To match or mismatch? that is only one important question

This study examined the experiential attitude function-an attitude based on past experience(s)-and tested whether a message targeted at this function would elicit attitude change. Each of 139 undergraduates was assigned randomly to one of four conditions in which a fictitious Executive Committee for Academic Integrity (ECAI) report, written for a university president, supplied strong or weak arguments. Furthermore, these messages either argued that tenure should be abolished (anti-tenure) or that tenure should continue (pro-tenure). Results indicated that, although the functional target of the message was not related to posttest attitudes, conformity to message recommendations was contingent upon the discrepancy between the respondent's initial attitude and the position advocated in the message. Interestingly, the mean attitude change in every experimental condition was negative, indicating that regardless of the position advocated in the message, respondents' attitudes became increasingly antitenure.     

Social norms and expectancy violation theories: assessing the effectiveness of health communication campaigns

College students' processing of alcohol, smoking, and exercise social norms messages, and related effects on judgments, attitudes toward one's own behaviors, and attitudes toward undergraduates' behaviors were examined using social norms marketing and Expectancy Violation Theory (EVT) (N=393). Receiving statistical social norms messages led to an expectancy violation of the perceived social norm (i.e., a discrepancy between the expected and actual statistic conveyed with a message). Consistent with Boster et al. (), the effect of the message discrepancy on attitudes was mediated by judgments. In accordance with social norms, when participants were provided with a statistic, the majority moved their judgments (but not their attitudes) toward the provided statistic, a result only consistent with EVT in the case of positive violations. The results have multiple implications: (1) social norms messages may work to change judgments, but do not result in consistent attitude change; (2) the process of judgment change functions similarly across message topics, as well as message types (i.e., attitudinal versus behavioral); (3) judgment change does not appear to be the main cause for attitude change upon receipt of a social norms message; and (4) a message‐based expectancy violation does not function in the same way as a violated behavioral expectation.     

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 delaying identification of high‐and low‐credibility communicators: A meta‐analytic review

A review of extant research evidence indicates that when source identification is delayed until after the message has been presented, the differential effectiveness of high‐ and low‐credibility communicators is reduced. In particular, those combinations of credibility level and advocated position that are ordinarily (i.e., with pre‐message identification) relatively advantageous (a low‐credibility source with a proattitudinal position, or a high‐credibility source with a non‐proattitudinal position) have persuasive effectiveness reduced by delayed identification, whereas those combinations that are ordinarily relatively disadvantageous (a high‐credibility source with a proattitudinal position, or a low‐credibility source with a non‐proattitudinal position) enjoy enhanced effectiveness with delayed identification. The magnitude of the effects associated with identification‐timing variations is quite large (mean absolute value of d = .753), at least by comparison to other factors for which quantitative estimates of persuasive effect are available. The observed effects place constraints on explanations of credibility's effects; in particular, credibility's effects cannot be explained through the mere association of a given communicator with a particular position.     

Matching messages to the values underlying value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes: reconciling an old theory with a contemporary measurement approach

Functional theory defines value-expressive attitudes as attitudes that are formed to aid in the achievement of one's values, and social-adjustive attitudes as attitudes that are formed from the desire to affiliate with others. The current investigation argues that both functions are based in a person's values, with the social-adjustive function being a specific form of a value-expressive attitude. Contemporary approaches to this theory have argued that these attitude functions can be inferred from scores on the self-monitoring scale, thus eliminating the need to measure the values underlying these functions. The current investigation argues that the success of studies using the self-monitoring scale to infer these functions should be due to the covariance of the other-directedness dimension of the scale with the values underlying those attitudes. Overall, the findings of the investigation indicate that the formation of these functional attitudes depends more on the match between the value-content of the persuasive messages and the extent to which the message recipients hold those values than their level of other-directedness. Other-directedness did not covary with the values that underlie value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes, but did aid in the reception of the social-adjustive message. Thus, the research using the self-monitoring scale to infer functions cannot be fully reconciled with the conceptualizations of value-expressive and social-adjustive attitudes.     

Message Expression Effects in Online Social Communication

Framed within the O-S-R-O-R (Orientations-Stimulus-Reasoning-Orientations-Response) communication mediation framework, this study examines the bi-directional effects of personal message expression on individuals' cognitive elaboration, message learning, and attitudes when exposed to social campaign messages in blogs (anti-drunk driving). Findings from an online-based experiment, expression of personal message (yes and no), and perceived homophily to message audiences (yes and no) revealed that expressing personal messages significantly affects the amount of cognitive effort expended by individuals and message learnt, but only slightly affects their attitudes. The role of perceived homophily varies; significantly affecting cognitive effort but with no significant effects on learning and attitude. Findings show that even though influence on individual attitudes is insignificant, simultaneously receiving and expressing a message online as compared to being mere receivers of messages may impact thinking and learning of the message, at the least.     

