Stunning statistics for persuasive speaking

Courses: Advanced Public Speaking, Argumentation Theory

Objectives: This activity aims to enhance students’ ability to make statistics compelling and persuasive.     

The persuasive campaign: A pedagogy for the contemporary first course in speech communication

The goals, pedagogy, and structure of the first course in speech communication often convey an unintended but nonetheless erroneous implication of audience control by a speaker. Using the persuasive campaign as the pedagogical basis for the speech fundamentals course allows for a broader range of rhetorical strategies and new criteria for evaluating student performances. Use of the persuasive campaign is also totally consistent with contemporary theories of human behavior.     

An evaluation of the individual versus the group speaking methods of teaching the beginning college speech course∗

Entropy analysis is presented as an alternative measurement technique to the Response Variation Index (RVI) utilized by Goss in his study reported in Speech Monographs. The Goss data were reanalyzed with entropy procedures. The statistical analysis with the entropy techniques indicated confirmation of both research hypotheses whereas the RVI analysis indicated significant differences for only one hypothesis.     

Examining the persuasive effect of statistical messages: A test of mediating relationships

The current study tested the degree to which the sample size heuristic (Baesler & Bur goon, 1994), perceived verifiability of evidence (Ah Yun & Massi, 2000), and perceived message credibility (Kopfman, Smith, Ah Yun, & Hodges, 1998) mediate the relationship between the use of statistical evidence in a persuasive appeal and a person's attitude toward a given topic. Four hundred eighty‐six participants were exposed to one of three messages (statistical, narrative, or no‐evidence control) or a no‐message control condition and completed either a 12‐ (control) or 33‐item (experimental) survey that was designed to measure respondents’ perceptions of the sample size heuristic, verifiability of evidence, message credibility, and attitude toward a year‐round academic schedule. Path analysis and hierarchical regression modeling were employed to test the proposed model. Results revealed that the perceived sample size heuristic, verifiability of evidence, and message credibility mediate the relationship between statistical evidence and individuals’ attitudes. Additionally, the perceived sample size heuristic was found to be the strongest unique predictor of attitudes and confirmatory factory analysis results indicated that perceived verifiability and message credibility may be two indicators of a higher‐order factor. These findings and their implications for future research are discussed.     

The persuasive effects of statistical evidence in the presence of exemplars

This paper explores the impact of statistical evidence by varying it while pairing it with a constant set of exemplars. The resulting design includes a condition in which the statistical information and the exemplars advocate the same position (consistent condition), one in which statistical information and the exemplars advocate different positions (inconsistent condition), and a third condition in which only exemplars are presented (control condition). The data indicate that statistical evidence has a substantial effect on judgments, and that the impact of statistical evidence on attitudes is indirect. Specifically, it is mediated by judgments.     

Using the Pecha Kucha speech to analyze and train humor skills

Courses: Public speaking; communication courses requiring speeches.

Objective: Students will learn how to apply humor principles to speeches through a slideshow method supportive of this goal, and to become more discerning about the possibilities and pitfalls of humorous communication.     

Round-robin presentations: Increasing opportunities for public speaking in large lectures and beyond

Courses: Large-lecture; public speaking, business, professional, and technical communication; sales and marketing courses; courses with team-based projects

Objectives: To provide opportunities to develop public speaking skills, especially in large-lecture courses; to improve public speaking endurance; to improve students’ abilities to give concise and focused presentations; to reduce public speaking anxiety.     

An assessment of methodological options for investigating the development of persuasive skills across childhood

This study compared two fundamentally different approaches to assessing the development of persuasive skills in children: asking them to generate messages versus having them select from preformulated messages or strategies. Also investigated was the approach of asking children to indicate their rationale for choosing a particular message. Using criteria of showing a developmental progression with age and positive correlation with social cognitive measures presumed to be relevant to persuasive skills, the present study suggests more success with message generation than with selection of preformulated messages. Elicitation of the rationale may prove a useful supplement to either of the former approaches.     

From cooperative to motivated information sharing in groups: moving beyond the hidden profile paradigm

Meta-analysis involves cumulating effects across studies in order to qualitatively summarize existing literatures. A recent finding suggests that the effect sizes reported in meta-analyses may be negatively correlated with study sample sizes. This prediction was tested with a sample of 51 published meta-analyses summarizing the results of 3,602 individual studies. The correlation between effect size and sample size was negative in almost 80 percent of the meta-analyses examined, and the negative correlation was not limited to a particular type of research or substantive area. This result most likely stems from a bias against publishing findings that are not statistically significant. The primary implication is that meta-analyses may systematically overestimate population effect sizes. It is recommended that researchers routinely examine the n–r scatter plot and correlation, or some other indication of publication bias and report this information in meta-analyses.     

International trends in health science librarianship: part 1 - the English speaking world

This is the second in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors were asked to reflect on developments in their country - viz. Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. Future issues will track trends in Northern Europe, the Nordic countries, Southern Europe and Latin America. JM.     

Meta-analytic evidence for the persuasive effect of narratives on beliefs,attitudes, intentions,and behaviors

Although narratives are often credited with the capacity to change opinions, empirical tests of this prediction have produced mixed results. To provide a more precise test of narrative's effect on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, we performed meta-analyses on studies that evaluated narrative's persuasive influence on these outcomes. Results suggested positive relationships between exposure to a narrative and narrative-consistent beliefs (k?=?37; N?=?7,376; r?=?.17), attitudes (k?=?40; N?=?7,132; r?=?.19), intentions (k?=?28; N?=?5,211; r?=?.17), and behaviors (k?=?5; N?=?978; r?=?.23). Moderator analyses on the effect of fictionality yielded mixed results. Neither medium of presentation nor research design influenced the magnitude of the narrative-persuasion relationship. However, results suggested the presence of unidentified moderators.     

The effective use of fear appeals in persuasive immunization: An analysis of national immunization intervention messages

This paper reports application of a theoretical persuasive health message framework grounded in literature on fear appeals, message design logic, and health persuasion theory to assess the effectiveness of the materials used most frequently by national immunization organizations in the United States. The severity of the problem of inadequate preschool immunization with its associated target audience and barriers is identified. Analysis revealed that national immunization message designers are creating materials most likely to match what health communication research would recommend along the dimension of response efficacy (i.e., showing parents that attaining immunizations is realistic, available, affordable, safe, and effectively prevents specific diseases). However the materials were least likely to match along the dimension of self‐efficacy (i.e., building parents’ beliefs that they have the ability and motivation to perform preventive immunization behavior for their children). Implications for practitioners in developing more effective immunization fear appeals, and suggestions for future research in the area, are addressed in the Conclusion.     

Academic games in the speech curriculum

Games are paradoxical vehicles for tryng out alternatives and consequences with both involvement and detachment, where mistakes can be made without serious injury. Some academic games create miniature environments particularly suited to studying concepts and content of speech communication.