طبقه بندی اجتماعی و اکتشاف میان فرهنگی اثر سوم شخص: تاثیر ادراک آزمایش هسته ای کره شمالی را بر خود و مقایسه اهداف

This experimental study explored the perceived media impact of North Korea's nuclear test on South Koreans and Americans to investigate whether a social categorization moderator affects a tendency to think that others will be more affected by the media. The results showed that the third-person perception was not found among South Koreans when in-group and out-group members were compared. We discussed how cultural factors might play a role in the third-person perception between two cultures: collectivistic culture (South Korea) and individualistic culture (America).

Based on the social categorization for the third-person effect, this study attempts to explore the perceived media impact of North Korea's nuclear test on both Americans and South Koreans and to investigate whether the comparison targets in two different countries affect the tendency to think that others will be more affected by the media. The third-person effect hypothesis utilized here predicts that people believe that others will be more affected by mass media than themselves (Davison, 1983). North Korea recently conducted its third nuclear test since 2006, presenting a threat to the Korean peninsula's safety and drawing an outrage from the United States and the international community. Through this study, it is expected that the coverage about North Korea will have a third-person impact on the perceptions of Americans and South Koreans such that each subject will believe that others will be more influenced than themselves by news coverage of North Korea's threats of a nuclear test. The aim of this study is to incorporate social categorization explanations and cross-cultural aspects into previous third-person effect research. By using the news coverage of North Korea's threats of a nuclear test, this study investigates the effects of social categorization using in-group versus out-group comparisons, and examines the size of the third-person effect between South Koreans and Americans in terms of cross-cultural characteristics. Several studies have found that estimates of media impacts on others increased when the comparison groups are more geographically distant (Cohen et al., 1988, Duck et al., 1988 and McLeod et al., 1997). However, little attention has been paid to exploring the third-person effect based on social categorization using one country as an in-group member and another country as an out-group member. Therefore, this study is designed to fill in the gaps of the third-person effect studies by comparing the perceived impact of two distant groups in two different countries based on the social categorization moderator and cross-cultural factors. By conducting an experiment, this study explores whether the third-person effect will be greater when a comparison target is socially categorized as out-group members compared to in-group members. From a cross-cultural perspective, this study also examines whether Americans in an individualistic culture have a greater third-person effect than South Koreans in collectivistic culture.