Sahara Byrne

All Joking Aside: A Serious Investigation into the Persuasive Effect of Funny Social Issue Messages

This research was designed to assess the effects of contemporary political humor on information processing and persuasion, focusing specifically on two competing processes: processing motivation/counterargument distraction and message discounting. In Study 1, 212 undergraduates read one of four monologues by political comedian Bill Maher. Correlations and path modeling suggested that, in general, humor associated with greater source liking, closer information processing, and reduced counterargument, but also with greater message discounting. In Study 2, 204 undergraduates read one of four versions of a message based on the comedy of Chris Rock, manipulated to be more or less funny and attributed to the comedian or not. Results largely replicated those from Study 1. In addition, the humorous messages promoted more discounting than the serious messages, though they were processed with comparable depth. Although no more likely to be persuasive in the short run, the comedic transcript evidenced a sleeper effect after one week. In sum, the data were consistent with the notion that humorous messages might be processed carefully (but not critically) yet simultaneously discounted as irrelevant to attitudinal judgments. Implications for humor research and the sleeper effect are discussed.

It's Time to Eat! Using Mobile Games to Promote Healthy Eating

Its never been more important to teach youth the importance of healthy eating habits. Time to Eat, a mobile-phone-based game, motivates children to practice healthy eating habits by letting them care for a virtual pet. Players send the pet photos of the food they consume throughout the day; the foods healthiness determines the games outcome. An examination of the games design provides insight into the potential of deploying health games on mobile phones.

The Boomerang Effect A Synthesis of Findings and a Preliminary Theoretical Framework

Communicative messages are often constructed strategically. In many cases, the creators of such messages strive to curtail specific anti-social or unhealthy attitudes and behaviors held by the target audience. However, these messages are not always successful in achieving the intended effect. Messages with a specific intent can backfire and cause an increase in the unhealthy or anti-social attitude or behavior targeted for change. We present a review of findings that have resulted in boomerang effects, broadly defined. An analysis of theoretical mechanisms for the effect eventuates in the proposal of two distinct paths to the boomerang. One path predicts that message receivers will process harmful elements in a message at the expense of those that were intended. The other path predicts that receivers will process the message as intended, but then resist complying with it. Finally, we offer a preliminary theoretical framework of boomerang effects.

Media Literacy Interventions: What makes them Boom or Boomerang?

This study advances research on media literacy by comparing the effectiveness of two versions of a media literacy intervention over time. Participants (156 children in 4th or 5th grade) were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or a control group. Both treatment groups were exposed to an instructional intervention designed to reduce the negative effects of media violence. One of the groups was given an additional cognitive activity immediately following the instructional intervention. Participants in all 3 groups had their aggressive tendencies measured at 4 points in time. Results indicate that when the children participated in a cognitive activity after receiving the media literacy intervention, they experienced an immediate reduction in willingness to use aggression after exposure to violent media. However, the same media literacy intervention without the cognitive activity led to an increase in willingness to use aggression. Our longitudinal results indicate that children receiving an intervention without a cognitive activity might also remain more willing to use aggression over time.

Toward Predicting Youth Resistance to Internet Risk Prevention Strategies

Strategies to protect youth from potentially problematic online experiences may be met with considerable resistance as young people may not be ready or willing to accept such interventions. This study seeks to identify specific Internet risk prevention strategies that are likely to be met with resistance from children and adolescents. It aims to advance the ability to predict when parents and their children will disagree on appropriate strategies for their household. A United States national sample of 456 parents indicated their level of support for a wide range of Internet risk prevention strategies. Their children, ranging from 10–16 years of age, also reported their own attitudes toward each strategy. Strategies resulting in the least disagreement from children include those that empower youth to protect themselves, as well as legal consequences or suspension from school for people who misbehave online. Analysis predicting disagreement between parents and their children revealed that certain characteristics of the relationship, particularly communicative difficulty and parenting style, factor into the problem. Studying the relationship between family communication and media use yields implications for parents and future research.

Conceptualizing personal web usage in work contexts: A preliminary framework

As the internet became the primary method of task-related communication within organizations, a social phenomenon was born: internet users going online for non-work-related purposes when supposedly working. However, there is little consensus on how to conceptualize this broad range of phenomena. Not only do many conceptual terms exist in the literature without clear distinctions, but also the degree to which specific behaviors belong under each concept remains unclear. In this article, we analyze each broad concept on specific dimensions found in the literature, including formal definitions, causes, and outcomes. We then provide a typology integrating this knowledge. Based on an empirical investigation of this typology, an initial framework of personal web usage in work contexts is proposed.

A Test of Competing Cognitive Explanations for the Boomerang Effect in Response to the Deliberate Disruption of Media-Induced Aggression

This study advances research on the boomerang effect in response to anti-aggression media literacy interventions. Previous findings indicate that elementary school children can become more aggressive after exposure to such interventions. We test two competing explanations for the boomerang effect, media priming and psychological reactance, in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with elementary school children (N = 128). Findings indicate that children may cognitively process antisocial elements of an intervention program in a manner that runs counter to the intended effect of prosocial messages. Specifically, children who were exposed to a media literacy intervention with violent media clips as examples reported an increase in willingness to use aggression, whereas children who were exposed to the same lesson without the clips did not. Therefore, the boomerang effect is best explained by the processing of violent clips (media priming) and is not likely due to resistance to the instructional elements of the lesson (psychological reactance). Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Peers, Predators, and Porn: Predicting Parental Underestimation of Children's Risky Online Experiences

Parents often underestimate the degree to which their children engage in risky online activities such as cyberbullying, worrisome interactions with strangers, and exposure to sexual content. This study attempts to identify the underlying predictors of such parental misconceptions. A national sample survey nonrandom of 456 matched parent-child pairs revealed that a permissive parenting style, difficulty communicating about online risks, and household environmental variables such as having access to a private computing space play a role in parental underestimation of risky social interactions that their children encounter and experience online. Implications for scholars and caregivers are discussed.

Construal Level Theory of Mobile Persuasion

This article introduces the construal level theory of mobile persuasion. Concepts associated with both construal level theory and mobile technology are articulated through a literature review and synthesized into a series of assumptions that relate specifically to persuasive communication. Eight theoretical propositions are proposed, introducing three message functions: shifting construal level orientation, bridging construal level perception of choice, and traversing psychological distance to choice. We argue that conceptual relationships between the affordances of mobile technology and construal level theory make mobile devices particularly suited to test and implement these propositions. Message success and message resistance are discussed through this framework. We specify the potential to use construal level theory in effective mobile health interventions and propose a research agenda to further apply construal level theory to the process of communication.

Descriptions of Media-Induced Fright Reactions in a Sample of US Elementary School Children

Grade-school children (N = 219, M age = 8.5 years) reported their experiences of media-induced fear in their own words and using forced-choice items. Seventy-six per cent reported a specific instance of media-induced fright; most were responding to movies (seen in theaters or homes) and media content they had not chosen to view. The most commonly mentioned content involved supernatural themes. More than one-third of children scared by movies named a movie rated G or PG. Frequent symptoms included sleep disturbances and anxieties in normally nonthreatening situations. Having a television in ones bedroom was the best predictor of fright severity. Findings demonstrate the value of using open-ended questions and underscore the need for further research on prevention and coping strategies.