Linguistically Expressed Intergroup Biases and Attributions in Chinese Newspaper Editorials

Abstract

The Linguistic Category Model developed by Semin and Fiedler (1988) has provided a useful dependent measure in studying intergroup bias. It has stimulated not less than ten studies using the model to study intergroup bias, and it has been found that such bias can be expressed linguistically. Maass and her colleagues called this phenomenon Linguistic Intergroup Bias. These studies have a common shortcoming in that they used the initial model containing a category of state verb which has opposite inferential properties from the other categories in the model. The present study modified the method by replacing the category of state verb with a new one called state action verb. Using Chinese newspaper editorials on Governor Patten's political reform proposal in Hong Kong, the present study has successfully demonstrated the phenomenon of Linguistic Intergroup Bias in a natural setting. Relating to this, this thesis suggests a motivational account for the said bias, although it was not directly tested. The present study also suggests that other linguistic means could also be used to express intergroup bias. From the analyses, it was found that editorial writers used quantifiers to generalize the ingroup and particularize the outgroup. They also used qualifiers to intensify the positive actions of the ingroup and negative actions of the outgroup. The present study argued that qualifiers could be a way to replace or to supplement the Linguistic Category Model. Concrete terms can be prefixed with high intensity, or high frequency, qualifiers to enable dispositional attributions. Conversely, abstract terms can be prefixed with low intensity, or low frequency, qualifiers to create situational attributions. Finally, it was suggested that using negations to valenced terms could be a way to show flexibility in a thawing of intergroup relations.