Effect of the content of a news item on Spaniards’ attitudes towards Palestinians and Israelis / Efecto del contenido de una noticia sobre la actitud de los españoles hacia palestinos e israelíes

Abstract Based on the effects of framing on audience opinion, the attitudes towards Palestinians and Israelis are evaluated when a news item reports on a violent event between the two sides. To do so, a short inter-group experiment was conducted. A 3 (manipulation of the news item) x 2 (group evaluated) design was applied. Three news formats were presented: (1) about a Palestinian attack on Israel; (2) about an Israeli attack on Palestine; (3) no news item. Half of the participants evaluated the Israelis while the other half evaluated the Palestinians. The results of the study, which was performed with a Spanish sample (N = 319), showed that there were no differences in the evaluation of the group according to the group evaluated, although there were differences according to the manipulation of the news item: in both conditions in which one group attacked another, the group evaluated was rated more negatively than the control group. The results also showed that both emotions and stereotypes mediated the effects of framing on prejudice. These results suggest that the participants’ attitude seems to depend more on the violent framing of the news items than on the role assigned to each group and that emotional processes and stereotypes are what regulate these attitudes.