From Pictures to Protests: The Social Psychology of Collective Action
Faculty Sponsor
Vikas Gumbhir, Gonzaga University
Research Project Abstract
The research question is: how are news images of suffering and violence understood and processed by undergraduate students, and how are these reactions linked to social activism? The objective is to test reaction towards photos of other people’s pain to see the potential for social activism following initial reaction and then again following context between the two photos. Three experimental focus groups with ten students each were held with the following demographics: domestically raised, white students; non-native, international students; mixture of both. Students viewed three different slides with two photos each, answered general survey questions, and engaged in discussion. Then context was given to photos, and the slide was viewed again, followed by the same survey questions. All data has been obtained and the discussion is being thematically coded, and the survey question answers are being run through SPSS to find meaningful data between the groups.
Session Number
RS14
Location
Robinson 310
Abstract Number
RS14-a
From Pictures to Protests: The Social Psychology of Collective Action
Robinson 310
The research question is: how are news images of suffering and violence understood and processed by undergraduate students, and how are these reactions linked to social activism? The objective is to test reaction towards photos of other people’s pain to see the potential for social activism following initial reaction and then again following context between the two photos. Three experimental focus groups with ten students each were held with the following demographics: domestically raised, white students; non-native, international students; mixture of both. Students viewed three different slides with two photos each, answered general survey questions, and engaged in discussion. Then context was given to photos, and the slide was viewed again, followed by the same survey questions. All data has been obtained and the discussion is being thematically coded, and the survey question answers are being run through SPSS to find meaningful data between the groups.
