Arabs as Terrorists: Effects of Media Stereotypes on Attitudes, Affect, and Perceptions

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Psychologist Muniba Saleem will offer a webinar on "Arabs as Terrorists: Effects of Media Stereotypes on Attitudes, Affect, and Perceptions, at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30. The webinar is free and open to the public. To attend and receive the login and password information, RSVP to Sarah Fishering.

Saleem will address her work in testing the effects of stereotypical video game portrayals of Arabs with and without a violent context on attitudes and perceptions of Arabs. In two experiments, her team found that the portrayal of Arabs as terrorist in video games leads to greater negative implicit bias, explicit affect, and perceptions of Arabs as aggressive. The team also found that the Arab-terrorism association is so robust that even terrorism games that do not include direct Arab references lead to greater negative implicit and explicit attitudes towards Arabs.

Saleem is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Michigan-Dearborn and is a faculty affiliate at the Institute of Social Research at University of Michigan.

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