Charles T. Salmon

Fear Appeals for Individuals in Different Stages of Change: Intended and Unintended Effects and Implications on Public Health Campaigns

This study represents an initial attempt to examine the intended and unintended effects of fear appeals among individuals in different stages of change. Toward this end, a pilot study investigated the effects of fear appeals promoting skin cancer preventive behavior among college students. After being exposed to fear appeals, individuals who were in the precontemplation stage indicated a greater likelihood of thinking defensively and fatalistically regarding the facts on health risk than those who had intended to engage in or who had previously engaged in preventive behavior. Concurrently, after being exposed to fear appeals, those who were in the precontemplation stage reported less favorable attitudes toward message recommendations, weaker intentions to engage in recommended behavior, and less performance of preventive behavior than those who had contemplated or had previously engaged in preventive behavior. Implications of these results on future public health campaigns are discussed.

The Use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in Health Communication Campaigns: Review and Recommendations

ABSTRACT The past decade has witnessed a rapid increase in the use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in health communication campaigns seeking to achieve an ambitious range of health-related impacts. This article provides a review of 40 studies and research protocols, with a focus on two key factors that differentiate SNSs from more traditional health communication approaches of the past. The first is the potential dualism between message sender and receiver, in which receivers become receiver-sources who forward and amplify the content and reach of health messages. The second is the potential dualism between message and message impact, in which the act of forwarding and modifying messages by receiver-sources itself becomes a measure of message impact. Each of these dualisms has implications for the design and evaluation of contemporary health communication campaigns. The review concludes with a series of observations and recommendations for future health communication research.

Media exposure and smoking intention in adolescents: A moderated mediation analysis from a cultivation perspective

The study tested a moderated mediation model to examine the mechanisms underlying the link between media exposure and adolescent smoking intention by utilizing a modification of cultivation theory. A total of 12,586 non-current smoker adolescents in California were included in the analysis. Results showed that media exposure was positively related to smoking intention via perceived prevalence of peer smoking when friend disapproval of cigarette use was low. This study contributes to a better understanding of the mechanisms regarding the media effects on smoking intention, but the findings should be interpreted with caution due to the small effect size.

A retrospective overview of health communication studies in Asia from 2000 to 2013

In this overview, we look back at the research articles that have been published about health communication in Asia over the past 14 years. Based on a sample of manuscripts published in international journals, we assess and discuss general trends in health communication research across different regions in Asia. In particular, we examine the theoretical and methodological approaches, as well as the types of diseases that received most attention from health communication researchers.

Communicating to Influence Perceptions of Social Stigma Implications for the Use of Signs by the Homeless as a Means of Soliciting Funds

Homelessness is an important social problem in many countries, including the United States. The plight of the homeless is compounded by a high level of stigma associated with the homeless. This study examines the effects of humorous and nonhumorous signs used by the homeless to attract donations. Study 1 shows that nonhumorous signs attracted 10 times as much money as humorous signs. Study 2 shows that subjects felt more comfortable in the presence of homeless not holding a sign and perceived them more positively compared with homeless holding a humorous sign. Positive perceptions of them led to more comfort, which led to more donations. Study 3 shows that subjects perceived homeless not holding a sign more positively compared with homeless holding a nonhumorous sign. These findings suggest that signs make potential donors feel uncomfortable, potentially resulting in diminished donations.

Identifying opinion leaders to promote organ donation on social media: Network study

Background In the recent years, social networking sites (SNSs, also called social media) have been adopted in organ donation campaigns, and recruiting opinion leaders for such campaigns has been found effective in promoting behavioral changes. Objective The aim of this paper was to focus on the dissemination of organ donation tweets on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and to examine the opinion leadership in the retweet network of popular organ donation messages using social network analysis. It also aimed to investigate how personal and social attributes contribute to a user’s opinion leadership on the topic of organ donation. Methods All messages about organ donation posted on Weibo from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 were extracted using Python Web crawler. A retweet network with 505,047 nodes and 545,312 edges of the popular messages (n=206) was constructed and analyzed. The local and global opinion leaderships were measured using network metrics, and the roles of personal attributes, professional knowledge, and social positions in obtaining the opinion leadership were examined using general linear model. Results The findings revealed that personal attributes, professional knowledge, and social positions predicted individual’s local opinion leadership in the retweet network of popular organ donation messages. Alternatively, personal attributes and social positions, but not professional knowledge, were significantly associated with global opinion leadership. Conclusions The findings of this study indicate that health campaign designers may recruit peer leaders in SNS organ donation promotions to facilitate information sharing among the target audience. Users who are unverified, active, well connected, and experienced with information and communications technology (ICT) will accelerate the sharing of organ donation messages in the global environment. Medical professionals such as organ transplant surgeons who can wield a great amount of influence on their direct connections could also effectively participate in promoting organ donation on social media.

Modelling Composite Emotions in Affective Agents

It is important for artificial agents to accurately infer human emotions in order to provide believable interactions. However, there is currently a lack of empirical results supporting affective agent to propose effective computational models for this purpose through analyzing individual profile information and the interaction outcomes. In this paper, we bridge this gap with a game-based empirical study. We propose a general model for interactions between an agent and a user in competitive game settings. Based on results from over 450 players in over 2,500 game sessions, we construct a regression model using a players education level, age, gender and the interaction outcome as explanatory factors to compute his/her composite emotions consisting of the six basic emotions.

Predicting Activism for a Social Cause

This study identifies factors that predict willingness to engage in activism for a social cause. In doing so, it develops a Guttman scale that ranks the various online and offline communication activities in order of likelihood of being engaged. Survey data indicate that those who perceive structural forces as the cause of homelessness are more willing to engage in activism. The societal attribution appears to drive willingness to engage in activism directly as well as indirectly by boosting confidence in persuading others to agree about the issue of homelessness (i.e., increasing communicative efficacy). This finding suggests that the causal attribution of responsibility may motivate activism by influencing the beliefs about whether one should and can help to mobilize support to address the issue.

Role conflict and ambivalence in the aged-parent-adult-child relationship

Purpose The parent-child relationship is important to the solidarity of families and the emotional well-being of family members. Since people are more dependent on their close social relationships as they age, understanding the quality of relationships between aged parents and their adult children is a critical topic. Previous research shows that this relationship is complicated with both kinship and ambivalence. However, there is little research on the causes of this complexity. This paper proposes a role model to explain this complexity by studying the leadership transition within a family as the child grows. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, we proposed a novel perception to understand this transition process and explain related problems based on the analysis of the leader-follower relationship between the parents and their children. Findings When a child is born, his/her parents become the leader of this family because of their abilities, responsibilities and the requirements of the infant. This leader-follower role structure will last a long time in this family. Decades later, when the parents become old and the child grows up, the inter-generational contracts within the family and the requirement of each members change. This transition weakens the foundation of the traditional leader-follower role structure within the family. If either the parent or the child does not want to accept their new roles, both of them will suffer and struggle in this relationship. This role conflict will cause ambivalence in the relationship between aged parents and their adult children. Originality/value Based on the quantitative study model provided in this paper, we can moderate the relationships between aged parents and their adult children. This effort is meaningful in enhancing the quality of life and emotional wellbeing for senior citizens.