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Chapter 5: Discussion and Conclusion
Discussion
The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of
homosexuality-related frames on heterosexual Japanese individuals’ attitudes towards gay and lesbian people and legalization of same-sex marriage. Additionally, this study further examined the moderating role of NFC and religiosity on the framing effects.
Although this study was able to confirm the significant effects of framed messages on participants’ attitudes toward legalization of same-sex marriage and civil unions, it failed to demonstrate a moderating role of individuals’ NFC and religiosity.
Hypothesis 1 was partially confirmed. Message framing on
homosexuality-related issue has a significant impact on participants’ attitudes toward legalization of same-sex marriage and civil unions, but not to the notions of
homosexuality itself. This result agrees with the findings of some previous framing research. For example, the results of the study by Levina et al. (2000) illustrate that the group exposed to an anti-gay video reported more negative attitudes than those exposed to a pro-gay video, demonstrating the significant correlation between the media frames and attitudes. Similarly, Zhang and Min (2012) investigated the framing effects of gay-themed entertainment media in China. They discovered that exposure to video clips from TV dramas reflecting core values had considerable influence on the participants’ opinions, by changing their perception of the importance of
value-related beliefs.
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As suggested by previous studies, this study also provided empirical evidence that core values reflected in a media frame can influence the audiences’ beliefs and opinions toward sexual minorities. Perhaps an underlying reason why we could not provide evidence of framing effects on attitudes toward homosexuality was because the manipulation material in this study was more focused on same-sex marriage instead of homosexuality itself.
On the other hand, the hypothesized interaction between NFC and issue frame (H2) was not observed in this study. This result is inconsistent with the findings by Zhang and Buda (1999) and Steward et al. (2003). This result may be due to the participants’ lack of strong prior attitudes or beliefs to resist framed messages. In this study, it is hypothesized that those who have a high level of NFC tend to exert cognitive effort to comprehend and evaluate the framed message, therefore, are more likely to think about options and neutralize the presented frame (Simon et al., 2004).
However, as discussed in the literature review, the invisibility of homosexuality in Japanese society may make citizens indifferent to this issue. Despite certain
individuals having higher levels of NFC, the lack of strong prior attitudes or beliefs toward sexual minorities to be an alternative option for the value emphasized by the frame may make them equally susceptible to framing effects as those with low NFC.
Moreover, in most of the previous research which confirmed the moderating role of increased cognitive effort on framing effects, participants were stimulated to devote more thoughts to the presented issues by being asked to justify their choices.
However, this study just measured participants’ level of NFC. Therefore, it is likely that even though certain individuals have higher levels of NFC, they do not exert their
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cognitive power without being primed. This also may have been one of the underlying reasons why the results of this study did not agree with those of previous research.
In addition, Hypothesis 3, which tested a moderating role of religiosity on framing effects, was not supported as well. The results revealed no moderating effect of religiosity, showing that there was no difference in scores on attitudes between high-religiosity participants and low-religiosity participants both in pro-gay equality and anti-gay morality framing conditions. From this result, it is likely that in this study, participants’ religiosity as pre-existing values may not have been
strong enough to reject an incoming message that is inconsistent with their prior belief.
As Zaller (1992) argues that individuals with weak values may accept issue frames more often than those with strong values and, in turn, more often change their attitudes toward the relevant issues, the religiosity of participants in this study may have been too weak to reject framed messages, even though they were categorized into a high-religiosity group (M = 2.82). Indeed, among 87 participants categorized into a high religiosity group, only 21 answered that religion is either “very important”
or “somewhat important,” and almost half of the group (n = 41) said that religion is
“not very important” in their daily life. This data may have been due to non-religiosity of Japanese citizens. According to “Global Index of Religion and Atheism (2012)” by WIN/Gallop International, Japan boasts the world’s second-largest population of those who considered themselves as “convinced atheists”, coming in at 31%.
Meanwhile, over half (62%) of Japanese describe themselves as “not religious” or
“atheist.”
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The result of this study is inconsistent with findings in previous studies that suggest a positive correlation between greater religiosity and higher levels
of homophobia or intolerance (e.g., Beatty & Walter, 1984; Cochran & Beeghley, 1991; Fisher, Derison, Polley, Cadman, & Johnston, 1994; Heek & Glunt, 1993); and such strong prior values work as a moderator of framing effects (e.g., Bargh et al., 1986; Higgins, 1996; Slothuus, 2008; Wyer, 2003). Except a relatively low level of religiosity of the participants in this study, the reason behind this contradicting result can be explained by the difference of samples used in this study from the previous research. With so few Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists in the United States and Europe, research on tolerance of homosexuality among non-Judeo-Christian groups has been minimal. Most previous literature focuses on the relationship between Christianity and homosexual intolerance in the Western environment, and virtually no experiment has been conducted to assess the correlation between intolerance of
homosexuality and religiosity of Buddhists or Christians in Asian countries. Thus, due to a lack of relevant literature, influences that religions have on citizens’ traditional sexual morality in Asian countries, especially in Japan, and the differences in strength of pre-existing religious beliefs between the Western environment and Asian
environment are still unclear. As a result, findings of this study did not meet the expectation expected based on previous literature.
