1. Negative Affect and Psychological Inflexibility in American Reactions to ISIS Propaganda
Arthur Hatton

2. ISIS Propaganda ISIS propaganda: My research:
Disseminated through “official” and unofficial social media
My research:
How do Americans respond to ISIS propaganda?
Mood
Support for anti-Muslim security policies
More negative feelings toward Muslims
What personality, demographic, psychological variables influence these reactions?

3. Previous Research News and Well-Being Israeli Wartime Study
Oklahoma City bombing increased post-traumatic stress in middle-school students as a function of news exposure (Pfefferbaum, Nixon, Doughty, Pynoos, Gurwitch, & Foy, 2001)
Same pattern in adolescents after 2013 Boston Marathon bombings (Busso, McLaughlin, & Sheridan, )
Israeli Wartime Study
Operation Protective Edge (against Gaza in 2014)
People surveyed about news consumption:
70% reported the news was “stressful” but they felt compelled to watch
Majority called them “burdensome” but “addictive”
Watching newscasts correlated with physiological hyperstimulation (12.8%), a sense of uncontrolled fear or anxiety (18.4%), sleeping difficulties (22.3%), and fearful thoughts (36.6%)

4. Mediators and Moderators
What influences reactions to distressing and violent news?
Anxiety sensitivity (Collimore, McCabe, Carleton, & Asmundson, 2008)
Perceived closeness (Hatton & Nielsen, 2016)
Psychological Inflexibility

5. Psychological Inflexibility
A type of “reactivity” to distressing internal and external events
Derived from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Relational Frame Theory
In short, it is the tendency to pull away from valued life directions in order to avoid or escape distress
Tied to depression, anxiety, stress, somatic symptoms (Bond et al., 2011)
Also tied to prejudice (Levin, Luoma, Vilardaga, Lillis, Nobles, & Hayes, 2015)

6. Working Model

7. Pilot Study (Fall 2015)
Showed four CNN news videos to 145 undergraduate students
Flames of War, 2014
Libyan beheadings (21 abducted Egyptian Christians), 2015
Destruction of Palmyra, 2015
James Holmes testimony, 2015
Measured emotions before and after
Measured support for various security policies
Including random searches of Muslims, Middle Easterners
Measured feelings toward various religious groups, including Muslims

8. Results
Feelings toward Muslims
Support for anti-Muslim Policies

9. Main Study (Summer 2016) Participants: Showed three videos:
465 undergraduate students
435 online survey workers
Showed three videos:
Mass beheading
James Holmes
Teacher “Nobel Prize” (control)
Opt-Out
Measured psychological inflexibility using AAQ-II (Bond et al., 2011)
Measured emotions before and after
Measured feelings toward Muslims and other religions, groups, politicians, institutions
Support for security policies, including banning Syrian refugees from settling in state

10. Results Did the ISIS video increase negative affect?
YES (both samples)
Did the ISIS video increase support for prejudicial policies?
NO (both samples)
Did psychological inflexibility moderate this role?

11. Results
Table 5
Hierarchical Regression Analysis of Support for Prejudicial Policies in Mass Beheading Video Group
Online Sample
Student Sample
Step 1
Step 2
Variables B
95% CI
Predictors
Baseline NA
-.02
[-.06, .03]
[-.07, .03]
[-.05, .02]
-.01
[-.04, .03]
Post NA
.05
[.03, .08]
[.02, .09]
.03
[.00, .05]
[-.00, .06]
Inflex.
-.00
[-.03, .02]
[-.02, .02]
.01
[-.02, .03]
Interactions
NA x Inflex.
[-.00, .00]
[-.003, .001] R2
.16
.07
.09
Change in R2
.00
Note: Betas are unstandardized. Predictors in bold are significant (p<.05). Effects were rounded to the nearest hundredth and (-) indicates direction.

12. Role of Emotions (Follow-up study, Fall 2016)
Factor Analysis
Emotions clustered into 4-5 main factors:
Positive emotions (Proud, excited, enthusiastic
Anxiety/Fear (jittery, anxious, scared, afraid)
Upset (guilty, ashamed, upset)
Physiological arousal (alert, active)
Interest/Attention
What emotions are tied to prejudice against Muslims after watching ISIS videos (compared to other videos)?
Anxiety/Fear

13. Conclusion
In Fall 2015, videos significantly caused lower feelings about Muslims
By 2016, this effect seemed to disappear
Prejudiced reactions to news about ISIS propaganda related to emotions
Correlation? Causation?
Fear and prejudice are related in the presence of ISIS propaganda stimulus