Exploring the Persuasion Effects of Threatening Content in COVID-19 Advertising: The Roles of Threat Intensity and Sensation Seeking on Consumer Attitudes

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a wave of advertising activities advocating care for the community in a time of crisis. These COVID-19 ads often feature threatening depictions of the crisis as a persuasion strategy. Hence, the present study explores the persuasion effects of COVID-19 advertising by focusing on threat persuasion. Specifically, by adopting an online experiment with 724 U.S. participants, this study investigates how the threat intensity of crisis depictions featured in COVID-19 ads (low vs. medium vs. high) interact with individual differences in sensation-seeking in order to impact ads and brand attitudes, through the mediating pathways of positive moral emotions (warmth and gratitude) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) authenticity. The results reveal that the high-threat crisis depiction generates the lowest warmth and ad attitudes, whereas the medium-threat crisis depiction yields the strongest gratitude and better brand attitudes than the low-threat crisis depiction, but only for low sensation seekers (LSS). Also, for LSS, exposure to the medium-threat (versus low-threat) crisis depiction increases their gratitude, which leads to higher CSR authenticity, and, eventually results in more favorable ad or brand attitudes. On the contrary, for high sensation seekers, threat intensity does not have an indirect effect on the ad or brand attitudes via warmth, gratitude, and CSR authenticity

"On the Internet Nobody Knows You're an Expert": Social Influence in Computer Mediated Communication

The focus of this research is on the use of computers as a communication medium, specifically for social purposes, and considers how computer-mediated communication (CMC) might affect persuasion and attitude change processes. The studies are organised around the framework of the classical message learning approach to persuasion (the effects of the source, message, channel and recipient), and the process of persuasion is considered, as well as the final outcome (attitude change). In order to give a more complete view of the influence process, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were taken. Also, both laboratory-based and field-based studies were carried out, which gives greater ecological validity to the research. Five studies were carried out, considering different aspects of the influence process, ranging from examination of source characteristics to the effects of the computer based medium on discussions, and subsequent attitude change. Although some attitude change was found, the medium (computer-based or face-to-face) appeared to have no real effect. However, it was found that the different media had an effect on other aspects of the influence process, particularly on perceptions of the source, and the actual discussion content. An alternative theoretical approach is proposed, based on McGuire's reception yielding model, which provides an explanation of some inconsistencies in both the present and previous research. The reading of a CMC message follows a set sequence of stages, which allows it to be rejected without further processing at different points. Within this process, the information that is significant to the recipient changes, and acts as a weighting for following information. However, in a laboratory-based study this sequence is entered at different points, depending on the experimental focus, and so this process is altered or bypassed entirely, creating a bias towards different information. This would, therefore, need to be taken into account for the comparison of results

Effects of narrative transportation and character identification on persuasion in the medium of comics, The

2017 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Though narrative messages have been used to persuade audiences for centuries, scholars have only recently begun to investigate the mechanisms behind the narrative persuasion process from a media effects perspective. Research has indicated that the processing of persuasion through narrative differs from the processing of persuasion through rhetorical messages (Slater & Rouner, 2002). Several models of the narrative persuasion process have emerged in the past 15 years (e.g., Slater & Rouner, 2002; Moyer-Guse, 2008; Busselle & Bilandzic, 2009), but no one is yet preferred among scholars. This study tested the extended-Elaboration Likelihood Model (Slater & Rouner, 2002), which posits that narrative persuasion is the result of engagement with a narrative and its characters, as applied to comics that address a local controversy: hydraulic fracturing or "fracking". A group of 236 undergraduate CSU students participated in a 2x2 pre-test/post-test experimental design, in which subjects were presented with one of two persuasive comics (one pro-fracking, one anti-fracking) and levels Narrative Transportation, Character Identification, and Persuasion were assessed. Statistically significant levels of Persuasion were reported by those subjects presented with the anti-fracking comic, but a regression model did not find that Narrative Transportation or Character Identification predicted Persuasion to a statistically significant degree. Though their validity is limited in some ways, these findings suggest that the e-ELM may not adequately explain the narrative persuasion process in the context of comics

The Effects of Nutrition Package Claims, Nutrition Facts Panels, and Motivation to Process Nutrition Information on Consumer Product Evaluations

In a laboratory experiment using a between-subjects design, the authors examine the effects on nutrition and product evaluations of nutrition claims made (e.g., 99% fat free; low in calories ) on a product package, product nutrition value levels, and enduring motivation to process nutrition information. Enduring motivation is shown to moderate the effects of product nutrition value on consumer evaluations. Also, nutrition claims interact with product nutrition value in affecting consumer perceptions of manufacturer credibility. Given the availability of nutrient levels in the Nutrition Facts panel on the back of the mock package, nutrition claims on the front of the package generally did not affect positively consumers\u27 overall product and purchase intention evaluations. The authors discuss some implications of these findings, suggestions for further research, and study limitations

The effects of disclosure format on native advertising recognition and audience perceptions of legacy and online news publishers

This experiment with a representative sample of US adults (N=800) examines the effects of disclosure design characteristics in sponsored news on readers’ ability to recognize such content as paid advertising, and examines whether such recognition differently affects perceptions of legacy and digital-first publishers. Although fewer than 1 in 10 participants were able to recognize native advertising, our study shows that effectively designed disclosure labels facilitate recognition. However, participants who did recognize native advertising had lessened opinions of the publisher and the institution of advertising, overall.American Press Institut

The Neurocognitive Process of Digital Radicalization: A Theoretical Model and Analytical Framework

Recent studies suggest that empathy induced by narrative messages can effectively facilitate persuasion and reduce psychological reactance. Although limited, emerging research on the etiology of radical political behavior has begun to explore the role of narratives in shaping an individual’s beliefs, attitudes, and intentions that culminate in radicalization. The existing studies focus exclusively on the influence of narrative persuasion on an individual, but they overlook the necessity of empathy and that in the absence of empathy, persuasion is not salient. We argue that terrorist organizations are strategic in cultivating empathetic-persuasive messages using audiovisual materials, and disseminating their message within the digital medium. Therefore, in this paper we propose a theoretical model and analytical framework capable of helping us better understand the neurocognitive process of digital radicalization

Argument Strength is in the Eye of the Beholder: Audience Effects in Persuasion

Americans spend about a third of their time online, with many participating in online conversations on social and political issues. We hypothesize that social media arguments on such issues may be more engaging and persuasive than traditional media summaries, and that particular types of people may be more or less convinced by particular styles of argument, e.g. emotional arguments may resonate with some personalities while factual arguments resonate with others. We report a set of experiments testing at large scale how audience variables interact with argument style to affect the persuasiveness of an argument, an under-researched topic within natural language processing. We show that belief change is affected by personality factors, with conscientious, open and agreeable people being more convinced by emotional arguments.Comment: European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL 2017

Tropes in advertising: a web-based empirical study

This study examines the role of one type of rhetorical figure, tropes, which are creative devices that entail the arrangement of words in paradoxical relationships. Specifically, its focus lies in investigating whether the influence simple and complex tropes have on persuasion, as reported in previous research by Toncar and Munch (2003), are generalisable beyond the sample they used. In the extant literature, it is argued that by fully understanding the effects of certain types of tropes, advertisers may better apply their persuasive messages. The study finds that, when using subjective measures as initiated by Toncar and Munch (2003), tropes have no influence on persuasion. While it is noted that further research is needed to increase the generalisability of this study, this result holds true when both simple and complex trope types are used. <br /