Lijiang Shen

On the Nature of Reactance and its Role in Persuasive Health Communication

Reactance theory might be profitably applied to understanding failures in persuasive health communication but for one drawback: The developer of the theory contends that reactance cannot be measured. Rejecting this position, this paper develops four alternative conceptual perspectives on the nature of reactance (i.e., combinations of cognition and affect), then provides an empirical test of each. Two parallel studies were conducted, one advocating flossing the other urging students to limit their alcohol intake In both cases, a composite index of anger and negative cognitions fully mediated the effects of threat-to-freedom and trait reactance on attitude and intention. The data showed that, in fact, reactance can be operationalized as a composite of self-report indices of anger and negative cognitions. The implications for persuasive communication, in general, are considered as well the specific findings for flossing and drinking.

The Influence of Behavioral Inhibition/Approach Systems and Message Framing on the Processing of Persuasive Health Messages

Two experiments examine the role of message framing and behavioral inhibition/ approach systems (BIS/BAS) on affect, cognition, attitude, and behavioral intention. The results show that advantage framing yields stronger positive emotions, whereas disadvantage framing produces stronger negative emotions. BIS and BAS show a complex pattern of associations with emotions that is not wholly consistent with either the approach—avoidance or valence aspects of affect. There is an interaction between BIS/BAS and message frame on persuasion such that BIS correlates positively with dominant cognitive response under disadvantage framing, but BAS does so under advantage framing. These findings are contextualized in process models (structural equation modeling) that include anger, fear, attitude, and behavioral intention.

Mobilizing Political Talk in a Presidential Campaign: An Examination of Campaign Effects in a Deliberative Framework

This article takes a talk-centered perspective on a mediated presidential campaign. It argues that election campaigns can be conceived of as collective deliberations and that informal political talk during a campaign may be examined as an analytical category in its own right. Analyzing the National Election Study 2000 panel data (n = 1,555), this article shows that political talk during the campaign was prevalent. Both the likelihood and frequency of engaging in political talk during the campaign were related to individuals’ propensity to participate in public life and resulted from individuals’ ideological intensity and interest in the campaign. The campaign also stimulated such political talk through individuals’ exposure to campaign messages and other-initiated campaign contacts. General news media uses contributed to more political talk and campaign participation indirectly by increasing the frequency of exposure to campaign messages on media. Theoretical implications for the research on political campaigns in particular and media effects in general are discussed.

Psychometric properties of the Hong psychological reactance scale.

The Hong Psychological Reactance Scale (HPRS; Hong & Felda, 1996) was developed to measure the individual difference in reactance proneness, that is, a persons trait propensity to experience psychological reactance. We performed confirmatory factor analyses to test the dimensionality of the 11-item version of the HPRS. Three message outcome variables (i.e., perceived threat to freedom, attitude, and intention) served as reference variables to test the construct validity of the HPRS. Data from 3 studies (Ns = 188, 200, and 233) of reactions to persuasive health messages confirmed the existence of 4 first-order factors but also provided evidence that the HPRS can be treated as unidimensional at the second order. The relationships between the second-order factor and the message outcome variables provided evidence of the validity of the scale.

Attitude Accessibility as an Alternative Explanation for How Inoculation Confers Resistance

The investigation examined attitude accessibility as an alternative to the accepted explanation, which is based on threat and counterarguing, for the way that inoculation confers resistance to influence. A total of 333 participants took part in the study in three phases spanning 36 days. The results of multivariate and correlational analyses indicated that inoculation treatments confer resistance, in part, by promoting attitude accessibility. Inoculation treatments immediately elicit attitude accessibility, which enhances attitude strength. Attitude strength, in time, contributes to resistance to the influence of counterattitudinal attacks. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Perceived Realism Dimensions and Roles in Narrative Persuasion

Perceived realism may be a crucial message characteristic facilitating narrative-based persuasion. This study examined dimensions of perceived realism and their roles in narrative persuasion. Data based on responses to messages on three topics showed that perceived realism was multidimensional. Its dimensions included plausibility, typicality, factuality, narrative consistency, and perceptual quality. Plausibility predicted emotional involvement, but not identification. Typicality predicted identification, but not emotional involvement. Narrative consistency and perceptual quality predicted message evaluation. Emotional involvement, identification, and message evaluation, in turn, predicted attitudes. Implications for theory, research, and message design pertinent to narrative persuasion are discussed.

