Pub Date : 2021-12-10DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.2011344
Corinna Oschatz, J. Niederdeppe, Jiawei Liu
ABSTRACT Narrative messages are assumed to be more effective in changing recipients' attitudes than non-narrative messages. However, empirical evidence to support this assumption is sparse. We incorporated theoretical assumptions about the mechanisms of narrative persuasion into the two-step model of defensive processing to test whether narratives were more effective in changing recipients' attitudes toward legalizing marijuana for recreational use. We conducted two parallel experiments, one in Germany (N = 157) and one in the United States (N = 399). Our findings did not support the general assumption that narratives were more effective than non-narrative messages. However, prior attitudes were identified as an important unique factor in shaping recipients' transportation and identification and, in turn, the recipients' attitudes.
{"title":"The role of prior attitudes in narrative persuasion: Evidence from a cross-national study in Germany and the United States","authors":"Corinna Oschatz, J. Niederdeppe, Jiawei Liu","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.2011344","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.2011344","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Narrative messages are assumed to be more effective in changing recipients' attitudes than non-narrative messages. However, empirical evidence to support this assumption is sparse. We incorporated theoretical assumptions about the mechanisms of narrative persuasion into the two-step model of defensive processing to test whether narratives were more effective in changing recipients' attitudes toward legalizing marijuana for recreational use. We conducted two parallel experiments, one in Germany (N = 157) and one in the United States (N = 399). Our findings did not support the general assumption that narratives were more effective than non-narrative messages. However, prior attitudes were identified as an important unique factor in shaping recipients' transportation and identification and, in turn, the recipients' attitudes.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"376 - 395"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-12-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43698079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-24DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1998565
J. Bonito, Joann Keyton
ABSTRACT Group participants often develop a range of problem solutions before discussion. We addressed whether, and at what level of analysis, initial opinions influence discussion and perceptions of decision outcomes. The Group Valence Model (GVM) presents a dual-process approach to interaction and decision making as a function of the distribution of supportive and oppositional comments. GVM predicts that discussion reflects individual-level opinions until a group solution emerges, whereupon discussion is influenced by group-level factors. Data from four previous studies were machine-coded for supportive and oppositional statements. Results indicated that the model holds in some degree at the group level but not at the individual level. Discussion focuses on mechanisms that drive interaction prior to the emergence of a group-level solution.
{"title":"A valence-based account of group interaction and decision making","authors":"J. Bonito, Joann Keyton","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1998565","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1998565","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Group participants often develop a range of problem solutions before discussion. We addressed whether, and at what level of analysis, initial opinions influence discussion and perceptions of decision outcomes. The Group Valence Model (GVM) presents a dual-process approach to interaction and decision making as a function of the distribution of supportive and oppositional comments. GVM predicts that discussion reflects individual-level opinions until a group solution emerges, whereupon discussion is influenced by group-level factors. Data from four previous studies were machine-coded for supportive and oppositional statements. Results indicated that the model holds in some degree at the group level but not at the individual level. Discussion focuses on mechanisms that drive interaction prior to the emergence of a group-level solution.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"260 - 280"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45416917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-09DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1999998
Thomas J. Billard
ABSTRACT News is often sourced not directly from journalistic outlets, but from various actors that “curate” content into individuals' information networks. Although these curating actors impact the news individuals receive, little is known about their behind-the-scenes curatorial decision-making. Addressing this gap, I isolated one kind of curating actor in the flow of political information: social movement organizations. Drawing on an ethnographic case study from the U.S. transgender movement, I analyzed the “logics of curation” at play in organizations' social media practices. These logics included the internal criteria by which they decided what news stories to share, how they decided when and by which media each story should be shared, and what they hoped to achieve as the end result of curation.
