Author(s): Makenzie Vance, Jaiden Sherratt, Madison M. Ward, Arturo Velasco
Mentor(s): Kevan Lafrance
Institution SUU
Global identity is the idea that humanity belongs to a worldwide community that transcends national, cultural, and social boundaries; it emphasizes the shared values, experiences, and challenges that contribute to a collective human experience. The rapid increase of communication technology has made continuous media accessible all across the globe. Media greatly influences people's perception of the state of the world, including people's perception of their global identity, which is their perceived connection with all humanity (Karlberg, 2008; Bikmen, 2023). People with a strong global identity are more likely to be concerned about human rights and hold egalitarian views (McFarland et al., 2012). Strong global identity is necessary for global cooperation, both internationally and for global issues such as climate change (Loy et al., 2022). This study sought to find how positive and negative media influences global identity. For this small scale study, the media was limited to a minute long video of hopeful media (a message from UNOS regarding peace, sustainability, service, and cooperation), a minute long video of neutral stimuli (an abstract video of a computer generated ball bouncing on lines), and a minute long video of negative media (information on the harmful effects of global warming and how it has impacted humans and the environment). Participants took a modified Identification with All Humanity (IWAH) scale before and after being exposed to media with positive, neutral, or negative messages to measure a change. Lastly, they answered an open-ended question regarding their feelings about the images. Based on a prior study, we expect that both exposure groups will increase their connection with humanity, though success will have a larger increase. A large number of participants from the prior study who answered the open-ended question spoke of the people they saw in the images, as well as unity (success exposure group) and sympathy (suffering exposure group). Further study is needed to expand these findings to a global population. Nearly all the participants in this small-scale study were located in the United States, so a greater emphasis on global participation is needed.