Alcohol's Getting a Bit More Social: When Alcohol Marketing Messages on Facebook Increase Young Adults’ Intentions to Imbibe

This study investigates the effects of social media marketing of alcoholic beverages using a 2 (likes: low vs. high) × 2 (shares: low vs. high) × 3 (display ad type: alcohol ad vs. antibinge drinking PSA vs. local bank) × 6 (status update repetitions) experimental design. The study examines how evaluations of alcohol marketing status updates and display advertisements predict social media users’ intentions to consume alcohol, as a function of message virality and display ad type. Participants’ viral behavioral intentions (intentions to like, share, and comment on) for status updates were strongest in predicting intentions to consume alcohol, and this relationship was strongest when the Facebook status update had high likes and shares. The article argues that alcohol marketing on social media reflects a social norm of alcohol consumption, which leads users to consume more alcoholic drinks. Findings are discussed within the framework of persuasion theories and policy changes regarding regulation of alcohol marketing on social media.     

Apps and Autonomy: Perceived Interactivity and Autonomous Regulation in mHealth Applications

Thousands of smartphone apps geared toward monitoring health behaviors are released regularly. Even as developers flood the market with mHealth apps, consumers seem overwhelmed with choices and report lack of sustained use, which raises questions about their efficacy. An online survey (N = 513) found that perceived interactivity not only has a direct effect but also exerts an indirect effect via greater autonomous regulation on users’ attitudes and behavioral intentions toward mHealth apps. Frequency of tracking and updating personal data showed significant effects on behavioral intentions. Theoretical and practical suggestions for the design and evaluation of mHealth apps are discussed.     

The Effects of Metaphor Use and Message Format on Cognitive Processing and Persuasive Outcomes of Condom Promotion Messages

The potential of pictorial and verbal metaphors to gain attention and enhance persuasion is considerable. Few scholars, however, have investigated the persuasive effects of metaphor in health messages. We applied a 2 × 2 factorial experiment to examine the effects of metaphor use (metaphor/literal) and message format (verbal/pictorial) on cognitive processing and persuasive outcomes of condom promotion messages. Results showed no significant differences in cognitive processing according to metaphor or format, but there were differences in attitudes and behavioral intentions according to metaphor and format, with literal and verbal messages performing best. Potential explanations for findings and implications for future research and health message design are discussed.     

The Effects of Sports Media Exposure on College Students' Rape Myth Beliefs and Intentions to Intervene in a Sexual Assault

An online survey was fielded to freshmen living in residence halls at a northwestern university in the United States. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the structure of relationships among exposure to mainstream sports media, rape myth acceptance, and intentions to intervene in sexual assault situations while controlling for gender traits. Given that prior research suggests men and women differ in their beliefs about sexual assault, analyses were performed on male (n = 111) and female (n = 241) respondents separately. Among women, exposure to sports media was positively associated with rape myth acceptance, which in turn was negatively associated with intentions to intervene in sexual assault situations. Among men, consuming sports media was negatively associated with intentions to intervene in a sexual assault. The findings suggest that exposure to some sports media may be negatively associated to individuals' intentions to intervene in a sexual assault.     

Irony and Language Expectancy Theory: Evaluations of Expectancy Violation Outcomes

Language expectancy theory (LET) provides the basis for a study of the relationship of ironic and literal messages in terms of persuasiveness and expectedness. The experimental design was a 2 (literal vs. ironic) × 2 (compliment vs. criticism) factor design. The expectation was that literal messages would be more expected and criticisms less preferred to compliments. The results indicated that the ironic messages tended to be negative, unexpected, and attributed to the situation as opposed to the sender. Compliments were associated with fewer behavioral intentions than were criticisms. The interaction also revealed that the ironic messages were a safe middle ground between literal criticisms and compliments in terms of fostering behavioral changes.     

An Investigation of Value-, Impression-, and Outcome-Relevant Involvement on Attitudes,Purchase Intentions,and Information Seeking

This investigation explored the relationship between value-relevant (VRI), impression-relevant (IRI), and outcome-relevant involvement (ORI) on information-seeking behaviors, attitudes, and purchase intentions. Results revealed that grocery shoppers' (N = 175) ORI was positively associated with information-seeking behaviors, attitudes, and purchase intentions of foods high in fiber. Neither VRI nor IRI predicted attitudes or purchase intentions. Results are discussed with an emphasis on information seeking among the three types of involvement and message-design strategies with respect to promoting foods high in fiber.     