{"title":"Deciding what’s (sharable) news: Social movement organizations as curating actors in the political information system","authors":"Thomas J. Billard","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1999998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1999998","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT News is often sourced not directly from journalistic outlets, but from various actors that “curate” content into individuals' information networks. Although these curating actors impact the news individuals receive, little is known about their behind-the-scenes curatorial decision-making. Addressing this gap, I isolated one kind of curating actor in the flow of political information: social movement organizations. Drawing on an ethnographic case study from the U.S. transgender movement, I analyzed the “logics of curation” at play in organizations' social media practices. These logics included the internal criteria by which they decided what news stories to share, how they decided when and by which media each story should be shared, and what they hoped to achieve as the end result of curation.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"354 - 375"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44792345","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-20DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1985152
J. Mandelbaum, Darcey K. deSouza, Wan Wei, Kaicheng Zhan
ABSTRACT Extending work on the everyday communication practices through which relationships are constituted, we examined the micro–moments of food service and the provision of social support in field recordings of everyday family life. We found that frequently when communicators serve themselves an item at the dinner table they offer that item to others, even when there is no indication that the other needs it. We revealed specific communication practices through which social support is implemented when offering food to others during self–service, indicating that in delivering tangible social support one may also provide emotional social support. Additionally, we showed that precisely where the offer is produced during self–service further impacts the relational implications of this support.
{"title":"Micro-moments of social support: Self-service-occasioned offers at the family dinner table","authors":"J. Mandelbaum, Darcey K. deSouza, Wan Wei, Kaicheng Zhan","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1985152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1985152","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Extending work on the everyday communication practices through which relationships are constituted, we examined the micro–moments of food service and the provision of social support in field recordings of everyday family life. We found that frequently when communicators serve themselves an item at the dinner table they offer that item to others, even when there is no indication that the other needs it. We revealed specific communication practices through which social support is implemented when offering food to others during self–service, indicating that in delivering tangible social support one may also provide emotional social support. Additionally, we showed that precisely where the offer is produced during self–service further impacts the relational implications of this support.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"281 - 306"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41626853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-12DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1987486
P. Wright, R. Tokunaga, D. Herbenick, B. Paul
ABSTRACT This study examined U.S. adolescents’ pornography consumption, pornography dependency, and belief in a variety of notions contradicted by basic sexological science. Data were from 595 youth aged 14–18 who participated in a population-based probability survey. Consistent with the sexual script acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of sexual media socialization, adolescents who had viewed pornography were more likely to hold erroneous sexual beliefs than adolescents who had not viewed pornography. Also consistent with the 3AM, more frequent pornography consumption and higher levels of pornography dependency were independently associated with holding erroneous beliefs about sex among pornography consumers. Counter to theoretical expectations, frequency of pornography consumption did not interact with pornography dependency in the prediction of erroneous sexual beliefs.
{"title":"Pornography vs. sexual science: The role of pornography use and dependency in U.S. teenagers’ sexual illiteracy","authors":"P. Wright, R. Tokunaga, D. Herbenick, B. Paul","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1987486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1987486","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study examined U.S. adolescents’ pornography consumption, pornography dependency, and belief in a variety of notions contradicted by basic sexological science. Data were from 595 youth aged 14–18 who participated in a population-based probability survey. Consistent with the sexual script acquisition, activation, application model (3AM) of sexual media socialization, adolescents who had viewed pornography were more likely to hold erroneous sexual beliefs than adolescents who had not viewed pornography. Also consistent with the 3AM, more frequent pornography consumption and higher levels of pornography dependency were independently associated with holding erroneous beliefs about sex among pornography consumers. Counter to theoretical expectations, frequency of pornography consumption did not interact with pornography dependency in the prediction of erroneous sexual beliefs.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"332 - 353"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45911087","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-10DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1985153
Kim B. Serota, T. Levine, Tony Docan-Morgan
ABSTRACT Testing truth-default theory, individual-level variation in lie frequency was parsed from within-individual day-to-day variation (good/bad lie days) by examining 116,366 lies told by 632 participants over 91 days. As predicted and consistent with prior findings, the distribution was positively skewed. Most participants lied infrequently and most lies were told by a few prolific liars. Approximately three-quarters of participants were consistently low-frequency liars. Across participants, lying comprised 7% of total communication and almost 90% of all lies were little white lies. About 58% of the variance was explained by stable individual differences with approximately 42% of the variance attributable to within-person day-to-day variability. The data were consistent with both the existence of a few prolific liars and good/bad lie days.
