Emotional Messages Research Articles

БЫТОВАЯ ИСПОВЕДЬ В БЫТИЙНОМ ДИСКУРСЕ: ОСОБЕННОСТИ ЖАНРА (на материале повести А.П. Чехова «Огни»)

Existential discourse in a literary text reflects the characters search for an experience of ontological meanings. Existential communication is characterized by the desire of communicants to define accurately the concepts and associatively represent experiences and emotions. Emotional accuracy in reasoning and defining concepts in the speech of the characters is achieved by the author’s skill in creating artistic images. The structure of existential discourse is characterized by the formulation of the question to which the characters must find the answer, based on their own or someone else’s life experience and knowledge, comparing this life situation with precedent phenomena, texts, events, referring to precedent names, building logical chains, proving or refuting statements. The purpose of this study is to analyze the speech genre of the everyday life confession in the existential discourse presented in A.P. Chekhov’s story “The Lights”. Confession is always an emotional shock, because the confessor experiences again the sense of guilt and shame for the evil he has done. The essence of confession is the reflection which results in selfcondemnation and remorse. The confessional tone of the character’s speech allows the author to create his image and generalize his personal experience, deducing philosophical maxims and aphorisms from it. The powerful emotional message of the confession leaves in the memory of the interlocutor the image of a specific suffering person and evokes sympathy. The everyday life confession here is a tactic of speech influence and at the same time an argument confirming the validity of the confessor’s philosophical maxims, since his very worldview has been suffered.

The effect of online reviews on restaurant visit intentions: applying signaling and involvement theories

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of online reviews on consumers’ intention to visit restaurants, with the moderating role of involvement. Design/methodology/approach The research framework was built on signaling theory, message appeals and involvement theory. To test the proposed framework, three experiments were conducted online with real customer samples. T-tests, ANOVA and SPSS PROCESS macro were used for data analysis. Findings The results revealed that online reviews with higher online ratings and emotional appeal led to higher restaurant visit intention. Review appeal significantly moderated the effect of online ratings on restaurant visit intention. Customers with low restaurant involvement were more impacted by emotional comments than by functional comments. Research limitations/implications The present study extends our knowledge on the effects of online reviews moderated by levels of customer involvement. By combining signaling theory with involvement theory, it adds value to the literature on customer online behavior, especially in the foodservice context. The present study has limitations that might provide opportunities for future research. It used evaluations (TripAdvisor scores) and only positive reviews (texts), so customers’ intentions considering negative reviews could not be examined. The level of hedonism concerning consumption in restaurants and prior knowledge regarding restaurant reviews was not controlled for. It is possible that the level of hedonism perceived and prior review knowledge may moderate the customers’ intention to visit the restaurant. Practical implications The present study shows the importance of online comments for the promotion of restaurants that have low evaluation scores. It is essential that restaurant owners and managers encourage potential customers by using comments to elaborate on their marketing strategies and promotion. At the same time, they should invite customers to share their emotional experiences, and not just their views on service efficiency (a functional aspect). During the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of the internet and mobile devices has become more prominent. Managers could therefore use emotional messages on the restaurant’s website or apps to attract customers with low restaurant involvement. Also, a system to identify the involvement of customers with restaurants could be implemented online or on mobile devices to present specific messages. The present study also recommends the use of online tools as virtual tours, photographs taken from different angles, smiling faces, floor plans and sittings and pre-determined emotional expressions. Also, the restaurant could promote lives on cooking different dishes to motive customer’s interaction and comments. These would help to increase customers’ visit intentions. Originality/value This study extends knowledge about the effect of restaurant online reviews (both ratings and appeals) moderated by the level of customer involvement. The present study also adds value to the customer online behavior literature showing that customers with low involvement are more sensitive to emotional content as they use the affective route to process information rather than the central route.

