Hostile Media Perception on Twitter: The Effect of Mediated Social Identity Cues on Biased Perception

Abstract

Partisans tend to view the news as biased against them, an effect believed to be driven in part by social identity. As Twitter comments contain cues that signal group identity, this preregistered study examines the effects of comment identity on hostile media perception (HMP). Across two experiments comment identity was manipulated. Results were mixed. Outgroup comments amplified HMP, moderated by audience position; yet this finding was not replicated. Second, audience position accounted for differences in HMP, which runs counter to the original conceptualization. Results are discussed concerning self-categorization and biased perception of news media.