A functional perspective on the study of social movements

Esteem support is a particular form of social support that is provided with the intent of enhancing how others feel about themselves and their attributes, abilities, and accomplishments. This study examines the association between perceptions of esteem support message helpfulness and (a) characteristics of the esteem support situation, (b) the relationship between provider and recipient, and (c) features of the perceived esteem support message. Participants (N = 55) recalled two esteem-threatening situations, one for which they received helpful esteem support and another for which they received unhelpful esteem support. Messages and features of situations and helpers were coded. Results indicate that features of the esteem support message and the helper are related to perceptions of messages helpfulness.     

Investigating the Role of Problem Severity and Channel Publicness on the Sophistication of Support-Seeking Messages on Social Network Sites: A Replication Study

Oh and LaRose (2016) contended that problem severity and channel publicness shape support seekers’ goals, time spent composing messages, and the sophistication of those messages. The current study seeks to replicate and extend Oh and LaRose’s study to produce a more accurate understanding of the factors that influence the sophistication of support-seeking messages online. Support seekers’ goals varied according to the severity of a stressor and the publicness of a channel, and the amount of time people spent composing a message influenced its sophistication. We extend the original study by examining associations that were not initially tested. Time spent composing messages mediated the influence of problem severity on the quality of people’s messages, and this effect was moderated by channel publicness.     

The relationship between the developmental level of persuasive strategies and their effectiveness

Research on the development of persuasive communication skills has described the emergence of four basic strategies in persuasive messages. This study includes two experiments to assess the role these strategies play in the process of gaining compliance. In both, college students received messages requesting they volunteer for an experiment and advocating compliance. Messages differed in the level of strategic adaptation of the compliance‐gaining appeal they offered. In general, form of request (supported versus unsupported) and content of specific message appeals influenced compliance, but level of strategic adaptation made little or no contribution to message effectiveness.     

Let Me Tell You About My Success: The Implications of Attribution-Based Capitalization Response Messages for Discloser Affect

Capitalization attempts, or the sharing of personal good news, can have positive outcomes for disclosers when met with a skillful response. This study reports on a test of an attribution-based theoretical framework for capitalization response messages. Participants (N = 314) read capitalization response messages created by crossing the causal attribution dimensions of locus, stability, and globality. They rated messages for their anticipated effect on positive and negative affect. Results indicate that messages that make internal attributions for success are rated significantly higher on positive affect and lower on negative affect than messages making external attributions, as are messages making stable versus unstable attributions. The stability dimension moderates the impact of the globality dimension on message ratings. Implications for attribution and social support theories are discussed.     

The impact of alternative approaches to comforting,closeness of relationship,and gender on multiple measures of effectiveness

The impact of 6 approaches to comforting (suggesting a diversion, expressing optimism, providing an external account, offering assistance, explaining the perspective of the offender, and a combination of the first 5), attributed to either a good friend or a casual acquaintance, was assessed for 2 situations by 394 students. Distressed individuals responded to comforting messages along two dimension: feeling less upset and feeling demeaned, with some indications that yet a third dimension (appreciating the concern of the comforter) may exist. The message that combined elements from the other 5 approaches yielded generally the most positive responses, but responses to specific message approaches varied with situation and dimension of response. Messages from good friends were more successful than those from casual acquaintances in helping the distressed individual to feel less upset.     

“Anyone free to chat?” Using technological features to elicit quality support online

This study examines how support seekers can integrate verbal and nonverbal cues in social network sites (SNSs) to elicit quality support from others. Building from sensitive interaction systems theory and verbal person centeredness (VPC), participants (N?=?579) evaluated a SNS profile that contained manipulated levels of directness in status updates used to seek support and nonverbal emotional expression in profile pictures. To capture the transaction of support, participants provided supportive messages in public and private conditions that were coded for their level of VPC. Negative emotional cues in profile pictures increased VPC in private messages, whereas directness in status updates negatively predicted VPC in private messages. Participants produced messages with higher levels of VPC after they viewed profiles that incorporated more features to disclose distress effectively. Broadly, this study addresses whether the content people post on SNS profiles shapes the quality of the supportive messages they receive.     

