Matthias R. Hastall

Imagery Effects on the Selective Reading of Internet Newsmagazines

An Internet newsmagazine was created, involving all features of online interactivity. The text of all available reports was held constant. The imagery of a subset of articles was manipulated, however. The manipulated articles were presented either without images, with text-related innocuous images, or with text-related threatening images in both their headline displays and their text bodies. During a fixed period of time, readers were free to sample articles and to read as much of them as they pleased. Unbeknownst to them, their selective exposure behavior was automatically recorded. It was observed that the incorporation of threatening images fostered more frequent selection of the associated articles and markedly increased reading times of the corresponding texts. The incorporation of innocuous images had similar but more moderate effects. Retrospective accounts of reading were consistent with the recorded exposure behavior.

Affective News Effects of Discourse Structure in Narratives on Suspense, Curiosity, and Enjoyment While Reading News and Novels

Three studies were conducted to investigate effects of narrative’s discourse structures and factuality on suspense, curiosity, and reading enjoyment. Data collected with a questionnaire to measure suspense and curiosity substantiated the discriminant validity of these dimensions. In a Web-based study and two paper-pencil studies, respondents read texts that were manipulated for type of discourse structure (linear, reversal, or inverted type). To manipulate factuality (high vs. low), texts were presented either as news reports or as novel excerpts, a treatment that proved to be effective. All assumptions gained empirical support. The linear type evoked more suspense than either reversal or inverted type. Curiosity was higher in reaction to reversal-type narratives than it was for either linear-type or inverted-type narratives. The linear and the reversal type both produced greater reading enjoyment than the inverted type. These effects were independent of factuality of media content.

Social Comparisons With News Personae Selective Exposure to News Portrayals of Same-Sex and Same-Age Characters

Appeal of personae in news is investigated based on social comparison theory. Participants (N = 276) of two age groups browsed through online news while selective exposure was unobtrusively logged. Manipulated articles focused on individuals and varied along three within factors: sex and age group of portrayed individual and story valence. After browsing news, participants completed a questionnaire including a self-esteem scale. Recipients preferred news on same-sex individuals, and young readers favored articles about same-age characters. Impacts of self-esteem to positive and negative articles, offering upward and downward comparison opportunities, were mediated by sex of recipient. Exploratory analyses indicated that this interaction results from gender-based preferences for comparison contexts—social issues for women and achievement topics for men.

Coping or Escaping?: Effects of Life Dissatisfaction on Selective Exposure

A quasiexperiment tested competing hypotheses regarding escapist media use and alternative coping motivations in media selection behavior. For 287 participants, personal satisfaction levels for five life domains were assessed. In an ostensibly unrelated study, the participants browsed through online content in which some section topics corresponded to the life domains. Selective exposure was unobtrusively logged by software. Lower satisfaction with college and career situation and with personal financial situation was associated with longer exposure to information about college and career issues. Among respondents in a romantic relationship, higher satisfaction with personal romantic situation led to longer reading times for articles about romance issues, whereas among single respondents, lower satisfaction with ones romantic situation was connected to longer reading of such content. Satisfaction with own health and exposure to health information showed a curvilinear pattern, as low and high satisfaction produced lower exposure than moderate satisfaction.

Platypus: Indoor Localization and Identification through Sensing of Electric Potential Changes in Human Bodies

Platypus is the first system to localize and identify people by remotely and passively sensing changes in their body electric potential which occur naturally during walking. While it uses three or more electric potential sensors with a maximum range of 2 m, as a tag-free system it does not require the user to carry any special hardware. We describe the physical principles behind body electric potential changes, and a predictive mathematical model of how this affects a passive electric field sensor. By inverting this model and combining data from sensors, we infer a method for localizing people and experimentally demonstrate a median localization error of 0.16 m. We also use the model to remotely infer the change in body electric potential with a mean error of 8.8 % compared to direct contact-based measurements. We show how the reconstructed body electric potential differs from person to person and thereby how to perform identification. Based on short walking sequences of 5 s, we identify four users with an accuracy of 94 %, and 30 users with an accuracy of 75 %. We demonstrate that identification features are valid over multiple days, though change with footwear.

