ABSTRACT
The model of intuitive morality and exemplars (MIME) offers a framework for extending traditional approaches to media effects research to increase understanding of the manner in which terrorist attack news can impact social perceptions and outgroup prejudice. The MIME draws moral intuitions from moral foundations theory, which describes these instincts as communally beneficial “bits of mental structure” that cause instinctive, gut reactions of right/wrong in response to specific actions or behaviors. The MIME proposes that in the long term, repeated exposure to morally relevant media content can make the respective intuitions chronically salient and, through this mechanism, affect enduring behavior. The outcomes are in line with the MIME’s predictions that media content does not just increase the salience of specific issues in the minds of audiences but increases the salience of moral intuitions that, in turn, can influence a broad range and thoughts and behaviors.