How Young,Uninsured Americans Respond to News Coverage of Obamacare: An Experimental Test of an Affective Mediation Model

This experiment integrated theory from multiple domains to examine how aspects of news coverage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and differences in participants’ cognitive and emotional contingent conditions interact to shape attitudes and behavioral intentions toward health care legislation. Using a sample of uninsured young adults (N = 1,056), we tested an affective mediation model, which assessed the mechanisms through which media frames, exemplar case studies, and individual predispositions affect this type of news consumer. Results demonstrate the complicated pathways through which emotions mediate the effects of news coverage of ACA based on political predispositions, the need for orientation toward the health care issue, and the influence of equivalency framing in the form of example cases. These findings contribute to a more nuanced explanation of the causal mechanisms underpinning framing effects of public policy news coverage on an understudied population. The need for further examination of emotion along with cognition when investigating framing effects of public policy news is discussed, and the importance of exemplar cases as a significant manifestation of the effects equivalence framing is highlighted.     

Communicating About Chronic Caregiving in the Workplace: Employees’ Disclosure Preferences,Intentions, and Behaviors

A growing number of Americans are living with chronic health conditions that require informal, ongoing care from family members who are also in the paid labor force. In this exploratory study, communication privacy management is used to make sense of chronic caregiving (N = 48–64) and noncaregiving (N = 174–178) employees’ disclosure preferences, intentions, and behaviors in the workplace. We find that workers in general anticipate that they would disclose to many individuals at work about their caregiving, but employees actually disclose much less information to far fewer people at work when they occupy the chronic caregiver role. For chronic caregivers, positive perceptions about coworker supportiveness predict increased disclosure behaviors. Finally, future research directions as employers, workers, and policy makers prepare for the complex challenges associated with negotiating paid work and unpaid chronic caregiving are provided.     

Validating the Hornik & Woolf approach to choosing media campaign themes: Do promising beliefs predict behavior change in a longitudinal study?

Hornik and Woolf (1999) proposed using cross-sectional survey data to prioritize beliefs to address with communication campaign messages. The empirical component of the approach combines evidence of (1) association of beliefs with intentions and (2) current level of beliefs to calculate a “percentage to gain” as the potential promise of a belief. However, the method relies on cross-sectional data; its conclusions are open to challenge. Here, a panel study assesses whether the calculated promise of a belief actually predicts future behavior change. A nationally representative sample of 3,204 U.S. youth and young adults were interviewed twice, six months apart. Sixteen beliefs about the benefits and costs of smoking cigarettes are compared with regard to their percentage to gain (calculated from cross-sectional data) and their ability to account for subsequent cigarette use. A belief’s cross-sectional percentage to gain is substantially associated with its ability to predict subsequent behavior change (r = .53, p < .05).     

Message defensiveness,efficacy, and health‐related behavioral intentions

This study examined the effects of (response and self) efficacy on defensive message processing and behavioral intentions. Hypothesized predictions were generated from the extended parallel process model (Witte, 1992). The results suggest that people with low self‐efficacy will engage in greater defensive message processing in the form of counter‐arguing. In addition, people with low response and self‐efficacy will have lower behavioral intentions than people with high efficacy. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

A Reinforcement Sensitivity Perspective on Adolescents’ Susceptibility to the Influence of Soap Opera Viewing on Alcohol Attitudes

Previous research found support for an association between exposure to alcohol-related media content and alcohol attitudes, intentions and behavior. Nevertheless, research on what makes young people susceptible to the occurrence of this relationship is scarce. The current study examined the behavioral activation (BAS) and inhibition system (BIS) as moderators of the relationship between soap opera viewing and alcohol attitudes. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among a sample of 922 adolescents (M_age = 14.96 years, SD = .85, 56% girls). Regression analyses showed no association between total television viewing and alcohol attitudes, but did confirm that soap opera viewing is associated with positive attitudes towards alcohol use. Moderation analyses indicated that BAS did not moderate this relationship, while BIS did; the relationship between soap opera viewing and positive attitudes toward alcohol was only significant for adolescents with a low BIS-profile. These results provide support for the premise that an elevated BIS protects adolescents from the effect of soap opera viewing frequency on their alcohol attitudes.     

Golden Handcuffs in the Fortune 1000? An Employee-Organization Relationship Survey of Public Relations Executives and Practitioners in the Largest Companies

This study delivered an employee-organization relationship survey to public relations executives and practitioners in Fortune 1000 companies. Almost two-thirds (64.3%) were the top-ranking public relations executives in their organizations, and most (79.2%) were paid $100,000 or more. Respondents had significantly higher scores on a majority (66.7%) of relationship outcome measures than did Millennials who worked for public relations agencies. The researcher found a statistically significant difference between salary categories at or above $100,000 and those below $100,000 on the combined dependent variables of trust, control mutuality, commitment, and satisfaction using a one-way between-groups multivariate analysis of variance: F(1, 50) = 4.586, p = .003; Wilks’ Lambda = .71; partial η² = .29. Results may be explained by age and workplace variables and/or the higher compensation and benefits embodied in the concept of the Golden Handcuffs. Results also suggest that relationship-type scales are not reliable.     

