Reading between the photographs: The influence of incidental pictorial information on issue perception

A news report on an Appalachian tick disease was differently illustrated It either contained no images, an image of ticks, or this tick image plus three child victims. The victims were ethnically balanced (two White, one Black) or not (either all White or all Black). The text did not make any reference to the victims' ethnicity. Respondents assessed the risk of contracting the disease for children of different ethnicity. Partiality in pictorially representing a particular ethnic group fostered the relative overestimation of risk for that group. Inclusion of the image of ticks, especially when combined with victim images, prompted higher risk assessment overall.