Facial Similarity Mitigates the Persuasive Effects of Source Bias: An Evolutionary Explanation for Kinship and Susceptibility to Influence

This research examined how the interaction between a source's facial similarity to message targets and communicated bias affects audience persuadability. We used an evolutionary explanation to hypothesize that biased sources would elicit less favorable attitudes than unbiased sources for dissimilar sources, but that this difference would be absent for similar sources. Predictions were supported by results from a 2 (facial similarity) × 2 (source bias) experiment, in which an unrecognizable percentage of participants' photographs (n = 94) was digitally morphed with a source's face to act as a kinship cue. Further, structural equation modeling demonstrated a direct effect of facial similarity on attitude independent of mediation by source liking and appraisals, providing further evidence that susceptibility to influence from facially similar sources may have evolutionary origins.     

The Relationship between Narrative Content Variation,Affective and Cognitive Reactions,and a Person's Willingness to Sign an Organ Donor Card

This study predicted that variations in the content of a narrative organ donor appeal (i.e., the age of the donor, the age of the person whose life was saved, the donor's cause of death, and the number of people whose lives were saved) would have a differential impact on a person's affective and cognitive reactions to that message, which would in turn influence a person's attitude toward signing an organ donor card. Two hundred sixty-eight individuals who had not signed an organ donor card previously read one of several narratives and then answered a series of questions designed to measure their attitudes toward signing an organ donor card. These data revealed that how a person dies (accident vs natural causes) and the number of people who are saved through organ donation indirectly influence a person's attitude toward signing an organ donor card with vividness, sympathy, and happiness acting as mediating variables. These findings and their implications are discussed.     

Audience commitment and source knowledge of audience as determinants of attitude change following counterattitudinal advocacy

This study tested two hypotheses growing out of the aversive consequences interpretation of counterattitudinal advocacy effects: first, that persons encoding counterattitudinal messages for a known audience will report greater attitude change toward the position advocated than persons encoding counterattitudinal messages for an unknown audience; and, second, that persons encoding counterattitudinal messages for an uncommitted audience will demonstrate greater attitude change toward the position advocated than persons encoding counterattitudinal messages for a committed audience. After completing an attitude pretest, subjects encoded counterattitudinal essays favoring two years of mandatory military service for all male high school graduates. Analyses of the attitude change scores produced confirmation of both hypotheses.     

Fear appeal messages affect accessibility of attitudes toward the threat and adaptive behaviors

Fear appeals have long been used in persuasive messages to motivate people to perform adaptive behaviors. This research explored the influence of a fear appeal message concerning breast cancer on attitude accessibility. Messages advocating the efficacy of breast self‐examinations increased the accessibility of attitudes toward the adaptive behavior. Further, the accessibility of participants' attitudes toward the adaptive behavior predicted behavioral intentions to perform breast self‐examinations. Attitudes toward the threat became less accessible after exposure to a high fear‐arousing message, however. Analyses suggest that defensive reactions to the fear‐inducing message mediate the influence of the message on the accessibility of the attitudes toward breast cancer. Implications of these findings for models of fear appeals are discussed.     

Emotional Responses to Televised PSAs and Their Influence on Persuasion: An Investigation of the Moderating Role of Faith in Intuition

This research examines the influence of message recipients' emotional responses to televised PSAs on their attitudes toward the advocated issues. Integrating the affect-as-information paradigm and Epstein's cognitive-experiential self-theory, this research hypothesizes that message-induced emotions will have a greater influence on persuasion for individuals who have a strong faith in intuition than for those who have a weak faith in intuition. Overall, the main hypothesis was partially supported. There is some indication that faith in intuition moderates the influence of message-induced emotions on persuasion such that people with a stronger faith in intuition tend to rely more on experienced emotions when making judgments. The moderating effects of faith in intuition, however, appear to be confined to specific PSAs and discrete emotions.     

Identification as a mediator of celebrity effects

Considerable research has been devoted to the effects of celebrity endorsers on consumer behavior. Most of the research has examined credibility or attractiveness as a determinant of message effectiveness, A review of Burke, Kelman, and Bandura's theories suggests that there may be another critical factor underlying celebrity effects — identification. A review of previous research results suggests that identification may be a viable explanation for the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers. A test of the identification effect was probed by examining people's personal concern, perceived risk, and sexual behaviors a year after Magic Johnson's announcement that he tested positive for HIV. The results of this study indicate that identification mediates message effects. This finding has important implications for media campaigns. It suggests that a spokesperson with whom the audience identifies insures the greatest likelihood of achieving lasting attitude or behavior change.     

