRI scans masked images, images of snakes and spiders that appeared in one frame of a 60 frames-per-second picture of a landscape activated the amygdala, the structure in the brain directly connected to the hormonal system via the pituitary gland. This, in turn, releases adrenaline and cortisol in anticipation of fighting, fleeing or freezing.
As well as affecting the brain, further studies have shown increases in heart rate, Galvanic Skin Response and blood pressure — all strong indicators of a fear response.
Another academic study demonstrated that individuals who scored highly on indirect prejudice indexes exhibited the same fear response when shown masked images of ethnic minorities. Other studies have shown that fear can be provoked by angry and ambiguous faces. The choice of imagery in news and media similarly provokes emotional responses.
A prime example of this is the over-indexing of ethnic minority mugshots being included in crime reports.
The impact of words on memory can not only impact emotions, but even reshape memory.
One study led by Elizabeth Loftus from the 1970s presented participants with a video of a car crash. After a short period of time, participants were asked to recall the video under certain conditions and to estimate the speed of the cars at the time of the crash and to recall any details, such as if there was broken glass at the scene. When asked at what speed the cars “collided” participants reported around 30kph and more or less accurately described the video, forgetting details but not embellishing the story.
When the word “collided” was replaced with “smashed” participants doubled their speed estimate and included false details such as broken glass at the scene.
While demonstrating the inherent danger of eyewitness testimony in court cases, Loftus et al can be extrapolated to cover the recording of news and events. In more recent times the word “refugee” being replaced by “migrant” suggests an element of choice.
The use of words such as “invasions” and “hoards” similarly evokes stronger emotional responses than objective factual descriptions of people moving.
The lessons for advertisers
As advertisers, it is well established that emotions drive effectiveness.
Emotions drive individuals to action. In the case of advertising, we hope that this drives potential customers to buy a product. In the case of media, emotions are fundamental in driving engagement with content.
A talented journalist can evoke emotions in readers and viewers to drive change. When it comes to taking action, anger is by far the most powerful emotion. Much like fear, it is an intensely physical emotion that activates muscles, elevates heart rate and essentially gets us ready to fight. In a genuinely physically dangerous situation this provides immense value. People involved in catastrophic accidents or violent incidents are capable of greater physical feats and endurance while experiencing less pain and exhaustion.
It is an emotion geared towards physical action.
Lessons for media planners
Media designed to enrage is effective at driving engagement and clicks.
This is because the strong physical need to act is instead rerouted to a small physical act: clicking a link or commenting. But neither of these acts meet the physical action needed to dissipate anger.
Therefore the enraged reader clicks more in desperate need of physical action while ironically sustaining and increasing their anger. These metrics are the index to which media is valued and traded on.
These metrics are efficient for scalable media planning. Articles that are popular and have many comments look very attractive when viewed solely as metrics and audience reach. Similarly to the loop entered by readers, the media industry has entered its own feedback loop. Content intended to enrage readers with social identity threats gets clicks and therefore profit. This implicit sponsorship encourages more content to be written, creating a race to create ever more provocative content.
While media buying prioritises value on clicks and engagement, there is little incentive to change.
In Part Three I will explore psychological and commercial methods of creating a profitable media industry that does not propagate the conditions for hate crimes.