Sherri Jean Katz

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.

Do the Ends Justify the Means? A Test of Alternatives to the FDA Proposed Cigarette Warning Labels

Three studies provide empirical, social scientific tests of alternatives to the originally proposed U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) cigarette package warning labels on health risk beliefs, perceived fear, and effectiveness. Our research addresses questions at the root of the legal disputes surrounding FDA regulation of cigarette package warning labels. Specifically, we describe results from three studies that investigate the mediating role of health beliefs and perceived fear in shaping message effectiveness and intentions to quit. The first study featured nonsmoking young adults, while the second and third studies sampled adult daily smokers. Each study was a randomized experiment with five warning-label image conditions: full-color graphic warning labels, black-and-white graphic warning labels, warning text (no graphic image), Surgeon General’s warning labels, and no warning. Results consistently indicate that graphic warning labels (in both color and black-and-white) promote increased perceptions of fear, which in turn are associated with greater (perceived and actual) effectiveness. We conclude with a discussion of the results, highlighting implications, public policy considerations, and suggestions for future research.

E-cigarettes Warning Labels and Modified Risk Statements: Tests of Messages to Reduce Recreational Use.

Objectives We tested how variations of the warning message on e-cigarette packages influenced risk and ambiguity perceptions, and whether including a modified risk statement on the package influenced how the warning label was perceived. Method A 4 (warning text) × 2 (modified risk statement), plus control, experiment (N = 451) was conducted. Results Smoking status, sex, and the language used in the warning statements interacted to influence risk perceptions. For example, non-smoking women perceived e-cigarettes with the FDA text at 30% of the package as riskier than the FDA text at 12-point type. Additionally, including a modified risk statement on the package increased ambiguity among non-smokers, as did an abstract warning label. Conclusions When evaluating the effectiveness of warning label text, it is important to consider smoking status and sex. Additionally, including modified risk statements on the package with the warning label could potentially increase ambiguity among non-smokers.

Predicting Parent-Child Differences in Perceptions of How Children Use the Internet for Help With Homework, Identity Development, and Health Information

Bioecological systems theory provides a framework to understand how factors in the childs environment contribute to parent-child differences in estimations of how often children are helped by their Internet use. A national sample survey of 456 matched parent-child pairs investigated how parents-child relational factors, parental attitudes toward the Internet, and the bio-ecology of the child, are related to differing perceptions of the frequency of using the Internet to seek help with homework assignments, to aid in identity development, and to find health information. While previous research shows that parents underestimate risky online behaviors, we investigate whether parent-child differences will emerge in regards to how often the child engages in the behaviors under investigation here. The findings show that parents overestimate these online activities, suggesting they are biased in their estimations. Parent-child relational factors emerged as predictors of parental overestimation for each of these online activities, with trust perceptions as the most consistent predictor. Parental attitudes toward the Internet predicted parent-child differences in perceptions of how frequently the child used the Internet for help with homework and identity development, while the bioecology of the child was only predictive in the case of using the Internet for help with homework.

Mitigating the Perception of Threat to Freedom through Abstraction and Distance

This study tested theoretical relationships between key concepts in psychological reactance theory and construal level theory. Through a 3 × 2 × 2 experiment (n = 155), we manipulate (1) how abstractly or concretely participants are processing a message, (2) the psychological distance to the message, and (3) whether or not the message restricts choice. Dependent measures include perceptions of threat to freedom and message effectiveness. Results show that increasing abstraction and/or distance can mitigate the perception of threat to freedom that is experienced when a message restricts choice. Furthermore, this process has a subsequent influence on message effectiveness. As the first study to consider the perception of threat to freedom in the context of construal level theory, this experiment furthers understanding of key theoretical relationships. Strategies for the design of successful persuasive messages are discussed.

Assessing the Impact of Conflicting Health Warning Information on Intentions to Use E-Cigarettes -An Application of the Heuristic-Systematic Model.

The purpose of this study is to determine how nonsmokers perceive conflicting information when a modified risk statement is included along with a warning label on e-cigarette packages. We propose an application of the heuristic-systematic model to test whether this conflicting information leads to more or less active processing. As part of a larger inquiry into e-cigarette labeling, we present an experiment (n = 303) in which we test this model with nonsmokers, measuring ambiguity perceptions, counter-arguing, reduced effectiveness of the message, and behavioral intentions. Results demonstrate that the addition of a modified risk statement on the package with the warning label increases ambiguity perceptions which can lead to reduced effectiveness of warning labels and reduced behavioral intentions to avoid using e-cigarettes among nonsmokers. While the systematic and heuristic pathways are both explanatory, heuristic processing provides the better fit.

Cognitive Bridging: Using Strategic Communication To Connect Abstract Goals With The Means To Achieve Them

ABSTRACT Three studies test several mechanisms of cognitive bridging, or how a strategic communication message functions to connect the abstract goal of an individual with the specific means to achieve the goal. Across all of the experiments (n = 276, n = 209, n = 145), it was demonstrated that participants who received an induced bridging mechanism were more likely to produce cognitive bridging outputs and report more abstract responses than participants who did not receive a bridging technique. We do not find the same pattern of results among participants who received an integrated bridging technique. Taken together, these studies provide evidence that how abstractly or concretely an individual is thinking can be influenced by abstraction cues planted within a strategic message, providing promise for messaging efforts at the moment of decision. In other words, the level of abstract thinking an individual is carrying into an exposure situation is possible to change using cues within the message itself. This is the first article to juxtapose the induced and integrated mechanisms of cognitive bridging.