Testing the Identifiable Victim Effect With Both Animal and Human Victims in Anti-Littering Messages

ABSTRACT

The identifiable victim effect is when people are more willing to help identified individuals than those who are unidentified, or statistical, victims. It has primarily been tested in experiments with humans as the victims. A lack of research exists testing whether animal victims could elicit the same level of help, or reactions, as human victims. This study tests the identifiable victim effect with both human and animal stimulus messages focused on the consequences of littering. A total of 198 undergraduate students were randomly assigned to view one of three messages (i.e., an identifiable human victim message, identifiable animal victim message, or a nonvictim control message). While the animal message elicited greater distress and empathy than the human message, the three messages did not differ on behavioral intention outcomes. This study fills a gap in the identifiable victim literature, and it provides insight about responses to risk messages aimed at increasing a prosocial behavior.     

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.     

Incidental Affect and Message Processing: Revisiting the Competing Hypotheses

Using six television public service announcements (PSAs) and with a 3 (message topic) × 4 (frame combination) × 2 (messages) mixed design (N = 270), this study explores the impact of incidental affect on message processing in a broader horizon that incorporates operationalization of depth of message processing and how incidental affect is conceptualized and induced. Results showed that (a) there was no significant main effect of incidental affect on message processing in support of the cognitive capacity or affect as information explanations, and (b) there were significant simple main effects of incidental affect on message processing, but such an effect was consistent with the affect as resource explanation, rather than the hedonic contingency model. Implications and direction for future studies were discussed.     

Supportive communication from bystanders of cyberbullying: indirect effects and interactions between source and message characteristics

Cyberbullying is an increasingly common experience that produces psychosocial consequences for targets. Interventions encouraging bystanders to support targets of cyberbullying are limited by a lack of focus on what to communicate. This study considers supportive messages that emphasize emotional comfort, attributions of responsibility, and beliefs that people can change as relevant to this context, and it examines how perceptions of messages differ based on whether support providers have or lack experience with cyberbullying. We extend research on the indirect effects model of supportive communication by randomly assigning participants (N?=?304), who self-identify as targets of cyberbullying, to message and source conditions and assessing their perceptions of messages, providers, and outcomes. Impressions of messages mediate their influence on outcomes, and the experiential similarity of support providers moderates these effects. Certain messages, notably those contending that bullies can change, are less effective when delivered by sources who lack experience with bullying.     

Construct comprehensiveness and cognitive complexity as predictors of the number and strategic adaptation of arguments and appeals in a persuasive message

Subjects differing in construct comprehensiveness and cognitive complexity wrote persuasive messages directed at a fictitious target person and gave written justifications for each argument or appeal used in their messages. Messages were scored for number of appeals used and appeal justifications were scored for the degree of strategic adaptation to the message target they reflected. Construct comprehensiveness correlated positively and significantly with level of strategic adaptation; cognitive complexity correlated positively and significantly with number of appeals used and level of strategic adaptation.     

Effects of reintegration difficulties,perceived message acceptance and perceived autonomy support on U.S. military Veterans’ evaluations of messages encouraging them to seek behavioral health care

This online experiment integrates confirmation, politeness, and self-determination theories to examine how Veterans evaluate family members’ messages encouraging them to seek behavioral health care. Veterans (N?=?226) evaluated messages manipulated to express high or low levels of acceptance and autonomy support, completed outcome measures (persuasiveness, relational impact, identity management, emotions), and reported on their own reintegration difficulties. Positive associations were found between perceived message acceptance and three outcomes, and perceived autonomy support and two outcomes. Reintegration difficulties were associated with more negative message perceptions. Perceived acceptance and autonomy support also mediated a number of associations between manipulated message features and outcomes, as well as reintegration difficulties and outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

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.     

Message fatigue: Conceptual definition,operationalization, and correlates

Despite growing concern over the public’s fatigue toward inundated health messages, communication research has largely neglected such ramifications of prolonged, real-life campaign exposure. This paper offers an initial conceptual and empirical treatment of message fatigue, an important, but understudied, side effect of campaigns. Specifically, it proposes conceptual and operational definitions of the construct and examines psychometric characteristics of a proposed message fatigue scale. The findings from two studies concerning safe sex (N?=?412) and anti-obesity messages (N?=?396) demonstrated solid support for the scale’s unidimensionality. In support of construct validity, the scale exhibited significant associations with message avoidance, annoyance, information seeking, and desensitization. Moreover, in an experimental setting in Study 2, message fatigue negatively predicted attention and message elaboration, while positively predicting counterargument.     

