An expansive body of research across disciplines shows that negative media messages prime audiences to link Blacks with violent crime. Although several studies show media coverage leads audiences to falsely conflate crime with Blackness, far less research has been done on finding ways to counteract this effect. This experiment used a 2 (race) x 3 (level of counter-stereotype) factorial design to determine which types of counter-stereotype news stories, if any, are most effective in offsetting negative perceptions of African-American and Caucasian suspects in crime stories placed in the same grouping.

Three hypotheses were tested: First: White suspects in crime stories would be perceived more favorably than Black suspects; Second: subject-related counter-stereotype stories would be most effective in changing the perceptions of criminals, followed by non-subject-related counter-stereotype stories, then no counter-stereotype stories; and third, White suspects would be perceived more favorably than Black suspects in all counter-stereotype conditions. This analysis found that non-subject-related counter-stereotype stories were most effective in reducing participants' personal concerns about crime, but not their opinions about the causes of crime. Non-subject related counter-stereotype stories might have proven more effective than other counter-stereotype stories because they counter news about crime without priming the idea of criminality a twice, as did the subject-related counter-stereotype stories. This finding may also reflect participants' ability to alter their personal concerns about crime. However, the causes of crime are more endemic to criminals, issues over which participants had no control. Thus, no level of counter-stereotype might have changed their perception.

This analysis did not find race alone, nor the interaction of race and counter-stereotype condition, had an effect on study participants' perception of criminals or crime.