Additionally, although most of the hypotheses were not supported in the analysis, other interesting finding emerged from this study: men have more negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians than women. In the previous literature, gender has consistently been found to be associated with negative attitudes toward
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homosexuality, with men reporting more unfavorable attitudes (e.g. Kite, 1984;
McDevitt, Sheehan, Lennon, & Ambrosio, 1990; Herek, 1991, 1994). Several researchers have tried to address the underlying mechanisms responsible for this relation. For example, the findings by Kerns and Fine (1994) suggest that a difference between heterosexual males and females in their adherence to traditional gender role attitudes may be a mechanism that is partly responsible for the gender difference in negative attitudes toward gay men. On the other hand, the study by Ratcliff, Lassiter, Markman, and Snyder (2006) demonstrated that internal motivation to respond without prejudice is one of the mediators of the relation between gender and attitudes toward homosexuality. Despite these possible explanations, major underlying reasons for this effect still have not been explored enough.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
There are several limitations in this study that could be addressed during future research. Perhaps the most important limitation to mention is the use of an online survey. It is true that there are a number of advantages to implementing surveys in a Web-based format; however, there are limitations associated with this method as well.
The major concerns are associated with sampling (Nardi, 2003). Even though traditional survey methods share similar issues with sampling frames, Web-based surveys are confronted with limited access to certain demographic groups, which leads to sample frame bias (Eastin & LaRose, 2000; Tourangeau, 2004; Skitka &
Sargis, 2006). While Internet access continues to grow, certain populations are still being excluded from technological advancements including older people, people with
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lower incomes, the unemployed and those living outside metropolitan areas. Such non-random exclusion of individuals (those without the Internet access) often results in skewed or limited sampling (Birnbaum, 2004).
In particular, narrow age distribution of this study may have led to skewed findings. More than four-fifth of the samples (87.3%) fell in the age group of 19 to 34 and the mean age of 29.6 years was relatively young. However, in many countries, views of homosexuality vary across age groups, with younger respondents
consistently more likely than older ones to say homosexuality should be accepted by society. According to Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project (2013), the age differences in Japan are particularly evident: 83% of those younger than 30 say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with 71% of 30-49 year-olds and just 39% of those 50 and older. This may have led to somewhat positive or neutral homosexuality-related attitudes in this study. Thus, the results of the experiment performed with participants of relatively younger age are not generalizable to older populations in Japan. Future studies should attempt to address this weakness by using a more diverse sample, particularly in terms of age.
Another limitation of this study is a lack of control group for comparison in this study. If the experiment had a control group, it would have been able to provide more clear evidence that message framing on homosexuality-related issue has an impact on participants’ relevant attitudes because control group could serve as a benchmark for measuring impacts. It especially would have allowed the researcher to compare the strength of impacts of pro-gay and anti-gay frames, and to specify whether the
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significant differences between experimental groups are attributed to pro-gay frame manipulation or anti-gay frame manipulation.
In addition, future studies may look into finding some other potential
moderators of framing effects in the context of homosexuality. For example, one of the most influential factors that may attenuate the effectiveness of framed message related to homosexual issues may be a pre-existing attitude towards homosexual people. Another factor may be a personal or close contact with a homosexual individual, which may possibly affect pre-existing attitudes. Specifying this kind of potential moderators may provide better understanding of the relation between message framing and issue-relevant attitudes. It may additionally shed light on the development of strategies against harmful media effect which reinforce negative stereotypes of sexual minorities.
Conclusion
This thesis conducted an online experiment utilizing framing manipulation and a survey questionnaire with 150 Japanese heterosexual participants to determine the effects of message framing on homosexuality-related issues on Japanese audiences’
attitudes toward homosexual people and legalization of same-sex marriage and civil unions. Furthermore, this study also investigates the moderating role of individuals’
NFC and religiosity on the framing effects.
The major finding of this thesis is that core values reflected in a media frame can influence the audiences’ attitudes toward sexual minorities and related issues.
This finding attests to the notion that media frames play a crucial role in connecting
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an issue to particular values, strengthening this link in the mind of the audience.
Based on these findings, an important implication for LGBT activists in Japan is to devote more attention and resources to media activism, as exposure to positive media message on sexual minorities is strongly correlated with more tolerant attitudes toward them.
This thesis not only added empirical evidence of the impact of message framing on attitudes to framing literature, but also contributes to the limited amount of
literature regarding main effects of news media framing on individuals’ attitudes toward sexual minorities. The findings of this study attest to the framing effects of not only visual media (e.g. dramas or movies) but also news media, particularly print media or the Internet (e.g. online newspaper, news blogs) on individuals’ attitudes toward homosexuality.
Finally, although this thesis could not identify specific factors that reduce the effects of framed messages, it was able to shed light on the current situation that homosexual individuals are facing in Japanese society. It also highlighted some important potential moderators of framing effects and provided important theories to support the arguments, which also suggested possible directions for further research.
Based on these discussions, it became more evident that more research on this topic is required in order to develop strategies of how audiences should communicate with biased media or elite messages. This endeavor will not only allow media audiences to protect themselves from harmful media effects, but also protect sexual minorities or people in other minority groups from unnecessary discrimination.
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