How Perceived Similarity Moderates Sympathy and Pride Appeal in Organ Donation Messages

Organ transplantation is the only medical procedure that can save a person who is suffering from organ failure. However, the shortage of transplantable organs remains a universal problem. Although more than 90% of the America population supports the concept of organ donation, less than half are registered as donors. An online experiment (N=224) was conducted to examine how perceived similarity moderates pride and sympathy appeal messages for organ donation. Participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Emotional appeal messages were respectively manipulated through emphasizing patient's suffering (sympathy) and organ donor's achievements (pride). A pretest was also performed on Amazon Mechanical Turk to ensure the effectiveness of emotional appeal message. Perceived similarity was achieved by presenting a picture of either a male or female individual with a neutral emotion to participants. The study showed that perceived similarity was a positive predictor of intentions to become an organ donor. Furthermore, perceived similarity can moderate the effects of both sympathy and pride appeal messages on attitudes and intentions of organ donation. This study found that perceived similarity could change people's behavioral intentions to become organ donors. Therefore, this study can inform potential strategies to persuade people to become organ donors through emphasizing perceived similarity and using emotional appeals.

The Role of Emoticons in the Comprehension of Emotional and Non-emotional Messages in Dyslexic Youth - A Preliminary Study.

The study explored how well-dyslexic youth deals with written messages in an environment simulating popular social network communication system. The messaging systems, present more and more in pandemic and post-pandemic online world, are rich in nonverbal aspects of communicating, namely, the emoticons. The pertinent question was whether the presence of emoticons in written messages of emotional and non-emotional content changes the comprehension of the messages. Thirty-two pupils aged 11–15 took part in the study, 16 had a school-approved diagnosis of dyslexia and were included in the experimental group. Sixteen controls had no diagnosed disabilities. Both groups viewed short messages of four types (each including seven communicates): verbal-informative (without emoticons and emotional verbal content), verbal-emotive (without emoticons, with emotional verbal content), emoticon-informative (including emoticon-like small pictures, but without emotional content either verbal or nonverbal), and emoticon-emotive (with standard emoticons and including verbal-emotional content). The participants had to answer short questions after quick presentation of each message that tested their comprehension of the content. RTs and accuracy of the answers were analyzed. Students without dyslexia had shorter response times to the questions regarding all types of messages than the dyslexic participants. The answers of the experimental group to the questions about the emoticon-informative messages were less correct. The study pointed tentatively to the beneficial role of emoticons (especially the nonstandard, i.e., of non-emotional kind) in reading short messages with understanding.

The Influence of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling on Consumer Behavior and Product Reformulation.

Countries worldwide have implemented mandatory or voluntary front-of-package nutrition labeling systems. We provide a narrative review of (a) real-world evaluations of front-of-package nutrition labels that analyze objective sales data and (b) studies that objectively assess product reformulation in response to a front-of-package nutrition label implementation. We argue that there is sufficient scientific evidence to recommend that governments implement mandatory front-of-package nutrition labeling systems to improvepopulation health. We also present a conceptual framework to describe front-of-package label influence and provide recommendations for the optimal label design, emphasizing that labeling systems should be highly visible and salient, be simple and easy to understand, leverage automatic associations, and integrate informational and emotional messaging. The existing research suggests that Guideline Daily Amount labels should be avoided and that the Health Star Rating and Nutri-Score systems are promising but that systems with warning labels like the one in Chile are likely to produce the largest public health benefits.

Dynamic emotional messages differentially affect 6-month-old infants’ attention to eyes and gaze cues

Infants often experience interactions in which caregivers use dynamic messages to convey their affective and communicative intent. These dynamic emotional messages may shape the development of emotion discrimination skills and shared attention by influencing infants’ attention to internal facial features and their responses to eye gaze cues. However, past research examining infants’ responses to emotional faces has predominantly focused on classic, stereotyped expressions (e.g., happy, sad, angry) that may not reflect the variability that infants experience in their daily interactions. The present study therefore examined forty-two 6-month-old infants’ attention to eyes vs. mouth and gaze cueing responses across multiple dynamic emotional messages that are common to infant-directed interactions. Overall, infants looked more to the eyes during messages with negative affect, but this increased attention to the eyes during these message conditions did not directly facilitate gaze cueing. Infants instead showed reliable gaze cueing only after messages with positive and neutral affect. We additionally observed gender differences in infants’ attention to internal face features and subsequent gaze cueing responses. Female infants spent more time looking at the eyes during the dynamic emotional messages and showed increased initial orienting and longer looking to gaze-cued objects following positive messages, whereas male infants showed these gaze cueing effects following neutral messages. These results suggest that variability in caregivers' communication can shape infants’ attention to and processing of emotion and gaze information.