The effects of gain versus loss framing and issue involvement on publics’ responses to nuclear energy messages in South Korea

This study investigates how the public’s perceptions of nuclear power, one of the modern technologies at the center of public debate on risk issues, are influenced by gain versus loss framing in the volatile context of nuclear energy applications in South Korea. Drawing upon prospect theory as its conceptual framework, this experiment using 566 adult participants found that loss-framed messages (i.e. emphasizing the negative outcomes of not using nuclear power) were more effective in increasing participants’ message credibility perceptions as compared to gain-framed messages (i.e. emphasizing the positive outcomes of using nuclear power). Additionally, the results found issue involvement to be a significant moderator of the framing effect, by demonstrating that the advantage of loss framing was stronger for participants who were highly involved in nuclear energy issue, as compared to those who were less involved in the issue. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Precursors to probation and parole agent intent to send informational,emotional, and esteem social support messages to female clients

Supervising agents serve as sources of social support for over one million women in the US on probation and parole who strive to avoid recidivism. Little is known about the supportive messages agents intend to provide their female clients or their precursors. The optimal matching model of social support is used in an investigation of the precursors to agents’ intent to send different types of social support messages to the women they supervise. Results indicated that supervising agents intended to provide informational support in the form of suggestions or advice, esteem support in the form of compliments, and emotional support in the form of encouragement to the women. Both agent communication pattern and offender level variables were precursors to the intent to send informational support messages, but only agent communication pattern variables predicted the intent to send emotional support messages.     

Perceived Message Effectiveness Measures in Tobacco Education Campaigns: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

Target audience ratings of the likely impact of persuasive messages, known as perceived message effectiveness (PME), are commonly used during message development and selection. PME is also used to examine receptivity of messages after they are fully developed or deployed. Despite this, we know little about the conceptual and methodological characteristics of extant PME measures used in the literature. We conducted a systematic review of tobacco education video, print, and audio campaign studies to examine conceptual and methodological characteristics of PME measures. One hundred twenty-six PME measures from 75 studies conducted in 21 countries with more than 61,000 participants were reviewed. Results indicated considerable variability in measures’ focus on general perceptions of a message (i.e., message perceptions) vs. perceptions of expected message effects (i.e., effects perceptions). Considerable variability was also found on underlying persuasive constructs, use of referents, and referencing of behavior in PME items and measures. We conclude with several recommendations for future research on PME measurement and validation.     

Sensation seeking as a moderator of the processing of anti‐heroin PSAs

Anti‐drug media campaigns have changed the drug‐consumption behaviors of high sensation seekers in part through a campaign strategy called SENTAR. This strategy relies largely on high sensation value messages, which contain structural and content features that elicit sensory, affective, and arousal responses. To learn more about the persuasiveness of high sensation value ads, this investigation focused on the processing of anti‐heroin PSAs by 200 young adults. Of specific interest was the influence of perceived message sensation value on three types of processing (argument‐based, narrative, and sensory), two affect variables (sympathetic distress and stimulated excitation), and anti‐heroin attitudes. Sensation seeking was examined as a moderator of these effects. In general, sensation seeking moderated the effects of perceived message sensation value and sensory processing on sympathetic distress and anti‐heroin attitudes. Additionally, high sensation seekers’ anti‐heroin attitudes were largely influenced by narrative and sensory processing, while low sensation seekers’ anti‐heroin attitudes were relatively unaffected by the anti‐heroin ads.     

Persuasive impact of loss and gain frames on intentions to exercise: A test of six moderators

The current study situated loss/gain-framing research in the extended parallel process model and tested whether two message features (dose, efficacy appeals) and four individual difference variables (walking self-efficacy, grit, consideration of future consequences, health information overload (HIO)) moderated the impact of message framing on intentions to engage in physical activity. Adults (N?=?341, M_age?=?38.09, SD?=?10.94) were randomly assigned to one of eight message conditions advocating exercise behavior. All four individual difference variables significantly moderated framing effects such that gain-framed messages were more effective for individuals with lower walking self-efficacy, grit, and consideration of future consequences and loss-framed messages were significantly more effective for individuals with higher walking self-efficacy, grit, consideration of future consequences, and for those with lower HIO.