Glenn Leshner

The Uncanny Valley: The Effects of Rotoscope Animation on Motivational Processing of Depression Drug Messages

The purpose of this study was to investigate how rotoscope animation affects cognitive and emotional processing of depression drug ads. A 2 (animation) × 2 (position of tone) × 4 (message) experiment was conducted. Participants (N = 100) viewed 4, 90-s messages. STRTs (secondary task reaction times) and self-report of emotional responses were collected. Participants also completed an audio recognition task following each message. Among the key findings from this study were that participants in the animated condition showed signs of cognitive withdrawal and descent into a defensive cascade reflective of increasingly fast STRTs and poor encoding of drug side effects.

Scare' Em or Disgust 'Em: The Effects of Graphic Health Promotion Messages

This study experimentally tested the effects of 2 types of content commonly found in anti-tobacco television messages—content focused on communicating a health threat about tobacco use (fear) and content containing disgust-related images—on how viewers processed these messages. In a 2 × 2 within-subjects experiment, participants watched anti-tobacco television ads that varied in the amount of fear and disgust content. The results of this study suggest that both fear and disgust content in anti-tobacco television ads have significant effects on resources allocated to encoding the messages and on recognition memory. Heart-rate data indicated that putting fear- or disgust-related content into anti-tobacco ads led to more resources allocated to encoding compared to messages without either feature. However, participants appeared to allocate fewer resources to encoding during exposure to messages featuring both fear and disgust content. Recognition was most accurate for messages that had either fear or disgust content but was significantly impaired when these 2 message attributes occurred together. The results are discussed in the context of motivated processing and recommendations about message construction are offered to campaign designers.

The Extended iSelf: The Impact of iPhone Separation on Cognition, Emotion, and Physiology

This study uniquely examined the effects on self, cognition, anxiety, and physiology when iPhone users are unable to answer their iPhone while performing cognitive tasks. A 2 x 2 within-subjects experiment was conducted. Participants (N = 40 iPhone users) completed 2 word search puzzles. Among the key findings from this study were that when iPhone users were unable to answer their ringing iPhone during a word search puzzle, heart rate and blood pressure increased, self-reported feelings of anxiety and unpleasantness increased, and self-reported extended self and cognition decreased. These findings suggest that negative psychological and physiological outcomes are associated with iPhone separation and the inability to answer ones ringing iPhone during cognitive tasks. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Motivated Processing of Fear Appeal and Disgust Images in Televised Anti-Tobacco Ads

The current study experimentally tested the effects of two types of content commonly found in anti-tobacco television messages – content focused on communicating a health threat about tobacco use (fear) and content containing disgust related images – on how viewers processed these messages. In a 2 × 2 within-subjects experiment, participants watched anti-tobacco television ads that varied in the amount of fear and disgust content. The results of this study suggest that both fear and disgust content in anti-tobacco television ads have significant effects on resources allocated to encoding the messages, on recognition memory, and on emotional responses. Most interesting, although messages high in both fear and disgust content were rated the most unpleasant and arousing, these same messages reduced corrugator responses, accelerated heart rate, and worsened recognition memory. Implications for the study of motivated processing and for the construction of anti-tobacco messages are discussed.

Get in the Game: The Effects of Game-Product Congruity and Product Placement Proximity on Game Players’ Processing of Brands Embedded in Advergames

This study focused on the effects of game-product congruity and product placement proximity on advergame players’ brand memory, brand attitude, game enjoyment, and future intention to play. A 2 (congruity) × 2 (proximity) repeated-measures experiment was used. Results revealed that players’ implicit memory improved for congruent games only. Explicit memory measures also showed signs of improvement for brands in the congruent/central game condition. Surprisingly, it appears that the incongruent/peripheral game condition produced the best results overall with the smallest negative attitude change, the most game enjoyment, and the highest intention to play again in the future. These contradictory findings suggest to brand marketers who design advergames to be careful when combining multiple game featurescongruity and proximity) within a single advergame because this strategic move may provide optimal brand memory while also producing the opposite desired effect for attitude toward the brand, game enjoyment, and intention to play.

Experimental methodology in journalism and mass communication research

Experiments are a powerful method for understanding causal relationships in journalism and mass communication research. In this essay, the authors examine seven aspects of experimental quality that reviewers should include as criteria in their evaluations. They note that there are complex interrelationships among these indicators. In cases where aspects of the standards are controversial, the authors attempt to summarize the conflicting arguments. Where different methodological conclusions can be rationalized as appropriate, the authors’ suggestion is that the researcher make clear what decisions were made in the experimental design and why, so that readers can evaluate those decisions.

Using TV News for Political Information During An Off-Year Election: Effects on Political Knowledge and Cynicism:

Television news is routinely blamed for a decline in political knowledge and for a deepening cynicism among the American electorate. Yet studies attempting to measure the effects of TV news have produced decidedly mixed results. This study, using survey data from a 1994 U.S. Senate campaign in Missouri, finds that using TV news for political and government information is positively associated with knowledge about candidates and not associated with cynicism toward politicians. These results run counter to the popular notion that TV news induces “videomalaise” among viewers.

Overreporting Voting: Campaign Media, Public Mood, and the Vote

This study used regional telephone survey data collected after the 1996 U.S. presidential election to examine how two possibly important affective variables public mood and political cynicism predict actual as compared with self-reported voting. Public mood, a construct introduced by Rahn, Kroeger, and Kite (1996) to suggest how affective processes may play a role in political behavior, is shown to have two distinct but positively correlated dimensions, one positive and one negative. After demographic variables were controlled, perceived media usefulness predicted positive mood about the presidential election, which in turn predicted self-reported voting. Negative campaign attitude predicted negative mood, which, in turn, influenced actual but not self-reported voting. Political cynicism, although correlated with both positive and negative public mood, predicted neither measure of voting. The bifurcation of influence of negative and positive public mood about elections may explain why researchers have often shown positive affect to influence voting (as measured by self-report), and why political consultants have continued to rely on negative campaigning and the reported increases in negative feelings it engenders in voters to influence actual votes.

Third-Person Effects of Idealized Body Image in Magazine Advertisements

There have been contradictory findings concerning the direct effects of ideal body image advertising on womens body concerns. Despite numerous studies, the mechanism of how women are affected negatively by such imagery is still unclear. The current study explored why women are influenced negatively by ideal body image in the third-person effect framework. In particular, the authors proposed gendered “others” and hypothesized that when those others were men, exposure to the ideal body would create larger third-person perceptions; there would be a negative relationship between third-person gaps and body area satisfaction. Findings confirmed the importance of gendered others, such that women estimated close male friends would be more affected by ideal body image than close female friends.

Switching channels: The effects of television channels on the mental representations of television news

This study tests how people differentiate between television channels, conceptualized as having two important properties: channels differ in degree of specialized content and are positioned within arrays varying in size. Participants watched news stories identified as emanating from either specialist news channels or from generalist channels. News on specialist channels was rated higher on news attributes and evaluated more positively than identical news on generalist channels. News watched on one channel was rated as more similar than identical news watched on four channels. Participants who watched news on four channels rated the television picture quality higher than those who watched on one channel. This pattern of results is consistent with the notion of channel as a place where television programs—and the people and action in them—exist.