Attributions of Hate: The Media's Causal Attributions of a Homophobic Murder

Attributions are examined within the context of media representations of an antigay hate crime. It was predicted that media sources from different political/ideological viewpoints would differ in their attributions regarding Matthew Shepard's murder, and these differences in attributions would be associated with overall attitudes toward homosexuality and hate crimes in general. Consistent with the authors' predictions, conservative media representations were less likely to attribute the incident itself to the political climate, thereby downplaying the role of situational factors. At the same time, the same conservative representations presented homosexuality as a controllable condition, thereby emphasizing situational attributions. In addition, a regression analysis suggests that attributions mediate the relationship between political viewpoint and (a) attitudes toward stricter hate crime legislation and (b) sympathy toward the gay community.