Laura M. Arpan

A cognitive approach to understanding university image

This study employed a cognitive psychological approach to examining a little studied phenomenon – university image – among two groups of evaluators. The study found that different groups used different criteria when rating ten major US universities. Found to significantly predict the image of the universities among a sample of current university students were three factors: academic factors, athletic factors, and the extent of news coverage of the university. Found to significantly predict the image of the same universities among an adult, non‐student sample were four factors: a combined factor including all university attributes (including academic and athletic); the extent of news coverage; the education level of respondents; and the respondents’ level of sports fanship. Recent research in attitude structure is used to explain how different image criteria are recalled and employed by the different groups.

An Experimental Investigation of News Source and the Hostile Media Effect

This study examined the interaction among different news sources, individual levels of partisanship, and the hostile media effect in sports news. Two hundred and three participants read a balanced story about their home-town college football team in one of three newspapers: the home-town, the cross-state rival universitys town, or a neutral-town paper. The study found differences in the hostile media effect across conditions, suggesting the importance of news source in the phenomenon. Further, findings indicate strong support for the hostile media effect among sports news consumers.

Stormy weather: testing “stealing thunder” as a crisis communication strategy to improve communication flow between organizations and journalists

Abstract An experiment was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a highly proactive approach to crisis communication called “stealing thunder.” Reporters and journalism students were asked to read one of two fictitious crisis scenarios: one in which the organization’s public relations practitioner stole thunder (broke the news about the crisis) by contacting the journalist, and one in which the journalist learned about the crisis from another party. When the organization stole thunder, journalists rated the practitioner as more credible, but also indicated greater interest in the story. No differences were found across the two conditions in terms of perceptions of crisis severity or framing in reporters’ news leads. Implications for crisis communication and the ongoing journalist–practitioner relationship are discussed.

When in Rome? The Effects of Spokesperson Ethnicity on Audience Evaluation of Crisis Communication

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of using organi zational spokespersons of ethnic backgrounds similar to or different from possible stakeholders of a multinational organization. The inves tigation used a fictitious crisis in the United States and varied the home country of the organization involved in the crisis (United States, Mexico, and Japan), as well as whether the organization used a spokesperson from its home country. Although the participant groups did not generally prefer similar spokespersons, path analyses found that the degree to which each participant identified with his or her own ethnic group affected spokesperson similarity ratings, which, in turn, predicted spokesperson credibility ratings. Additionally, the extent to which participants accepted the crisis response given by the organization was predicted by spokesperson credibility ratings. Impli cations for multinational organizations experiencing a crisis in host, or foreign, countries are discussed.

Exploring Anger in the Hostile Media Process: Effects on News Preferences and Source Evaluation:

Most studies of news bias judgments and news consumption do not consider the likely emotional responses to news content, and theoretical arguments suggest that approach emotions, like anger, may actually motivate more, not less, news consumption. An experiment found support for hypotheses that bias judgments would positively correlate with anger responses, and anger responses would associate not only with greater criticism of the reporter but also more, rather than less, interest in additional news stories containing both identity-threatening and identity-bolstering content.

