Objective: Although negative news portrayals can influence attitudes and beliefs about immigrants, little is known about how different types of threat narratives influence Americans’ emotions and perceptions of Latino immigrants specifically. This study examines cognitive and emotional responses to Latino threat narratives in the news media. Method: We conducted an online experiment using a posttest-only randomized design to assess participants’ perceptions of Latino immigrants and their emotional responses to threat narratives in news media. Participants (N = 208) were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. In one experimental group, participants (n = 68) read a news story about Latino immigrants as economic threats; in the other, participants (n = 70) read a news article about Latino immigrants as cultural threats. In the control group, participants (n = 70) read an article that did not implicate Latinos as threats. We used ANCOVA to test mean differences in responses to threat narratives across the experimental and control groups. Results: Participants who read the story about a Latino economic threat reported more intense negative emotions and significantly higher levels of perceived realistic threats from Latino immigrants than participants in the control group. Participants who read the article discussing a Latino cultural threat reported more intense positive emotions and significantly higher levels of perceived symbolic threats from Latino immigrants than the control group. Conclusions: Findings suggest that different types of Latino threat narratives have distinct influences on individuals’ emotions and threat perceptions of Latino immigrants. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

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新闻媒体中拉丁裔威胁叙事的认知和情感结局：探索性研究

目的：尽管负面新闻描述可能会影响对移民的态度和信念，但对于不同类型的威胁性叙事如何特别影响美国人对拉美裔移民的情绪和看法知之甚少。这项研究考察了新闻媒体对拉丁裔威胁叙事的认知和情感反应。方法：我们进行了一项在线实验，该实验使用仅用于后期测试的随机设计来评估参与者对拉丁裔移民的看法以及他们对新闻媒体中威胁性叙述的情感反应。参与者（N = 208）被随机分配到实验组和对照组。在一个实验小组中，参与者（n = 68）阅读了一篇有关拉美裔移民作为经济威胁的新闻报道；在另一组中，参与者（n = 70）阅读了一篇有关拉丁裔移民作为文化威胁的新闻文章。在对照组中，参与者（n = 70）阅读了一篇文章，该文章并未将拉丁裔美国人视为威胁。我们使用ANCOVA来测试实验组和对照组对威胁叙述的反应的均值差异。结果：阅读了有关拉美裔经济威胁的故事的参与者报告说，与对照组相比，拉丁裔移民更加强烈地产生了负面情绪，并且感知到的现实威胁程度明显更高。阅读有关讨论拉丁美洲文化威胁的文章的参与者报告说，与对照组相比，来自拉丁美洲移民的积极情绪更高，感知到的象征性威胁的水平也明显更高。结论：研究结果表明，不同类型的拉美裔威胁叙事对个体对拉美裔移民的情绪和威胁感知有不同的影响。