Testing Visual Signals in Representative Surveys

This article describes a way for the effects of portrait photosin the mass media to be investigated by combining split ballotexperiments and media content analysis. In a first step, visualsignals with distinct effects on perception are identified onthe basis of theory and of empirical findings from the fieldsof psychology and behavior research. These signals must be gesturesand facial expressions that can easily be made the object ofexperimental variation and allow for easy coding in contentanalyses. Accumulating a great number of such individual experimentswould provide a ‘map’ of the effects of visual signalsand their relative strengths. Incorporating these signals, ina second step, into the codebooks used for media content analysiswould enable a more accurate appraisal than previously possibleof the influence of optical commentary in mass media reporting.The results of the first step of such an endeavor are presented:a split ballot experiment conducted by the Institute fürDemoskopie Allensbach into the effects of the angle at whichone holds one’s head and the gesture whereby one’shand covers the lower half of one’s face. The angle ofthe depicted person’s head has a stronger influence onrespondents than the gesture does.