Shanghai College Students' Perceptions Of American College Students: The Role Of Media, Stereotype And Perception In Intergroup Relations

Social perception and stereotyping have been important issues in social and cross-cultural psychology for most of the 20th century. After briefly reviewing its history, the current research paper discusses social perception and stereotyping from the cross-cultural perspective. The section on social stereotypes discusses how Shanghai college students perceive American college students and themselves, and analyzes the validity of in-group bias and outgroup homogeneity effects based on a questionnaire survey of 148 Chinese college students from three major universities in Shanghai. The results from the research provide evidence to refute both the in-group bias hypothesis and the out-group homogeneity hypothesis.Furthermore, the thesis identifies and analyzes the media sources which influence and shape the way Shanghai college students perceive American college students from an intercultural perspective based on the theories of media stereotyping and media representation. The results indicate that media are the most important channels through which respondents obtain information concerning American college students. And while the Internet is considered the most popular media source, English movies & TV series are considered the most influential and credible media source. Compared with Chinese-language media and English-language media of China, media of the US are considered the most influential media among the respondents.Finally, the thesis concludes with a summary of study findings and suggestions for further study.