"Watching Eyes" Triggers Third-Party Punishment: The Role of Emotion Within the Eyes.

Third-party punishment refers to a behavioral phenomenon whereby people punish wrongdoers even if their sanction incurs personal costs but yields no direct benefits. Given the eye cues demonstrated ability to convey signals of being observed, its effect on third-party punishment, driven by virtue of its effects on others' perceptions, was investigated. In addition, emotional message featured in the eye region is crucial in social interaction, whether the emotion within the eyes serves this effect with varying degrees of influence has rarely considered. The present study aimed at exploring (a) the watching eyes effect on the third-party punishment and (b) whether this effect varies from negative eyes to positive eyes. By two experiments using a modified Third-Party Dictator Game, we displayed either eye images or control images above the question on whether to punish the dictators or not. There was no emotional diversity of eye cues in Experiment 1, and most participants tended to punish for unfair offer. However, the appearance of eye images increased the punishment relative to control images. In Experiment 2, the eye cues were subdivided into positive and negative. The effect of watching eyes on the third-party punishment was significantly stronger when the eyes were negative than positive. Results revealed that eye cues play a role in promoting the third-party punishment and offer a potential insight into the mixed findings, such that the emotion within the eyes, especially the negative expression in the eyes, may influence the watching eyes effect.

Eyebrows, Facial Expression, and “Poem to the Eyebrow (Blason du Sourcil)”

This review aims to introduce the role of facial expression in communication, the areas involved in facial expression especially the eye and eyebrow, the "Poem of the Eyebrow" (Blason du Sourcil), and preferred brow archetypes.The ability to interpret and respond properly to facial expressions contributes to emotional self-competence and satisfactory social and cognitive development. Certain areas may intensify the emotional message, clarifying the expression and reducing ambiguity. Specific facial areas might make expressions more difficult to interpret. The region of the eye is the most prominent facial region for emotion interpretation. Roles of eyebrow density and position in the interpretation of facial expression of emotion depend, at least in part, upon the emotion being expressed. For face recognition, the eyebrows may be at least as influential as the eyes.French poet Maurice Sceve wrote "Poem to the Eyebrow." This poem contains some noteworthy verses about the function of the eyebrow: Eyebrow that makes the boldest fearful, and gives courage to even cowards.Among brow archetypes, "Anastasia type" (brow starts on a perpendicular line drawn from the middle of the nostril, arches on a line drawn from the center of the nose through the center of the pupil, and ends on a line drawn from the edge of the corresponding nasal ala through the outer edge of the eye) was the most preferred. The middle brow height was most preferred (the distance from the lateral canthus to the lateral end of eyebrow is two-thirds of the eye width).

Повышение психологической устойчивости молодежи к манипуляционному воздействию в сети Интернет

Increasing psychological resistance to manipulative influence and preventing the involvement of minors in illegal activities with the help of information and communication technologies (ICTs) are important tasks of the State. The article analyzes some psychological mechanisms that contribute to manipulation on the Internet, including the effects of normative influence, conformity, perceived interpersonal similarity, cascades of available information, emotional contagion, hemophilicity, false memories, and multiple sources. The authors analyze the main strategies for promoting false and misleading information: artificial polarization, managing false accounts on behalf of public opinion leaders, creating emotional messages, using conspiracy theories, trolling aimed at provoking harassment of users on the network, defaming and delegitimizing opponents. Attention is also drawn to ways to counteract destructive information and psychological impact, which include not only ways to improve the legislative apparatus and the use of software and technical solutions, but also to increase the level of psychological stability of citizens, conducting preventive and preventive measures aimed at forming ideas about information threats, their types, methods of identification and protection, group norms and values. The author points out the need to develop and implement special psychological trainings and games created in the form of computer programs, mobile applications and online simulators in the socio-cultural and educational environment.

