The Attentional Mechanism of Message Sensation Value: Interaction between Message Sensation Value and Argument Quality on Message Effectiveness

Rivalries may affect ingroup and outgroup (rival or nonrival) representations as well as students' identification with their home school. This study examines how subtle linguistic changes in question comparison, between the home school and another school, rival or nonrival, and between the self and other home school students, provide access to changes in these cognitive representations. Data were collected shortly before a rival football game or during a nongame week. The linguistic changes, manipulations in the direction of comparison (e.g., home school to rival school vs. rival school to home school), were designed from Tversky's (1977) model of similarity judgment. The results suggest that sport rivalries increase students' perceptions of unique features of home school students, but do not increase perceptions of unique (even unique, negative) features of rival school students. The increase in ingroup unique features before a rivalry game is strong enough to reverse the usual observation that the self is seen as less similar to others than others are to the self. Applications and implications for question design, e.g., sports polls, and this central topic of campus community conversations is discussed.     

Improving the Effectiveness of Fundraising Messages: The Impact of Charity Goal Attainment,Message Framing,and Evidence on Persuasion

This experimental study assessed the effectiveness of fundraising messages. Based on recent findings regarding the effects of message framing and evidence, effective fundraising messages should combine abstract, statistical information with a negative message frame and anecdotal evidence with a positive message frame. In addition, building on research into social dilemmas, it was hypothesized that information about charity goal attainment (e.g., the contributions of others) should increase donation intentions. The hypotheses were tested in a 2 (goal attainment: yes/no)×2 (framing: positive/negative)×2 (evidence: statistical/anecdotal) factorial design. Abstract information was more effective when combined with a negatively framed message, whereas anecdotal information was more effective when combined with a positive frame. In addition, donation intentions were higher for messages that addressed charity goal attainment issues.     

Special Section Introduction: Best Practices in Risk and Crisis Communication

There is a substantial gap between those people in the United States who identify as being favorable toward organ donation (~90%) and those registered as donors (~30%). A growing body of evidence suggests Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) offices are effective sites for facilitating higher organ donor registration rates on a national scale. The goal of the current study was to determine the utility and sustainability of a message immediacy approach, which draws from theoretical concepts such as priming and cues to action. Message immediacy requires individuals be: (a) exposed to a message that prompts an action, (b) in an environment where a prescribed action or behavior can be enacted, and (c) favorable toward the promoted behavior or action. Thirty-four Michigan counties, divided into three implementation groups, received campaigns in October (Group 1), November (Group 2), and December (Group 3) of 2009. Registration rates for three to six months after campaign implementation indicate that the on-site message prompts almost doubled registration rates in DMV offices. Additionally, preliminary cost-effectiveness evidence suggests message immediacy offers a relatively inexpensive campaign strategy.     

A Phrase Well Turned: Creative Facility in Narrative Production

It is commonly recognized that messages are simultaneously patterned and creative, but studies of message production have tended to focus on repetitive features of messages, to the relative exclusion of examination of their novel characteristics. This study is concerned with creative facility—the ability readily to construct novel, appropriate messages. In order to investigate this phenomenon, subjects produced a series of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives and also completed measures of speed of information processing (Digit-Symbol Substitution Test, DSST), cognitive tempo (Matching Familiar Figures Test, MFFT), and need for cognitive structure (Personal Need for Structure scale, PNS). Results indicate each of these measures was related to the speed with which participants were able to formulate their narratives. Moreover, the impact of both cognitive tempo, assessed as number of errors on the MFFT, and need for cognitive structure was heightened under more cognitively demanding message-production conditions. Implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The Creative Character of Talk: Individual Differences in Narrative Production Ability

The creative character of human message behavior is at once ubiquitous and elusive. Our talk is routinely novel, and yet our understanding of the processes that give rise to such creativity is in its infancy. Moreover, everyday experience suggests that some people are simply better at “thinking on their feet” than are others. The current studies sought to ascertain whether people do, indeed, differ in their ability to produce novel messages or whether our impression of individual differences is more perceived than actual. Two studies involving examination of simple SITUATION-ACTION-BECAUSE narratives are reported. The results of Study 1 suggest that people do differ in their message-production abilities. Additional analyses suggest that this individual difference in message-production ability is distinct from extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism as assessed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. EPQ lie-scale scores were, however, related to narrative-production performance, and this may reflect differences in social knowledge and skill. Study 2 replicated the finding of an individual difference in narrative-production ability and again indicated that performance in the experimental paradigm is related to lie-scale scores, but not extraversion or neuroticism (as those dimensions are assessed by the EPI). Additional findings in both studies relate message fluency to the cognitive demands of narrative production. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Goal Variability and Message Content During Relational Discussions

Discussions about relationship issues are rarely easy, and as in any important conversation, the actions of a relational partner may encourage one to change initial message intentions and behaviors during the course of an interaction. The interrelationship of communication goals and message content was examined through a sequential analysis of 10-minute conversations between 100 dating partners about a relationship problem. After completing survey measures, respondents engaged in a discussion about one partner's problematic behavior. Respondents then reviewed discussions to rate the importance of their communication goals (self-oriented, other-oriented, relational, or task) at 1-minute intervals. Objective coders assessed the grammatical focus of respondents' messages (self, relationship, partner, or task) at the same or adjoining interval. Lag sequential analyses indicated that goal importance defined self-interested or more prorelational content, providing evidence that goals are fluid and communicative behavior is influenced by dyadic interaction.     

Mood and Ad Processing: Examining the Impact of Program-Induced Moods on Subsequent Processing of an Antismoking Public Service Advertisement

This study examined the effect of program-induced moods on subsequent processing of an antismoking ad. Participants were induced to experience a happy/sad mood by watching a 5-minute segment of a sitcom/crime drama. They were then shown an antismoking ad and asked about their processing of the ad and attitude toward the ad. Results found those who watched the sitcom report greater heuristic and less cognitive processing of the ad than those who watched the crime drama. All participants reported a positive attitude toward the ad. Findings were consistent with previous research and highlight the importance of appropriate ad placement.     

Exploring linkage of message frames with personality traits for political advertising effectiveness

This study examined the different and combined effects of regulatory focus (i.e. prevention-focused vs. promotion-focused) and issue involvement (i.e. high vs. low) with message frames (i.e. prevention-framed vs. promotion-framed) on attitude toward ads, message preference, and voting intention. Taken together, our findings revealed statistically significant two-way interaction effects of regulatory focus and message frames on all dependent measures, including attitude toward ads, message preference and voting intention; however, neither regulatory focus nor message frames exhibited primary effects on those dependent variables. Further, issue involvement was found to have a statistically significant main effect on dependent measures, which negated our expectation of both its interaction effect with message frames and its moderating role between regulatory focus and message frames.     

基于SMTP组件使用CDO.Message进行工资条批量发送的实现

使用CDO.Message＋SMTP编写一个邮件发送器,专门应用到人力资源部给每位员工发送工资条。替代传统手动一封一封地进行邮件发送的重复劳动,避免了因为误操作导致的工资泄密的可能。     

基于.NET的短信平台系统的构建与应用——以同济大学为例

在飞速发展的信息时代,图书馆要积极有效地拓展新型读者服务模式——手机短信服务。本文以同济大学图书馆为例,介绍短信服务平台系统在同济大学的部署和实施过程。并给出了在.NET框架下功能模块设计和实现方案,以及展示了该系统的最终实现效果。