{"title":"Unpacking variation in lie prevalence: Prolific liars, bad lie days, or both?","authors":"Kim B. Serota, T. Levine, Tony Docan-Morgan","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1985153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1985153","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Testing truth-default theory, individual-level variation in lie frequency was parsed from within-individual day-to-day variation (good/bad lie days) by examining 116,366 lies told by 632 participants over 91 days. As predicted and consistent with prior findings, the distribution was positively skewed. Most participants lied infrequently and most lies were told by a few prolific liars. Approximately three-quarters of participants were consistently low-frequency liars. Across participants, lying comprised 7% of total communication and almost 90% of all lies were little white lies. About 58% of the variance was explained by stable individual differences with approximately 42% of the variance attributable to within-person day-to-day variability. The data were consistent with both the existence of a few prolific liars and good/bad lie days.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"307 - 331"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42816413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-29DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1973051
Luling Huang, E. Fink, Deborah A. Cai
ABSTRACT Message discrepancy is the difference between the position of an advocated belief in a message and the position of a message receiver’s initial belief, and psychological discrepancy is how the message’s discrepancy is perceived by the receiver. The present study tested Fink et al.’s [(1983). Positional discrepancy, psychological discrepancy, and attitude change: Experimental tests of some mathematical models. Communication Monographs, 50(4), 413–430] psychological discrepancy model plus three other models to determine whether psychological discrepancy affects the weight of a message, the scale value of the message, neither, or both. These models were tested in an experiment that manipulated psychological discrepancy with a 3 (high vs. moderate vs. low message scale value) × 3 (wide vs. moderate vs. narrow perspective) between-subjects design (N = 448). The original Fink et al. model was the most supported. The results help explain how psychological processes bring about belief change.
{"title":"Psychological discrepancy in message-induced belief change: Empirical evidence regarding four competing models","authors":"Luling Huang, E. Fink, Deborah A. Cai","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1973051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1973051","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Message discrepancy is the difference between the position of an advocated belief in a message and the position of a message receiver’s initial belief, and psychological discrepancy is how the message’s discrepancy is perceived by the receiver. The present study tested Fink et al.’s [(1983). Positional discrepancy, psychological discrepancy, and attitude change: Experimental tests of some mathematical models. Communication Monographs, 50(4), 413–430] psychological discrepancy model plus three other models to determine whether psychological discrepancy affects the weight of a message, the scale value of the message, neither, or both. These models were tested in an experiment that manipulated psychological discrepancy with a 3 (high vs. moderate vs. low message scale value) × 3 (wide vs. moderate vs. narrow perspective) between-subjects design (N = 448). The original Fink et al. model was the most supported. The results help explain how psychological processes bring about belief change.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"235 - 259"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41405130","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-29DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1971272
Timothy Betts, E. Hintz, Patrice M. Buzzanell
ABSTRACT This work extended the communication theory of resilience by examining how individuals construct anticipatory resilience through narratives of disruptive life events. Guided by postmodern antenarrative theory, we analyzed the emplotment of 25 individuals’ narratives of disruptive events to understand how participants make sense of these events and prospectively craft resilience as storied logics of the future. The findings challenged extant resilience theorizing by centering narrative incoherence and conceiving of anticipatory resilience as a communicated logic of the future rather than as discursive-material resource. The analysis also suggested theoretical implications for this reframed understanding of anticipatory resilience and narrative incoherence as a site for critical investigation of resilience processes.
