Racial bias and societal outcomes: Can minority media representation help?

The role of the mass media in shaping racial biases is frequently considered in public discourse and a growing academic literature is exploring the impact of the media on racial attitudes, in-group bias and prejudice, and its role in increasing racial and ethnic tensions. However, few papers have explored the mass media’s potential to reduce prejudice. Economists Claire Duquennois and Jiangnan Zeng will explore whether positive minority representation in the media reduces implicit racial biases in White Americans and impacts neighborhood choice, social relationships, and hate crimes and speech. They will analyze data on NBA player demographics and the NBA draft, data from Project Implicit, data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics, data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting data, and data on racial slur usage on X (formerly Twitter) for their study.