Predicting Social Support Exchanging among Male Homosexuals Who are HIV-Positive in Social Media Context: The Role of Online Self-Disclosure

ABSTRACT This study investigated social support exchanges on social media among male homosexuals who are HIV-positive (MHHP) in China and explored how online self-disclosure relates to such activity. Analyses were based on 9,459 Weibo messages posted by 188 targeted users. Results showed that the informational and emotional support messages were prevalent in the Chinese context, and esteem social support was first found to be the most salient by the current investigation. Results of independent samples t-tests suggested that MHHP who engaged in significant self-disclosure on Weibo tended to have more frequent social support exchanges than those who did not. In particular, MHHP who expressed sex-seeking intentions and companionship seeking intentions were likely to post more supportive messages than those who did not express such intentions. Moreover, MHHP who disclosed their concerns over discrimination tended to post more emotional, informational, and esteem support messages than those who did not express discrimination concerns.

Building blocks of communication networks in times of crises: Emotion-exchange motifs

In this paper, we discuss how emotional messages sent during crisis events shape the communication patterns on Twitter. To this end, we analyzed a data-set consisting of 23.3 million tweets that have been sent during eighteen different crisis events in ten different countries. In particular, we use the novel concept of emotion-exchange motifs to uncover the elementary building blocks of complex emotion-exchange networks. Our results show that not all negative emotions are exchanged in the same way, nor do they result in the same communication structures. For example, we found that there is a specific set of emotions which are sent in response to messages including sadness and disgust (e.g., sadness attracts joy/love, while disgust attracts anger). The exchange of fear, on the other hand, is highly representative for its reciprocity and is highly associated with an information seeking behavior. We also found that the expression of positivity is characteristic for the emergence of a cyclic triad communication pattern. In contrast, the exchange of negative emotions is characteristic for a triadic communication structure that not only shows a broadcasting behavior but also reciprocity. Compared to single-emotion exchanges within a triadic pattern, the exchange of a mixture of emotions leads to more complex communication structures.

Motivating Adherence to Exercise Plans Through a Personalized Mobile Health App: Enhanced Action Design Research Approach.

BackgroundPhysical inactivity is a global issue that affects people’s health and productivity. With the advancement of mobile technologies, many apps have been developed to facilitate health self-management. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of these mobile health (mHealth) apps in motivating exercise adherence.ObjectiveThis study aims to demonstrate the enhanced action design research (ADR) process and improve the design of mHealth apps for exercise self-management. Specifically, we investigate whether sending motivational messages improves adherence to exercise plans, whether the motivational effect is affected by personality, the impact of message type and repetition, and the process of involving a field experiment in the design process and learning new design principles from the results.MethodsThis formative research was conducted by proposing an enhanced ADR process. We incorporated a field experiment into the process to iteratively refine and evaluate the design until it converges into a final mHealth app. We used the Apple ResearchKit to develop the mHealth app and promoted it via trainers at their gyms. We targeted users who used the app for at least two months. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of the 12 groups in a 2×3×2 factorial design and remained blinded to the assigned intervention. The groups were defined based on personality type (thinking or feeling), message type (emotional, logical, or none), and repetition (none or once). Participants with different personality types received tailored and repeated messages. Finally, we used the self-reported completion rate to measure participants’ adherence level to exercise plans. By analyzing users’ usage patterns, we could verify, correct, and enhance the mHealth app design principles.ResultsIn total, 160 users downloaded the app, and 89 active participants remained during the 2-month period. The results suggest a significant main effect of personality type and repetition and a significant interaction effect between personality type and repetition. The adherence rate of people with feeling personality types was 18.15% higher than that of people with thinking types. Emotional messages were more effective than logical messages in motivating exercise adherence. Although people received repeated messages, they were more likely to adhere to exercise plans. With repeated reminders, the adherence rates of people with thinking personality types were significantly improved by 27.34% (P<.001).ConclusionsThis study contributes to the literature on mHealth apps. By incorporating a field experiment into the ADR process, we demonstrate the benefit of combining design science and field experiments. This study also contributes to the research on mHealth apps. The principles learned from this study can be applied to improve the effectiveness of mHealth apps. The app design can be considered a foundation for the development of more advanced apps for specific diseases, such as diabetes and asthma, in future research.

