Rap Lyrics and Antisocial Effects on Young People in Hong Kong

1. Rap Lyrics and Antisocial Effects on Young People in Hong Kong Chau-kiu Cheung, Ph.D. Department of Applied Social Studies City University of Hong Kong July 2002

2. Objectives • Tapping the basis of support for rap and youth culture by • Testing the predictions of terror management theory about • Unconscious approval of rap lyrics • Support for antisocial orientation • Conscious self-defense • Against youth culture • Against rap songs • Trivialization of the harm of raps songs • Increase of third-person effect judgment

3. Significance • Moral panic about rap songs (Bennett 1999) • Lyrics as gratification (Christenson and Roberts 1998) • AntisocialCensorship (McLeod and Eveland 1997) • Audio pornography (Lynxwiler and Gay 2000) • Prejudice (Rudman and Lee 2002) • Fragmentation (Bowman 1998)

4. Theory • Terror management theory (Janssen and Dechesne 1999; Pyszczynski et al. 1999; Solomon et al. 1991) • Existential psychoanalytic theory • Awareness of mortality • Dual processes with increasing awareness • Unconscious self-defense • Adherence to a worldview or group • Deviance, affiliation with deviant culture • Conscious self-defense • Self-inflation • Distancing oneself from the deviant • Trivialization of harm, invulnerability

5. Past research • Awareness of mortalitySupport for youth culture, counterculture (Janssen and Dechesne 1999) • 53 Dutch high school students • Content analysis of open-ended responses • Third-person effect (McLeod and Eveland 1997) • Greater harm on age peers than on oneself

6. This study • Integration and extension • Support and liking for youth culture and rap • Third-person effects: harm and benefit • Endorsement to antisocial rap lyrics • Uniqueness • Mild induction: Test of death anxiety • Passive, covert self-defense: closed-ended responses • University students in Hong Kong

7. Design (Feb-Mar 2002) • Experimental conditions: terror induction • Test of death anxiety at the beginning • Test of death anxiety at the end • Participants: 54 first-year social science undergraduates • Alternately assigned to the two conditions • Computer-assisted testing • Measurement • 5-point rating scales for balanced question items • Acquiescence as average ratings • Social desirability

8. Reliability of measures Third-person harmful effect judgment = Perceived harm on age peers – Perceived harm on self

9. Statements of antisocial orientation (rap lyrics) • Sometimes, you wish to say “XXX.” • “Mass media do not know how to report in a fair way.” • “It is the best ideal of no working.” • Wish to “work for nothing even though there is work to do” • “To take care of nothing but to wait for the pay date” • “The one you trust is really the incarnation of a devil.” • “Going home is handing a lamb to the tiger’s mouth.” • “The Chief Executive likes nothing but prestige.” • “Those wordy Legislators talk big (brag).” • “Cunning merchants cheat again.” • “Those incompetent officials are low in intelligence.”

10. Statements of liking of rap • Like rap culture • Like the rap band • Dislike rap music (reversed) • Dislike vulgar culture (reversed)

11. Statements of support for youth culture • Endorse youth culture • Endorse counterculture • Endorse nonsense culture

12. Statements of perceived harm of rap • How likely is listening to rap songs: • Discharges your emotion onto others • Makes you act on impulse • Makes you dissatisfied with the government • Makes you dissatisfied with the family • Makes you quarrel with others • Makes you talk foul language • Makes you forget things • Makes you put down your work • Makes you distrust others • Makes you difficult to concentrate

13. Statements of death anxiety (Chung et al. 2000) • The thought of death enters your mind. • The thought of death bothers you. • It makes you nervous when people talk about death. • You are not at all afraid to die. (reversed) • You do not fear dying a painful death. (reversed) • The sight of a dead body is not horrifying to you. (reversed)

14. Effects of terror induction Controlling for acquiescence, social desirability, and background characteristics in regression analysis

15. Effect of death anxiety Table 2: Metric and standardized effects of death anxiety *: p < .05

16. Standardized effects of terror induction and death anxiety

17. Discussion • Effects of terror induction and death anxiety were independent and unique. • Death induction only showed a weak negative effect (β = -.079) on death anxiety. • Death anxiety had little effect on antisocial orientation. • Unlike past findings, terror induction made a negative effect, rather than a positive one, on support for youth culture. • Participants were social science students who displayed low support and liking for youth culture and rap (m = 35.3 & 35.7).

18. Conclusion • Self-defensive responses to terror induction • Unconscious radicalization • Increasing antisocial orientation or endorsement to rap lyrics • Conscious trivialization—invulnerability • Decreasing the perceived harm of rap songs • Intensifying the third-person harmful effect of rap songs • Conscious self-presentation • Decreasing liking of rap songs • Decreasing support for youth culture • Awareness of death as an antecedent to terrorism?