Biases in News Media as Reflected by Personal Pronouns in Evaluative Contexts
Gustafsson, Marie ; Sikström, Sverker LU
and Lindgren, Torun
(2014)
In Social Psychology
45(2).
p.103-111
- Abstract
- In this paper, we study whether pronouns in news media are used in evaluative contexts reflecting psychological biases. The evaluative contexts of pronouns are measured by computerized sentiment analysis, enabling analyses of large text corpora and subtle evaluative differences in how words are used in contexts. The results show that self-inclusive personal pronouns (We, I) occur in more positive contexts than self-exclusive personal pronouns (He/She,They), reflecting self- and group-serving biases. The context of collective pronouns is more differentiated than that of individual pronouns, such that We occur in the most positive context whereas They occur in the most negative context, possibly reflecting a motivation caused by competition... (More)
- In this paper, we study whether pronouns in news media are used in evaluative contexts reflecting psychological biases. The evaluative contexts of pronouns are measured by computerized sentiment analysis, enabling analyses of large text corpora and subtle evaluative differences in how words are used in contexts. The results show that self-inclusive personal pronouns (We, I) occur in more positive contexts than self-exclusive personal pronouns (He/She,They), reflecting self- and group-serving biases. The context of collective pronouns is more differentiated than that of individual pronouns, such that We occur in the most positive context whereas They occur in the most negative context, possibly reflecting a motivation caused by competition between groups. The implications of using pronouns in studies of social processes are discussed. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4057470
- author
- Gustafsson, Marie
; Sikström, Sverker
LU
and Lindgren, Torun
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- pronouns in social categorization, language bias, intergroup bias, self-serving bias, latent semantic analysis, implicit attitudes
- in
- Social Psychology
- volume
- 45
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 103 - 111
- publisher
- Hogrefe & Huber Publishers
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000333428500005
- scopus:84899050781
- ISSN
- 2151-2590
- DOI
- 10.1027/1864-9335/a000165
- project
- Semantic Spaces
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 05447738-d5ab-47fc-8cd1-4ab6e8296f98 (old id 4057470)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 09:50:36
- date last changed
- 2022-04-27 08:07:28
@article{05447738-d5ab-47fc-8cd1-4ab6e8296f98,
abstract = {{In this paper, we study whether pronouns in news media are used in evaluative contexts reflecting psychological biases. The evaluative contexts of pronouns are measured by computerized sentiment analysis, enabling analyses of large text corpora and subtle evaluative differences in how words are used in contexts. The results show that self-inclusive personal pronouns (We, I) occur in more positive contexts than self-exclusive personal pronouns (He/She,They), reflecting self- and group-serving biases. The context of collective pronouns is more differentiated than that of individual pronouns, such that We occur in the most positive context whereas They occur in the most negative context, possibly reflecting a motivation caused by competition between groups. The implications of using pronouns in studies of social processes are discussed.}},
author = {{Gustafsson, Marie and Sikström, Sverker and Lindgren, Torun}},
issn = {{2151-2590}},
keywords = {{pronouns in social categorization; language bias; intergroup bias; self-serving bias; latent semantic analysis; implicit attitudes}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{103--111}},
publisher = {{Hogrefe & Huber Publishers}},
series = {{Social Psychology}},
title = {{Biases in News Media as Reflected by Personal Pronouns in Evaluative Contexts}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000165}},
doi = {{10.1027/1864-9335/a000165}},
volume = {{45}},
year = {{2014}},
}