The Effectiveness of Empathy- Versus Fear-Arousing Antismoking PSAs

Building on a previous study (Shen, 2010), this paper investigates the effectiveness of fear- versus empathy-arousing antismoking PSAs and examines the roles of message-induced fear and state empathy in persuasion. Twelve professionally produced antismoking PSAs were used as stimuli messages in a 3 (message type: empathy, fear vs. control) × 4 (messages) mixed design study. The 260 participants were randomly assigned to each message type and watched four PSAs presented in a random sequence. Results from multilevel modeling analyses showed that empathy-arousing messages are potentially more effective than fear-arousing ones. Both fear and state empathy were found to have a positive direct effect on persuasion. However, fear also had a negative indirect impact on persuasion by activating psychological reactance, while state empathy also had a positive indirect effect by inhibiting psychological reactance. Implications for persuasion, health communication campaigns, and future research were discussed.

Message Frames Interact With Motivational Systems to Determine Depth of Message Processing

Although several theoretical perspectives predict that negatively framed messages will be processed more deeply than positively framed messages, a recent meta-analysis found no such difference. In this article, the authors explore 2 explanations for this inconsistency. One possibility is methodological: the statistics used in the primary studies underestimated framing effects on depth of message processing because the data were maldistributed. The other is theoretical: the absence of a main effect is veridical, but framing interacts with individual differences that predispose individuals to greater or lesser depth of processing. Data from 2 experiments (Ns = 286 and 252) were analyzed via tobit regression, a technique designed to overcome the limitations of maldistributed data. One study showed the predicted main effect for framing, but the other did not. Both studies showed the anticipated interaction: Depth of processing correlated positively with a measure of the behavioral activation system in the advantage framing condition, whereas depth of processing correlated positively with the behavioral inhibition system in the disadvantage framing condition.

Antecedents to Psychological Reactance: The Impact of Threat, Message Frame, and Choice.

A 2 (Threat: high vs. low) × 2 (Frame: gain vs. loss) × 2 (Choice: yes vs. no) × 2 (Behavior: prevention vs. detection) factorial design Web-based experiment (N = 814) was conducted to investigate the impact of threat to freedom, message frame, and behavioral choice as antecedents to psychological reactance. The intertwined model for reactance measure was replicated. Results showed that threat to freedom and the loss frame increased, and the gain frame and choice mitigated psychological reactance. The advantages of choice and the gain frame were most salient when threat was high.

The Accessibility of Family and Peer Norms in Young Adolescent Risk Behavior

The accessibility of attitudes and norms (i.e., how quickly they are activated from memory) has been shown to predict young adult cigarette smoking, but prior work has not examined this effect in young adolescents or with other health risk behaviors. In this study, the accessibility of attitudes and norms was used to predict young adolescent (N = 325, age M = 14.97, SD = .73) self-reported behavior and behavior intention for cigarette smoking, alcohol use, marijuana smoking, and sexual behavior. The accessibility of attitudes and the accessibility of injunctive norms were significantly related to adolescents’ health risk behavior. When controlling for current behavior, the accessibility of attitudes and of family norms were significantly related to intent to engage in these behaviors in the future. In contrast, the accessibility of peer norms was only related to reports of current behavior, not future behavior intention. This finding replicates across four behaviors when controlling for age, gender, and race, and provides strong evidence that the accessibility of relevant attitudes and social norms are important factors in young adolescent risk behavior. Implications for communication interventions to reduce teen health risk behavior are discussed.