Effects of Framing Counter-Stereotypes as Surprising on Rethinking Prior Opinions About Outgroups: The Moderating Role of Political Ideology

In this paper we address the unmet potential of counter-stereotypes (CS) by explicitly expressing feelings of surprise in media frames, to acknowledge the possible surprising effect attached to an encounter with a CS. Using a two-study survey-experiment (N_{study 1} = 475, N_{study 2} = 565) in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, we demonstrate the moderating role of political ideology in the effect of exposure to surprise framing of CS on attitudes toward an outgroup. The results indicate that when the feeling of surprise is explicitly expressed in media articles (compared to control), right-leaning individuals expressed more liking toward Arabs, were less inclined to social distance from Arabs, and perceived Arabs as less homogeneous. Left-leaning participants, however, remained unaffected by this explicit expression. The cause of this difference between political-ideological groups is further discussed, along with implications of such findings for research on prejudice, stereotypes, and media effects, and practices of changing dynamics between groups in conflict.