Didier Courbet

Personality Predicts Obedience in a Milgram Paradigm

This study investigates how obedience in a Milgram-like experiment is predicted by interindividual differences. Participants were 35 males and 31 females aged 26-54 from the general population who were contacted by phone 8 months after their participation in a study transposing Milgrams obedience paradigm to the context of a fake television game show. Interviews were presented as opinion polls with no stated ties to the earlier experiment. Personality was assessed by the Big Five Mini-Markers questionnaire (Saucier, 1994). Political orientation and social activism were also measured. Results confirmed hypotheses that Conscientiousness and Agreeableness would be associated with willingness to administer higher-intensity electric shocks to a victim. Political orientation and social activism were also related to obedience. Our results provide empirical evidence suggesting that individual differences in personality and political variables matter in the explanation of obedience to authority.

The Long-Term Effects of E-Advertising: The Influence of Internet Pop-ups Viewed at a Low Level of Attention in Implicit Memory

Faced with an abundance of advertising messages, Internet users allocate only minimal cognitive resources to advertising. What are the effects of pop-up ads for a new brand viewed at low-level attention, and then measured when the Internet users have forgotten having seen them? In the theoretical context of processing fluency and implicit memory, the experiment n = 398 studied the effects of repeated brief exposure to different types of content words/image in pop-up ads 7 days and 3 months after exposure. The results show the overall positive effects of the pop-ups, the superiority of the image over words for effects on attitude toward the brand and the purchase intentions; but the words produce more semantic effects than the image.

How Web Banner Designers Work: The Role of Internal Dialogues, Self-Evaluations, and Implicit Communication Theories

ABSTRACT In-depth interviews with web banner designers, combined with retrospective protocols, reveal implicit theories of the communication process that they apply during their creation process. These theories take the form of reactions of imaginary audiences with whom web banner designers engage in imaginary dialogues. The dialogues reveal the evaluation standards held by internet users, advertisers, and different colleagues.

When a celebrity dies …Social identity, uses of social media, and the mourning process among fans: the case of Michael Jackson

The present qualitative survey studies fans’ reactions to the death of Michael Jackson (MJ). We put forward the hypothesis that the time of a celebrity’s death is when the researcher can most fully understand certain psychological and social functions of the celebrity in question. The results highlight that the relationship between fans and celebrities can be mediated by a third person, a loved one who is part of the entourage of the fan. The fan is emotionally attached to this person. We explain how the use of interpersonal communications and social media operate differently depending on whether the fan has based the construction of their identity on the image of MJ (which is of course a complex process) or on their position as a member of the social group of fans. Fans whose identity was based on MJ need to rearrange their model of personal identity. The results underline five functions of social media in the mourning process. They also show that prolonged use of social media could be associated with a slower resolution of the fans’ mourning process. These results are aimed at gaining a better understanding of the relationships between celebrities and their fans, especially parasocial interactions and the role played by celebrities in the construction of fan identity.

Les effets persuasifs de l’e-publicité perçue « sans conscience » en vision périphérique. Implications pour les recherches sur la réception des medias

A l’aide d’une experimentation, nous montrons que des messages publicitaires sur l’internet apparaissant dans le champ visuel peripherique provoquent des effets favorables sur les jugements et les intentions d’achat des marques publicisees, alors que les recepteurs n’ont pas « conscience » qu’elles sont entrees dans leur champ visuel. Nous etudions egalement l’evolution des effets cognitifs et attitudinaux huit jours apres l’exposition. Pour demontrer ces influences de maniere rigoureuse, nous avons concu une methode de presentation contingente couplant une camera filmant les mouvements oculaires et un systeme informatique faisant automatiquement disparaitre les bannieres publicitaires des que le regard de l’internaute se deplace dans leur direction. Apres avoir propose une explication quant aux processus socio-cognitifs impliques dans l’influence, nous ouvrons de nouvelles perspectives pour la recherche sur la reception de la communication mediatique.

Analyse de la réception des messages médiatiques Récits rétrospectifs et verbalisations concomitantes

Resume On connait mal les processus cognitifs et affectifs mis en œuvre par les sujets sociaux lors du contact avec les dispositifs mediatiques, notamment parce que les methodes destinees a etudier la dynamique des processus de reception individuelle sont insuffisamment developpees. L’article propose de combler cette carence methodologique en presentant deux methodes qui permettent d’etudier et «pister» les processus : la methode des Recits de Reception Retrospectifs (RRR) et la methode d’Etude des Cognitions verbalisees concomitantes En Reception (ECER). En nous appuyant sur deux etudes de cas (la reception des images des attentats de New York du 11 septembre 2001 et la reception d’un discours de communication politique), nous expliquons leurs fondements theoriques et epistemologiques ainsi que les modalites pratiques de recueil et d’analyse des informations. Par une analyse comparative, nous precisons ensuite les conditions qui garantissent la validite scientifique et la bonne application des deux methodes pour etudier la reception de la communication mediatique.

Creativity and e-advertising: A Qualitative Study of Art Directors' Creative Processes

An interpretive analysis of qualitative interviews with 33 creators of advertising banners for the Internet, combined with retrospective protocols on the creation process, reveals that they hold implicit theories about the potential impact of their work on different audiences. These audiences intervene in the form of intraindividual imaginary dialogue partners who, throughout the creative process, give their reactions to the message being created. Creation and evaluation are therefore intertwined and not, as the literature on creativity has suggested, two sequential steps of the creative process.

Small clicks, great effects: Immediate and delayed influence of web sites containing serious games on behavior and attitude

The number of websites containing persuasive serious games and advergames has increased over the past several years, but their immediate and delayed effects on behavior are still not well understood. The present field experiment (n = 388, varied socio-professional groups) demonstrates that interactivity linked to this type of website provokes positive effects on immediate behavior (purchases of energy-saving light bulbs, ESLBs) in a ‘real setting.’ It further affected the behavior (installation of ESLBs at home), the memorization of the websites arguments, gains in knowledge, attitude, and other judgments regarding ESLBs, when measured two weeks later. The digital signature of a commitment to perform an expected behavior via a web page also provokes positive behavioral effects. This can accumulate through the effects of interactivity. We close with a discussion of the possible psychological processes involved, theoretical and practical implications and limitations as well as new perspectives for advertising and advergames research.

Sujets sociaux et médias : débats et nouvelles perspectives en sciences de l’information et de la communication@@@Social Psychology of Media: Debates and New Perspectives in Communication Science (SIC)

Référence électronique Didier Courbet, Marie-Pierre Fourquet-Courbet et Claude Chabrol, « Sujets sociaux et médias : débats et nouvelles perspectives en sciences de l’information et de la communication », Questions de communication [En ligne], 10 | 2006, mis en ligne le 01 décembre 2006, consulté le 01 octobre 2016. URL : http://questionsdecommunication.revues.org/7697 ; DOI : 10.4000/ questionsdecommunication.7697