Character judgements of rap music fans

Extending Fischoff, we used vignettes to examine people’s perceptions of a hypothetical rap fan accused of murder. Study 1 ( N = 300) used a 2 (murder accusation) × 2 (inclusion of rap lyrics) × 2 (fan gender) experiment, asking participants to judge how capable of murder and sexually aggressive they found the fan. The presentation of lyrics and murder accusation were associated with the fan being more capable of murder, while rap lyrics and participants’ rap attitudes were associated with the fan being more sexually aggressive. Thematic analysis revealed that, in conditions containing both the lyrics and the murder accusation, participants reported greater consideration of the rap lyrics than the murder accusation when rating the fan. Then, Study 2 ( N = 504) used a 3 (criminal accusation) × 5 (genre label) experiment to separate the influence of the lyrics from the genre label and further interrogate criminal stereotypes. Holding more positive rap attitudes was associated with the fan being less capable of murder and less sexually aggressive. Importantly, a content analysis revealed that 86% of participants ascribed the lyrics as rap, even with a different label. These findings demonstrate the pervasiveness and salience of rap-related stereotypes on character judgements.