Going Out of Business

The author of The Business of Serials reflects on motivations for the creation of this column and offers some observations and encouragement for others to be a new voice in contributing ideas and viewpoints on the profession of librarianship for today and tomorrow. The column ends with this entry.     

The fluency principle: Why foreign accent strength negatively biases language attitudes

Two experiments tested the prediction that heavy foreign-accented speakers are evaluated more negatively than mild foreign-accented speakers because the former are perceived as more prototypical (i.e., representative) of their respective group and their speech disrupts listeners’ processing fluency (i.e., is more difficult to process). Participants listened to a mild or heavy Punjabi- (Study 1) or Mandarin-accented (Study 2) speaker. Compared to the mild-accented speaker, the heavy-accented speaker in both studies was attributed less status (but not solidarity), was perceived as more prototypical of their respective group, disrupted listeners’ processing fluency, and elicited a more negative affective reaction. The negative effects of accent strength on status were mediated by processing fluency and sequentially by processing fluency and affect, but not by prototypicality. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.     

A test of imagined contact as a means to improve cross-partisan feelings and reduce attribution of malevolence and acceptance of political violence

In this study, we test the depolarizing potential of intrapersonal communication through imagined intergroup political contact. A randomized experiment was embedded into a quota-stratified online survey distributed to 583 U.S. adults drawn from an online panel proportioned to match the U.S. population. Structural equation modeling was used to test the direct, indirect, and conditional effects of imagined contact. We found that imagined contact with a political outgroup directly reduced negative affect toward the political outgroup regardless of the primed valence of the imagined interaction. Furthermore, we found that imagined contact indirectly reduced attribution of malevolence to the political outgroup as well as the acceptance of political violence. Implications for intergroup theory and political polarization are discussed.     

浅谈当代大学生的人际交往

当代青年学生如何培养自己的交往能力是一个十分值得探讨的问题。本文着重从大学生为什么要交往，大学生怎么样交往以及大学生交往的作用几个方面来论述这个问题。     

不断改善校园民族关系 努力打造文明校园环境——民族地区高校思想政治教育新体系构建研究问卷调查分析报告(有关民族问题部分)

本文通过对本校部分学生在问卷调查中就直接或间接与民族问题有关的9个题目答案统计数据的分析,提出民族地区高校不断改善校园民族关系,努力打造文明校园环境的几点思考。     

应对全球化:当代西方国家与社会关系理论的新趋向

传统民族国家框架下的国家与社会关系理论日益面临全球化的挑战。一方面是民族国家的某些职能与角色正备受冲击,另一方面则是跨国公司和非政府组织等社会行为体的地位与作用日显其重,但基于对民族国家内在的适应性和不可替代性、公民社会脆弱的独立性及对国家的依赖性的考虑,西方学者大多肯定全球化进程中国家的地位与作用,承认全球化在打破国家与社会的传统边界和力量均衡的同时,也使两者合作与冲突的机会相应增加。在他们看来,欲求两者间和谐与健康的关系模式,必须在国家和公民社会这两个支点上同时着力,进行双向的、多维的良性建构。     

大学图书馆使命声明与组织形象再塑

通过对美、加八所大学图书馆的使命声明进行解读,找出可资借鉴之处,并提出大学图书馆使命声明应该包含的重要内容。     

构建高校图书馆的和谐关系

追求个人、知识、社会的和谐发展将成为21世纪大学理念的价值取向,这也是高校图书馆应追求的价值取向,和谐观将成为高校图书馆发展的指导思想。文章从高校和谐图书馆应具有的特征出发,阐述了在构建和谐图书馆的过程中必须处理好几个方面的和谐,提出构建高校和谐图书馆,始终要体现“以人为本”的科学发展观,努力契合时代的要求。     

同伴关系的功能及其对学业成绩的影响

同伴关系表现为两种,一种是同伴接纳,一种是友谊。同伴接纳与友谊在青少年发展和社会适应中有着不同的功能。这两种同伴关系对学业成绩有着不同的影响。了解这两种不同的影响对青少年的教育有所帮助。     

Social media and corporate reputation during crises: the viability of video-sharing websites for providing counter-messages to traditional broadcast news

Exemplification, or the use of highly emotional and arousing messages to elicit responses based on impression formation, has been shown to influence perceptions of events, individuals, and organizations. News coverage concerning the use of lean finely textured beef (LFTB) is one such example, and anecdotal evidence suggests that this coverage may have had a negative impact on public perception of the manufacturers producing LFTB. The current study examined the use of social media (specifically video-sharing sites) as a means of combating the negative effects of exemplars concerning LFTB. Respondents reported their perceptions of threat severity, susceptibility, behavioral intentions to avoid LFTB, and perceptions of organizational trust and reputation associated with the manufacturer. The findings are consistent with exemplification theory and indicate that message ordering can influence exemplification effects. Results are discussed in terms of implications for public relations and risk communication.