Communication Research

Health-risk information can elicit negative emotions like anticipated regret that may positively affect health persuasion. The beneficial impact of such emotions is undermined when target audiences respond defensively to the threatening information. We tested whether self-affirming (reflecting on cherished attributes) before message exposure can be used as strategy to enhance the experience of anticipated regret. Women were self-affirmed or not before exposure to a message promoting fruit and vegetable consumption. Self-affirmation increased anticipated regret and intentions reported following message exposure and consumption in the week after the intervention; regret mediated the affirmation effect on intentions. Moreover, results suggest that anticipated regret and intentions are serial mediators linking self-affirmation and behavior. By demonstrating the mediating role of anticipated regret, we provide insights into how self-affirmation may promote healthy intentions and behavior following health message exposure. Self-affirmation techniques could thus potentially be used to increase the effectiveness of health communication efforts.

Recent research suggests that the effect of self-affirmation on readers’ responses to media messages is not uniform across groups. The present experiment examined whether self-affirmation and group/user status interacted in influencing participants’ responses to a news article with identity-threatening information related to Apple sweatshops in China. Results revealed that for non-Apple users, self-affirmation influenced their appraisal of emotional responses, led them to perceive more news slant and more negative influence of the article on neutral Americans, and lowered their future purchase intentions. The effect of self-affirmation was nonsignificant among Apple users, which could have been thwarted by Apple users’ high defensiveness. Both theoretical implications for future self-affirmation research and practical implications are discussed.

The present research examines the processes involved in the psychological and behavioral effects of avatar use. We offer and explore a new concept, avatar self-relevance, which potentially moderates avatar use effects and thus may help explain why such effects are augmented by using (compared with viewing) an avatar. Results from an experimental study suggest that avatar self-relevance after avatar use, as reflected by physiological responses to observing (without controlling) the avatar get beaten up, is higher for people who maintain a psychological connection to the avatar, while lower for people for whom the disconnection from the avatar is highly salient, with avatar gender consistency and an avatar-emotion connection contributing to the former and an avatar-body connection contributing to the latter. This research offers a middle ground between self-perception and priming-oriented explanations of the theoretical mechanisms involved in avatar use effects.

This study reports a quasi-experiment (N= 374) that examined an underlying mechanism through which narratives can facilitate personalization of risk. The participants were exposed to one of four entertainment clips depicting an at-risk character who either tested positive or negative for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). As predicted, reduction of perceived social distance to an at-risk character resulted in a convergence of perceived self- and character-risk. More importantly, the convergence of risk was driven by an increased perception of self-risk, as opposed to a reduction of character-risk. The observed pattern of risk convergence was much more pronounced in the negative rather than the positive STD test narratives. Furthermore, narrative engagement through identification, parasocial interaction, and perceived realism led to a greater degree of risk convergence, which was mediated by reduction in perceived social distance. The order in which the subjects estimated self- and character-risk did not influence the perceptual gap.

Previous research has shown that mass media stimulate the development of an objectified self-concept. However, we know little about the role social networking sites (SNS) play in these relationships. The current longitudinal study (N = 1,041) aimed to fill this gap by studying adolescents’ frequency of SNS use in general and their use of SNS to monitor attractive peers in particular. The results showed that the use of sexualizing mass media was associated with considering the appearance ideals promoted in mass media as one’s own standards to pursue. This internalization of appearance ideals, in turn, was related to the tendency to monitor attractive peers on SNS. Both the use of SNS to monitor attractive peers and the use of sexualizing mass media stimulated self-objectification and body surveillance over time. The frequency of SNS use played a limited role in the relationship between mass media and an objectified self-concept.

One of the major issues facing contemporary democracies is how the rapidly changing media environment influences democratic citizenship. Rather than strengthening or weakening citizenship per se, the present study analyzes whether traditional news and interactive online media encourage different forms of civic and political engagement among adolescents. More specifically, we use three waves of annually gathered panel data to study Swedish adolescents’ development of self-actualizing (AC) and dutiful (DC) citizen qualities. Overall, the analyses lend support for the AC-DC model and suggest that communicative practices matter. While traditional news media use is related to DC qualities—such as institutional participation, political trust, and external efficacy—interactive online media use promotes AC qualities, including both online and offline cause-oriented activism.