Interracial relationships are a big theme in 'The Walking Dead', that's because the show targeted a certain demographic that was ripe for indoctrination.

Interracial relationships on television are both negatively and positively represented on shows in the United States. However, few studies have been conducted to address if these representations relate to viewers' attitudes and behaviors - specifically on young adult viewers. Our study conducted a survey to find if greater exposure to interracial couples through TV shows would relate to a) greater acceptance of diversity, and b) greater acceptance of other cultures overall as well as relate to more willingness to participate in an interracial relationship, based on social cognitive theory and cultivation theory. Both hypotheses were supported, as our study found a positive 0.40 correlation between overall show exposure and acceptance of diversity as well as above 0.30 correlations for exposure of shows such as New Girl and Glee and willingness to participate in an interracial relationship. Future research should consider conducting a content analysis to have the ability to compare and contrast relationship quality, compounded with a controlled experiment to see what shows influence viewers most.