Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick

Impact of Popularity Indications on Readers' Selective Exposure to Online News

Selecting news online may differ from traditional news choices, as most formal importance indicators in traditional media do not convert directly to online news. However, online portals feature news recommendations based on collaborative filtering. To investigate how recommendations affect information choices, 93 participants browsed online news that featured explicit (average rating) or implicit (times viewed) recommendations or no recommendations (control group) while news exposure was logged. Participants picked more articles if the portal featured explicit recommendations, and stronger explicit recommendations instigated longer exposure to associated articles. Implicit recommendations produced a curvilinear effect with longer exposure for low and high numbers.

Preelection Selective Exposure Confirmation Bias Versus Informational Utility

The glut of media coverage prior to a presidential election requires individuals to selectively expose themselves to some messages and not others. The study involves a two-session online quasi-experiment with 205 participants that was conducted before the 2008 presidential election. Hypotheses on confirmation bias and information utility driving selective exposure prior to an election are tested. Results confirm that information utility can override a confirmation bias and motivate exposure if a government change is likely and the favored party is likely to lose the election. Moreover, participants with frequent habitual online news use do not exhibit a confirmation bias. However, participants whose favored party was likely to win the election and participants with infrequent online news consumption show a significant confirmation bias.

The Matilda Effect in Science Communication An Experiment on Gender Bias in Publication Quality Perceptions and Collaboration Interest

An experiment with 243 young communication scholars tested hypotheses derived from role congruity theory regarding impacts of author gender and gender typing of research topics on perceived quality of scientific publications and collaboration interest. Participants rated conference abstracts ostensibly authored by females or males, with author associations rotated. The abstracts fell into research areas perceived as gender-typed or gender-neutral to ascertain impacts from gender typing of topics. Publications from male authors were associated with greater scientific quality, in particular if the topic was male-typed. Collaboration interest was highest for male authors working on male-typed topics. Respondent sex did not influence these patterns.

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.

News Selection Patterns as a Function of Race: The Discerning Minority and the Indiscriminating Majority

This study examines whether White majority and Black minority members differ in selecting news stories that featured either individuals of their own group or dissimilar others. Hypotheses derived from social-cognitive theory, social comparison theory, and distinctiveness theories were tested utilizing unobtrusive observations of news story selections. This selective exposure research design overcomes methodological constraints of previous experimental studies that employed self-reports and forced-exposure techniques to measure responses of Blacks and Whites to race-specific media sources. Our sample consisted of 112 Blacks and 93 Whites, who browsed 10 online news stories while exposure was unobtrusively logged via software. The news site displayed equal numbers of Black and White characters, with the pictures associated with the news stories rotated across participants. Results indicate that Whites showed no preference based on the race of the character featured in the news story. In contrast, Blacks strongly preferred news stories featuring Blacks and spent more than twice the reading time on them compared to exposure to news stories featuring Whites.

A Losing Battle Effects of Prolonged Exposure to Thin-Ideal Images on Dieting and Body Satisfaction

The present study examined prolonged exposure effects of thin-ideal media messages. College-aged females participated in seven online sessions over 10 days including a baseline measures session, five daily measures, and a posttest. Two experimental groups viewed magazine pages with thin-ideal imagery. One of those groups was induced to engage in social comparisons with the thin-ideal models. The control group viewed messages with body-neutral images of women. Prolonged exposure to thin-ideal messages led to greater body satisfaction. This finding was attributed to the fact that the experimental groups reported more dieting behaviors. A mediation analysis showed that the impact of thin-ideal message exposure on body satisfaction was mediated by dieting.

Selective Exposure Effects for Positive and Negative News: Testing the Robustness of the Informational Utility Model

Selective exposure to Internet news articles was hypothesized to increase with higher informational utility of news, defined by the informational-utility model according to dimensions of magnitude, likelihood, and immediacy of consequences. Data were collected in Germany and the United States to investigate the robustness of predictions for both positive and negative news, as the model pertains to reports on opportunities and threats. The computerized 2×3×2 experiment manipulated utility intensity (low/high) and utility dimension (magnitude/likelihood/immediacy). Country (United States/Germany) was incorporated as a moderating variable. Online news exposure was unobtrusively recorded as repeated measures. Findings show high informational utility increased selective exposure to both negative and positive news, regardless of cultural setting.

Naughty Versus Nice: Suggestive Pop Music Influences on Perceptions of Potential Romantic Partners

Abstract This study investigated the effect mainstream music featuring sexually suggestive lyrics may have on judgments of potential romantic partners. Respondents listened to either sexually provocative or innocuous music. Thereafter, respondents were presented with online personal advertisements featuring ambiguously described target individuals. Respondents rated each individual first on a series of personality and sexual appeal characteristics and later on overall attraction. Results indicated that sexually provocative lyrics acted as a prime, in that respondents who listened to sexually charged music evaluated the target individuals with a heavier emphasis on sexual appeal, in comparison to respondents listening to nonsexual songs. Implications regarding comprehension of lyrics, song familiarity, and Internet chat room behaviors are discussed.

Glancing up or down

We tracked social network site browsing after inducing negative or positive mood.The site featured upward or downward social comparison targets on two dimensions.Negative moods led to less upward and more downward social comparison exposure.Mood effect appeared for both career success and physical appearance comparisons.Results suggest online social comparisons facilitate mood management. Social networking sites (SNS) provide opportunities for mood management through selective exposure. This study tested the prediction that negative mood fosters self-enhancing social comparisons to SNS profiles. Participants were induced into positive or negative moods and then browsed manipulated profiles on an experimental SNS. Profiles varied in a 2×2 within-subjects design along two dimensions, ratings of career success and attractiveness, allowing for upward comparisons (high ratings) and downward comparisons (low ratings). Selective exposure was measured in seconds spent viewing profiles. Negative mood led to less exposure to upward comparisons and more to downward comparisons than positive mood. The comparison dimension did not influence selective exposure. Thus, in a negative mood, SNS users prefer self-enhancing social comparisons to manage their mood.

Body Ideals in the Media: Perceived Attainability and Social Comparison Choices

Social comparison research suggests that people seek upward comparisons if the achievement seems attainable, but avoid them if it appears unattainable. This experiment (N = 169) manipulated attainability by presenting body-improvement articles about dieting/exercising (experimental group) or body-unrelated articles (control group). Social comparison choices were recorded through selective advertisement exposure, as participants browsed a computerized magazine with both “ideal body” ads and “regular person” ads. Body satisfaction was measured before and after exposure. Body-dissatisfied readers in the control group circumvented ideal body ads compared to satisfied readers. Body-dissatisfied participants in the experimental group viewed ideal body images longer than in the control group. No impact of ideal body imagery exposure on body satisfaction was found.