Attitude accessibility: Theory, methods, and future directions

Contents: Preface. J. Monahan, D.R. Roskos-Ewoldsen, Celebrating Social Cognition and Communication. Part I: Message Production. J.O. Greene, A.R. Graves, Cognitive Models of Message Production. C. Berger, Communication: A Goal-Directed, Plan-Guided Process. S.R. Wilson, H. Feng, Interaction Goals and Message Production: Conceptual and Methodological Developments. D. Hample, Arguments. Part II: Interpersonal Communication. D.H. Solomon, J.A. Theiss, Cognitive Foundations of Communication in Close Relationships. V. Manusov, Attributions and Interpersonal Communication: Out of Our Heads and Into Behavior. M.E. Roloff, L.M. Van Swol, Shared Cognition and Communication Within Group Decision-Making and Negotiation. A. Koerner, Social Cognition in Family Communication. P.J. Lannutti, J. Monahan, Social Cognition Under the Influence: Drinking While Communicating. Part III: Mass Media. L.J. Shrum, Social Cognition and Cultivation. M.B. Oliver, S. Ramasubramanian, J. Kim, Media and Racism. W.P. Eveland, Jr., M. Seo, News and Politics. B. Roskos-Ewoldsen, D.R. Roskos-Ewoldsen, M. Yang, M. Lee, Comprehension of Media Stories. Part IV: Social Influence. L. Arpan, N. Rhodes, D.R. Roskos-Ewoldsen, Attitude Accessibility: Theory, Methods, and Future Directions. R. Nabi, Emotion and Persuasion: A Social Cognitive Perspective. J.R. Meyer, Compliance Gaining. M. Hamilton, Dual Process Models of Persuasion.

Influence of Source Liking and Personality Traits on Perceptions of Bias and Future News Source Selection

This study examined news selection intentions that followed judgments of story bias and the extent to which those intentions were influenced by source liking. The study also examined the extent to which two personality traits, argumentativeness and need for cognition, affected perceptions of story bias and intent to select an offending source in the future. Participants were more likely to say they would return to the source of a “biased” story if they liked and had selected the source previously than they were if the source was unknown. Individuals high in argumentativeness were less likely than those low in argumentativeness to view a story with negative information about their group as biased. Need for cognition was weakly related to intent to return to an offending source. Implications for consumption of counterattitudinal information and source selection in the current news environment are discussed.

The Effect of Country of Origin on Judgments of Multinational Organizations Involved in a Crisis

Abstract Country-of-origin effects research has shown that consumers tend to form impressions of countries and their major exports over time. These general evaluations can serve as stereotypes or judgment shortcuts invoked by consumers when they consider a product purchase or their attitude toward a given product. The current study used an experimental design to examine the effect of country of origin and outgroup status on how fictitious multinational organizations were evaluated by American and Chinese citizens after a crisis situation. Specifically, participants were asked to make an attribution for a product crisis associated with an organization based in China, Japan, Mexico, or the United States. The study found that evaluations of the organization and its behavior were based more on overall evaluations of the country in which the organization was headquartered than on simple outgroup status.

An experimental investigation of occupancy-based energy-efficient control of commercial building indoor climate

We present results from a week-long experimental evaluation of a scalable control algorithm for a commercial building heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system. The experiments showed that the controller resulted in 37% energy savings without sacrificing indoor climate. In contrast to prior work that reports energy savings without a careful measure of the effect on indoor climate, we verify that the controller achieves the energy efficiency improvements without any adverse effect on the indoor climate compared to the buildings baseline controller. This is established from measurements of a host of environmental variables and analysis of before-after occupant survey results. We present a complete system to retrofit existing buildings including the control algorithm and the supporting execution platform which includes the deployment of a wireless sensor network. Results show that there is a large variation in energy savings from zone to zone, which indicates that estimating energy savings potential of novel HVAC control systems is not trivial even from experiments-something that prior work with uniformly positive messages did not emphasize.

Integration of information about corporate social performance

Purpose – The aim of this research was to examine psychological processes that may mediate effects of corporate social performance on evaluations of and behavior toward organizations.Design/methodology/approach – An experimental design examined how previously formed, summary attitudes versus consideration of specific information about CSP affected intended behaviors toward fictitious organizations. Theories of attitude structure and attitude change form the theoretical basis for the paper.Findings – In general, participants relied on summary attitudes toward stimulus organizations. However, when fear of making an invalid decision was stimulated, participants were more likely to consider specific attributes of organizations (such as CSP) when making decisions about them.Research limitations/implications – The study is limited by its use of fictitious organizations in an experimental situation. The study suggests that organizational managers as well as those who study crisis management and CSP should consid...