Abstracts of theses in the field of speech and drama,VII 1

Psychological reactance theory suggests that a persuasive message which is perceived as a threat to a receiver's attitudinal freedom will produce attitude change away from the recommended position. Prior research has demonstrated that the boomerang effect is prominent particularly among receivers in extreme disagreement with a persuasive message. This experiment focused on the extreme opponent and explored a method of attenuating the boomerang effect. Some subjects were given the opportunity to argue in support of their initial opinions prior to exposure to a threatening message, while others were not afforded this opportunity. It was assumed that prior bolstering would amount to an exercise of the opinion freedom to be threatened by the forthcoming message, and thereby eliminate the otherwise expected negative effects. Results strongly supported this assumption. The threat variable reduced persuasivness only among subjects who did not bolster their initial opinions. In contrast, no boomerang effect was observed among subjects given the chance to exercise their attitudinal freedom prior to exposure to a threatening message.     

Metaphor and Intra-Attitudinal Structural Coherence

Metaphor is ubiquitous as a persuasion device although the process by which its effects are achieved is still not yet fully understood. The study proposes that the trope's persuasive outcomes derive from an emergent structural match between linguistic and conceptual metaphor that produces coherence among the structural components of attitude; a literal-only message offers no such match and hence by comparison less attitude coherence. To test this proposition, four hypotheses related to metaphor's effect on attitude and intra-attitudinal structural coherence were tested by manipulating message type (metaphor vs. literal), knowledge of metaphor target/attitude object (low vs. high), and placement of metaphor/literal equivalent (message introduction vs. conclusion). Results provided moderate support for the predictions.     

Examining the “Blanket of Protection” Conferred by Inoculation: The Effects of Inoculation Messages on the Cross-protection of Related Attitudes

Although the effectiveness of inoculation as a strategy for promoting resistance to attitude change is fairly well established, the potential of inoculation messages to offer cross-protection for related, but untreated, attitudes warrants additional attention from scholars. The reported study tested the “blanket of protection” conferred by inoculation. Participants (N = 118) were randomly assigned to read an inoculation message addressing a target topic and subsequently had their attitudes toward three related, but untreated, topics attacked. The results offer some evidence that inoculation messages can confer cross-protection for related attitudes. Participants in the inoculation condition reported greater perceptions of threat, greater counterarguing, and less attitude change in response to attacks than participants in the control condition for two of the three untreated topics. Counterarguing in response to attacks on untreated attitudes appears to be primarily responsible for cross-protection.     

Possessions theory of persuasion: An examination of its basis and range

Possessions theory claims that individuals learn to relate to their possessions in either an instrumental or symbolic fashion, and that this object orientation transfers to attitudes. Implicit in the theory is the notion that instrumental and symbolic orientations anchor the poles of a single continuum. The results of the first study tested that assumption and found that a bivariate conception was more empirically defensible than a bipolar conception. Study 2 was concerned with the scope of the theory's predictions for persuasion. The possessions orientation of women at‐risk for breast cancer was measured and they were then exposed to either a symbolic or instrumental message both of which asked them to participate in a clinical trial of a breast cancer preventative. Although no effects were observed on attitude toward participation nor on intention to participate, instrumental orientation showed a reliable, positive relationship with judgments of the persuasiveness of the messages.     

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.     

Organizational Change and Renewal: Can Strategic Communication Methods Ease the Pain? A Case Study from the University of Southern Queensland

ABSTRACT

Strategic communication is not solely the remit of library managers and directors, but is the product of internal culture and engagement with the organization's brand. Libraries need to communicate strategically, in order to demonstrate to individuals across the organization that their message is on point, and that they understand, are committed to, and actively support the university's goals. Much of this work happens via the myriad of interactions library staff at all levels have with students and staff (and indeed community members) of all kinds. When the attitude and behavior of library staff does not truly reflect the library's and the university's branding or goals, this undermines more explicit measures of value. It is important for the leadership of academic libraries to understand and influence how every library staff member views his or her role in the organization, so that their communication is reflective of a confidence in themselves and their profession, and a solid understanding of their institution and the higher education landscape. In large-scale organizational change, both intellectual and emotional buy-in to the organization can wane. We seek to show how a people-centered change process, rather than adversely affecting staff buy-in, could instead increase buy-in to the organizational change.     

A test of a model for predicting strategy choice

Fishbein and Ajzen's model for Reasoned Action was applied to the context of message‐strategy choice. It was felt that the cognitive process described by the model would be useful in predicting which message‐strategy a person would use in conflict. Three propositions were derived from the literature on strategy choice and the theory. First, it was proposed that the use of a particular message‐strategy could be predicted from a person's intentions. Second, it was proposed that attitudes about outcomes, and attitudes based in social norms would predict intentions. Third, it was proposed that after an opponent had not complied with a person on a previous influence attempt, the social norm component would, no longer contribute to the prediction of intentions. The first two propositions were supported. The third proposition, however, was not supported.