Ambient Intelligence from Senior Citizens’ Perspectives: Understanding Privacy Concerns, Technology Acceptance, and Expectations

Especially for seniors, Ambient Intelligence can provide assistance in daily living and emergency situations, for example by automatically recognizing critical situations. The use of such systems may involve trade-offs with regard to privacy, social stigmatization, and changes of the well-known living environment. This raises the question of how older adults perceive restrictions of privacy, accept technology, and which requirements are placed on Ambient Intelligent systems. In order to better understand the related concerns and expectations, we surveyed 60 senior citizens. The results show that experience with Ambient Intelligence increases technology acceptance and reduces fears regarding privacy violations and insufficient system reliability. While participants generally tolerate a monitoring of activities in their home, including bathrooms, they do not accept commercial service providers as data recipients. A comparison between four exemplary systems shows that camera-based solutions are perceived with much greater fears than wearable emergency solutions. Burglary detection was rated as similarly important assigned as health features, whereas living comfort features were considered less useful.

Caught in the Act: Measuring Selective Exposure to Experimental Online Stimuli

Several techniques are available to measure an individuals selective exposure to online content, but only a few investigations have examined actual selective exposure to online stimuli experimentally generated and manipulated. We discuss a successfully implemented approach specifically developed for this purpose. By providing researchers with a combined record of observational selective exposure data and self-report data, the approach we describe here offers selective exposure investigators the opportunity to examine the joint impact of media content features and media user characteristics on selective exposure. Its theoretical and methodological foundations, applicability for a wide array of research questions, and the limitations of this approach are discussed.

Enhancing Selective Exposure to Health Messages and Health Intentions

Insufficient message exposure is still a major obstacle for effective health communication activities, and little is known on how message features affect selective exposure and persuasion. This study examined the effects of two health message features, suggested susceptibility and gain–loss framing, on respondents’ selective exposure and subsequent health behavior intentions. Two personality traits, repression-sensitization and approach/avoidance motivation, were studied as moderators of the proposed relationships. An experimental 2 (suggested susceptibility: low vs. high) × 2 (gain–loss framing: gain- vs. loss-framed message) study was conducted. Participants browsed through an online health magazine while their message choices were unobtrusively logged. A subsequent online questionnaire assessed personality dispositions and behavioral intentions. High levels of message susceptibility increased both selective exposure to health messages and respondents’ motivation to engage in adaptive health behaviors. Gain–loss framing did not affect message exposure or behavioral intentions, with one exception: Avoidance-oriented low-anxious respondents selected more loss-framed than gain-framed articles for reading. Repression-sensitization and approach/avoidance motivation did not moderate health message effects, but partly influenced these measures directly or in combination. The number of articles to choose from was limited, and it is unclear to what extent the findings can be generalized to other, more familiar health topics. Emphasizing readers’ susceptibility to health threats appears very effective for increasing exposure to health messages and protective behavioral intentions. The effectiveness of gain–loss framing, by contrast, largely depends on moderating factors.

Wirkung von Furchtappellen in der Werbung

Furchtappelle wurden bereits von Aristoteles als rhetorisches Stilmittel empfohlen und werden insbesondere im sozialen Marketing, in der Gesundheitskommunikation und in der politischen Kommunikation haufig eingesetzt. Wahrend Befurworter positive Effekte auf Aufmerksamkeit, Einstellungen und Verhalten der Rezipienten hervorheben, verweisen Gegner auf eine Reihe unerwunschter und problematischer Wirkungen. Relativ viele Ansatze wurden zur Erklarung von Furchtappellwirkungen bereits postuliert und uberwiegend relativ schnell revidiert oder verworfen, da die empirischen Befunde widerspruchlich blieben. Die Hauptannahmen einiger zentraler theoretischer Ansatze werden in diesem Kapitel vorgestellt und der empirische Forschungsstand systematisiert. Sowohl die Variabilitat der theoretischen Erklarungsversuche als auch die Heterogenitat der empirischen Befunde sprechen dafur, dass die komplexen Wirkungen sowie insbesondere die entscheidenden Randbedingungen fur positive und negative Effekte von Furchtappellen bislang unzureichend verstanden werden.

Abwehrreaktionen auf Gesundheits-appelle: Forschungsstand und Praxisempfehlungen

Menschen sind tagtaglich hunderten von Marketing- und Werbebotschaften ausgesetzt, allerdings nicht schutzlos: Genauso wie unser Immunsystem potenzielle Bedrohungen automatisch erkennt und ihnen mit einem komplexen System aus Barrieren, Killerzellen und Antikorpern begegnen kann, verfugen wir uber effiziente Schutzmechanismen zur Abwehr unangenehmer oder bedrohlicher Botschaften. Diese Mechanismen sind lebenswichtig.