Understanding Emotion from a Superordinate Dimensional Perspective: A Productive Way Forward for Communication Processes and Effects Studies

Subjects differing in interpersonal construct differentiation completed both an attitude measure and a behavioral intentions measure (in which subjects’ behavioral intentions in each of nine attitude‐relevant interpersonal situations were assessed) toward a subject‐selected target person. While the overall correlation between attitude and the behavioral intentions index was high (r = .85,), low‐differentiation subjects displayed significantly greater attitude‐behavioral intentions consistency (r = .95,) than did high‐differentiation subjects (r = .75). Correspondingly low differentiation subjects exhibited significantly less variability in the evaluative direction of their behavioral intentions than did high‐differentiation subjects (construct differentiation and variance in individuals’ behavioral intentions were correlated, r = .37). The results are interpreted as suggesting that within a given domain, persons with developmentally less advanced cognitive systems place greater reliance on evaluative consistency principles in organizing their beliefs and behaviors and hence are more likely to exhibit attitude‐behavior consistency than are persons with more developed systems.     

Reaching Out: Newspaper Credibility Among Young Adult Readers

The researchers examined student perceptions of campus and community newspaper credibility at the University of Florida using a Web survey (n = 1,906) of those enrolled in a general education class. A moderate correlation (r = .28) existed between college newspaper credibility and community newspaper credibility. Using hierarchical linear regression, the researchers found interest in news content to be a statistically significant predictor of credibility for both local newspapers and college newspapers. In addition, students whose parents encouraged them to read a newspaper found both newspapers more credible than did their peers, and exposure to a newspaper was found to be a strong predictor of credibility for that newspaper. Finally, the results of this case study also suggest White respondents find local newspapers more credible than other races. Implications for researchers and practitioners were discussed.     

“I Can Air My Feelings Instead of Eating Them”: Blogging as Social Support for the Morbidly Obese

The morbidly obese, defined as people who are 100 pounds or more overweight, are the fastest growing population among the obese. They often live with health risks, face discrimination, and lack traditional social support. This article explores the use of weight loss blogs by the morbidly obese (N = 50) and argues that blogging provides invaluable computer-mediated social support for them in four ways: (a) it allows for empathy; (b) it ensures accountability to others; (c) it provides venting and advice seeking; and (d) it shares validation of the weight loss experience. Additionally, the article argues that social support scholars must move beyond chat rooms and message boards as media and explore more media-rich environments such as blogging and social networks.     

A Normative Approach to Shaping College Students' Attitudes Toward Organ Donation

This study tested the effects of normative influence on increasing college students' attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about organ and tissue donation (OTD). It was hypothesized that students would look to their peers (referent group) in forming their own attitudes about organ donation. Three hundred thirty-nine (N = 339) participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions: (1) control group; (2) general referent/normative message group; (3) specific referent/normative message group; (4) general referent/counternormative message group; and (5) specific referent/counternormative message group. An interaction effect was predicted between message type (normative > counternormative) and attributed message source (specific referent > general referent). Students reported highly favorable attitudes toward OTD, moderate-to-high levels of intentions to become organ donors and willingness to communicate about OTD. The hypothesis that participants within the normative message condition would report more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate about OTD compared to participants within the counternormative message condition was supported for participants' willingness to communicate about OTD. The second hypothesis that participants within the specific referent condition would express more favorable attitudes, intentions, and willingness to communicate was rejected.     

The Theory of Planned Behavior and College Students' Willingness to Talk about Smoking-Related Behaviors

More than 60% of college students admit to trying smoking (Rigotti, Lee, & Wechsler, 2000 Rigotti , N. , Lee , J. E. , & Wechsler , H. ( 2000 ). U.S. college students' use of tobacco products: Results of a national survey . Journal of the American Medical Association , 284 , 699 – 706 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). To reduce this number, researchers have attempted to determine factors influencing smoking behaviors. However, studies about communicative acts related to smoking intentions and behaviors, which may be factors, are lacking. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study hypothesized that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control regarding communicating about smoking would be positively associated with behavioral intentions to engage in such communication. It was found that students' attitudes toward communicating about smoking were positively associated with behavioral intention, but perceived behavioral control and subjective norms concerning smoking-related communication behaviors were not associated with behavioral intention.     

Examining cultural identity and media use as predictors of intentions to seek mental health information among Chinese

Mental health is a stigmatized issue in many parts of the world. We conducted a survey of Chinese adults (n?=?661) to examine predictors of intentions to seek information related to mental health. Attitudes and subjective norms positively influenced intentions to seek mental health information, with subjective norms being a stronger predictor. Cultural identity was negatively associated with intentions to seek mental health information, with participants who held a stronger cultural identity being less likely to seek information related to mental health. Media use was positively associated with intentions to seek information. This research highlights that cultural identity may influence mental health information seeking, and that health campaigns could focus more on influencing subjective norms, thereby changing the seeking intention of Chinese adults regarding mental health information. Additionally, practitioners may want to explore possible ways of providing health information to people with strong cultural identity, as they may be less likely to seek out information on their own.