Nurit Tal-Or

Testing Causal Direction in the Influence of Presumed Media Influence

According to the influence of presumed media influence hypothesis, people estimate the potential effects of media on other people and change their attitudes or behaviors as a consequence. In recent years, many studies offered some support for this idea. However, a central limitation of these studies is that all of them utilized correlational methodology and thus do not offer a valid way to infer causality. The current research examined the causal direction in the influence of presumed media influence using experimental methodology. In Study 1, the authors manipulated the perceived influence of watching pornography and measured the effects of this manipulation on support for censorship. In Study 2, perceptions regarding the influence of a news story about an expected shortage in sugar were manipulated indirectly, by manipulating the perceived exposure to the news story, and behavioral intentions resulting from the story were consequently measured. In both studies, results supported the causal direction postulated by the “presumed influence” hypothesis.

Third-Person Perception as an Impression Management Tactic

The current research aims at broadening the motivational explanations for the third-person perception (TPP) by documenting the role of impression management motives in this perception. In two experiments that were devised to explore this possibility, participants were asked to report in public or in private on their perceptions of how various advertisements affected them and others. In addition, their level of self-monitoring was measured, and they were divided into two categories—high and low. In line with the hypotheses, participants showed a larger TPP in public than in private. Moreover, while the public nature of the situation did not affect low self-monitors, high self-monitors reported a large TPP in public but no TPP at all in private. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the current findings for research on the causes and consequences of the TPP.

On Becoming What We Might Have Been: Counterfactual Thinking and Self-efficacy

Three experiments examined the hypothesis that, in the aftermath of a performance event, upward counterfactuals reinforce feelings of self-efficacy toward similar future events, whereas downward counterfactuals decrease feelings of self-efficacy. Using a scenario methodology, the first two experiments confirmed this hypothesis: upward counterfactual thinking enhanced feelings of self-efficacy relative to downward counterfactual thinking. In a third experiment, conducted in a more real-world context, upward counterfactuals again led to greater feelings of self-efficacy than downward counterfactuals. However, there were important limiting conditions: the effect of counterfactual thinking on self-efficacy was more or less pronounced depending on both situational and dispositional factors. Whereas the pattern of results provided little support for a self-protection explanation for these limiting conditions, the results were consistent with a depth of processing explanation.

Bragging in the right context: Impressions formed of self-promoters who create a context for their boasts

Two studies examined the impression formed of self-promoters who actively work on creating the right context for their boasts. According to previous research, self-promotion in response to a question is perceived more positively. The current research claims that people commonly encourage their interactants to ask them a question pertaining to their success, and investigates the resulting impressions created. In Study 1 speakers were perceived more negatively when they raised the issue relevant to their self-promotion only when their interactant did not ask them a question concerning their success. Study 2 provided evidence regarding the cognitive process underlying the perception of the self-promoter. The results are discussed in terms of the correspondence bias, the mindlessness hypothesis, and models of reconstructive memory.

On the Substitutability of the Third-Person Perception

The prevailing explanation for the Third-Person Perception (TPP) argues that people perceive that others are more influenced by the mass media than themselves in order to maintain a positive self image. If the TPP is indeed a self-preserving bias, then according to psychological research, it should be substitutable with other self-preserving mechanisms. However, past attempts to reduce the TPP after affirming the self have by and large failed. The studies reported in this paper extend these past attempts in two important ways. First, unlike past research that focused on cross-domain substitutability, we test for the substitutability of the TPP within a specific self-domain. Second, unlike past research that manipulated state self-esteem and measured the impact on subsequent TPPs, we also test for the opposite type of substitutability, namely for the impact of the TPP on subsequent self-maintenance mechanisms. Overall, the findings suggest that the TPP is partly substitutable with other self-preserving mechanisms, but this substitutability takes place only within a specific self-domain.

Direct and indirect self-promotion in the eyes of the perceivers

Two studies compared the perceptions formed about impression managers who enhance themselves indirectly by boasting about their associates’ success to those who directly self-promote by boasting about their own past or present success. Using different populations and contexts, both of these studies predicted and found that indirect self-promotion does not provide the benefits of direct self-promotion, such as being perceived as competent, but does entail the disadvantages of direct self-promotion, such as being perceived as manipulative and unsociable. The discussion centers on the possible reasons for the inadequacy of indirect self-promotion as an impression management tactic.

How Co-Viewing Affects Attitudes: The Mediating Roles of Transportation and Identification

Communication scholars have long acknowledged that watching television is often done in the company of others. While previous research focused mainly on the impact of co-viewing on children’s behavior and their enjoyment of watching, the current research extends this work to determine the effect of co-viewing on the actual viewing experience of adults, specifically, on transportation and identification. Furthermore, the study examines the role of these processes as mediators leading to changes in attitude. Study 1 demonstrates the impact of the co-viewer’s enthusiasm on transportation and identification. Study 2 demonstrates the impact of the co-viewer’s gender on transportation and identification. These processes, in turn, mediate the effect of co-viewing on attitude changes. The findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical contributions.

Does the Co-Viewing of Sexual Material Affect Rape Myth Acceptance? The Role of the Co-Viewer’s Reactions and Gender

While media research has long ago acknowledged that watching TV is a social activity, only a few studies have examined the effects of co-viewing on adult reactions to a televised text. In the current investigation, we used social-cognitive theory combined with previous research on the intra-audience effect, audience identification, transportation, and attitude change to develop hypotheses connecting co-viewers’ reactions, co-viewers’ gender, and viewer’s post-exposure attitudes. Participants watched a movie segment that ended in a rape scene. We manipulated their confederate co-viewers’ displayed reaction (enthusiastic or bored) and gender, and subsequently measured perceived co-viewers’ attributions of responsibility for the rape, the viewers’ transportation, identification with the male protagonist, and acceptance of the rape myth (the tendency to attribute responsibility for sexual violence to the victim). Results demonstrated that for those participants who correctly perceived the engagement manipulation, the effect of the confederate co-viewer’s engagement manipulation on rape myth acceptance was positive and significant. In addition, both manipulations had an indirect effect on rape myth acceptance, sequentially mediated through transportation and identification.

Unpacking Engagement: Convergence and Divergence in Transportation and Identification

This review proposes that transportation and identification are distinct forms of engaging with narratives, that they are enhanced by different factors and that they have distinct roles in narrative persuasion. By describing and analyzing 56 studies that explore the antecedents and consequences of transportation and identification, the ways in which these two processes are similar and different are highlighted. Following the review, new directions for research in this area are explicated. Finally, implications for both theory and message design are explored.

Boasting, burnishing, and burying in the eyes of the perceivers

Three studies examined the perceptions formed about impression managers who enhance themselves indirectly by associating themselves with successful others. It was predicted that listeners would take into account not only the information conveyed regarding the targets attributes and degree of closeness to the target, but also the pragmatic implications of this information, including the speakers perceived attempt to manage his or her impression. The valence of the depiction as well as the closeness between the speaker and the target were manipulated, and they were expected to have an interactive effect on the perception of the speaker as manipulative. The results generally supported the research hypotheses in demonstrating that the speaker was perceived as more manipulative when ascribing positive characteristics to a close other rather than to a distant other and when associating himself with a successful other rather than an unsuccessful other. The data for the first study came from an undergraduate thesis by Michal Mor and Avner Raz. The data for the second study came from an undergraduate thesis by Gili Kimel and Nimrod Har‐Zion, and the data for the third study came from an undergraduate thesis by Riki Shulman and Yael Naim. All of these projects were supervised by the author. The author would like to thank these students for their help in data collection.