{"title":"Emplotting anticipatory resilience: An antenarrative extension of the communication theory of resilience","authors":"Timothy Betts, E. Hintz, Patrice M. Buzzanell","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1971272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1971272","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This work extended the communication theory of resilience by examining how individuals construct anticipatory resilience through narratives of disruptive life events. Guided by postmodern antenarrative theory, we analyzed the emplotment of 25 individuals’ narratives of disruptive events to understand how participants make sense of these events and prospectively craft resilience as storied logics of the future. The findings challenged extant resilience theorizing by centering narrative incoherence and conceiving of anticipatory resilience as a communicated logic of the future rather than as discursive-material resource. The analysis also suggested theoretical implications for this reframed understanding of anticipatory resilience and narrative incoherence as a site for critical investigation of resilience processes.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"211 - 234"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42265514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-29DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1963792
Leanne K. Knobloch, Lynne M. Knobloch-Fedders, J. Yorgason, Erin C. Wehrman, J. Kale Monk
ABSTRACT Affectionate communication may play a key role in how military couples navigate the transition from deployment to reintegration. Informed by relational turbulence theory, this study considered how the trajectory of relational turbulence experienced by military couples over time predicted their verbal and nonverbal expressions of affection. Online self-report data were gathered from 268 U.S. military couples across eight months beginning at homecoming. Relational turbulence increased over time and affectionate communication decreased over time. Also as predicted, the trajectory of increasing relational turbulence corresponded with greater declines in verbal and nonverbal expressions of affection. These results advance relational turbulence theory, illuminate the trajectory of affectionate communication over time, and inform ways to assist military couples upon reunion after deployment.
{"title":"Trajectories of relational turbulence and affectionate communication across the post-deployment transition","authors":"Leanne K. Knobloch, Lynne M. Knobloch-Fedders, J. Yorgason, Erin C. Wehrman, J. Kale Monk","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1963792","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1963792","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Affectionate communication may play a key role in how military couples navigate the transition from deployment to reintegration. Informed by relational turbulence theory, this study considered how the trajectory of relational turbulence experienced by military couples over time predicted their verbal and nonverbal expressions of affection. Online self-report data were gathered from 268 U.S. military couples across eight months beginning at homecoming. Relational turbulence increased over time and affectionate communication decreased over time. Also as predicted, the trajectory of increasing relational turbulence corresponded with greater declines in verbal and nonverbal expressions of affection. These results advance relational turbulence theory, illuminate the trajectory of affectionate communication over time, and inform ways to assist military couples upon reunion after deployment.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"189 - 210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44790609","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-09DOI: 10.1080/03637751.2021.1962933
J. A. Bonus, H. Wing, Judy Watts
ABSTRACT Drawing on terror management theory (TMT), three experiments examined the impact of mortality threat on nostalgic entertainment experiences. Study 1 (N = 98) validated the stimuli used to elicit three different types of threat: mortality, isolation, and illness. Study 2 (N = 464) found no impact of these threats on participants’ entertainment preferences. Consistent with TMT, Study 3 (N = 906) found that participants experienced a deeper sense of appreciation and solace when they watched a movie under mortality threat. However, these effects only occurred for a lighthearted movie with nostalgic qualities (i.e., Pixar’s Toy Story) and not for a meaningful movie with death-related themes (i.e., Pixar’s Onward). The results illustrated the need for entertainment theorists to adopt a more expansive conceptualization of meaningfulness.
{"title":"Finding refuge in reverie: The terror management function of nostalgic entertainment experiences","authors":"J. A. Bonus, H. Wing, Judy Watts","doi":"10.1080/03637751.2021.1962933","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2021.1962933","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Drawing on terror management theory (TMT), three experiments examined the impact of mortality threat on nostalgic entertainment experiences. Study 1 (N = 98) validated the stimuli used to elicit three different types of threat: mortality, isolation, and illness. Study 2 (N = 464) found no impact of these threats on participants’ entertainment preferences. Consistent with TMT, Study 3 (N = 906) found that participants experienced a deeper sense of appreciation and solace when they watched a movie under mortality threat. However, these effects only occurred for a lighthearted movie with nostalgic qualities (i.e., Pixar’s Toy Story) and not for a meaningful movie with death-related themes (i.e., Pixar’s Onward). The results illustrated the need for entertainment theorists to adopt a more expansive conceptualization of meaningfulness.","PeriodicalId":48176,"journal":{"name":"Communication Monographs","volume":"89 1","pages":"165 - 188"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2021-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45220754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}