The effectiveness of emotional motivational feedback messages via online assignments in information technologies and software course academic achievement

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of emotional motivational feedback messages given for online homework of secondary school sixth grade students within the scope of Information Technologies and Software course on academic success. The research was quantitatively designed based on quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. Participants of the study were 57 sixth grade students studying at a state secondary school. During the research, emotional motivational feedback messages were given the students in the experimental group and only motivational feedback was given the students in the control group. The data were collected through the academic achievement test developed by Öztürk (2015) within the scope of Information Technologies Course. The data obtained from the pretests and posttests applied were analyzed by paired group t-test and independent groups t-test, and comparisons were made. In the light of the findings obtained, it was seen that the increase in the posttest scores of both groups was significant, but that the increase in the scores between the groups did not differ significantly.

Perceptual Evaluation of Blended Sonification of Mechanical Robot Sounds Produced by Emotionally Expressive Gestures: Augmenting Consequential Sounds to Improve Non-verbal Robot Communication

This paper presents two experiments focusing on perception of mechanical sounds produced by expressive robot movement and blended sonifications thereof. In the first experiment, 31 participants evaluated emotions conveyed by robot sounds through free-form text descriptions. The sounds were inherently produced by the movements of a NAO robot and were not specifically designed for communicative purposes. Results suggested no strong coupling between the emotional expression of gestures and how sounds inherent to these movements were perceived by listeners; joyful gestures did not necessarily result in joyful sounds. A word that reoccurred in text descriptions of all sounds, regardless of the nature of the expressive gesture, was “stress”. In the second experiment, blended sonification was used to enhance and further clarify the emotional expression of the robot sounds evaluated in the first experiment. Analysis of quantitative ratings of 30 participants revealed that the blended sonification successfully contributed to enhancement of the emotional message for sound models designed to convey frustration and joy. Our findings suggest that blended sonification guided by perceptual research on emotion in speech and music can successfully improve communication of emotions through robot sounds in auditory-only conditions.

The Wrath of Candidates. Drivers of Fear and Enthusiasm Appeals in Election Campaigns across the Globe

Little is known about why candidates decide to make use of emotional messages when campaigning for a political office, and under which conditions this is more likely to happen. We focus on the use of fear and enthusiasm appeals and assume that these are a function of profile of candidates and the nature of the context in which the election takes place. We use a new large-scale comparative dataset which includes information about campaigning strategies for 636 candidates having competed in 133 presidential and parliamentary elections in 101 countries between June 2016 and March 2020, based on judgments of 2000+ domestic and international experts. Our results show that candidates benefitting from a comparative advantage (incumbents and frontrunners) tend to rely on enthusiasm appeals, more extreme candidates prefer fear to enthusiasm, and more competitive races tend to foster the use of fear appeals. These findings have important implications for electoral competition, communication theory, and political marketing. All data and materials are openly available for replication. Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15377857.2021.1930327 .

On the Influence of Message/Audience Specifics and Message Appeal Type on Message Empowerment: The Austrian Case of COVID-19 Health Risk Messages

ABSTRACT A pandemic is a unique form of health crisis that requires intensive communicative efforts. In order to achieve positive health outcomes, messages need to be carefully designed. In this context, both message specifics and audience specifics receive consideration. This research tries to scrutinize (1) which message appeal (emotional vs. informative) is perceived more favorable by the Austrian public, (2) which message appeal (emotional vs. informative) leads to a higher degree of message empowerment, and (3) the degree to which message empowerment can be enhanced by (a) message specifics and (b) a combination of message and audience specifics. A quantitative survey with 337 Austrians revealed that the emotional appeal message led to a higher degree of message empowerment than the informative appeal message. Moreover, only message specifics were found to enhance message empowerment. Implications for message design are derived, before limitations and directions for future research are addressed.

Resistance to Change and Perceived Risk as Determinants of Water-Saving Intention

Both the academic literature and global organizations have emphasized the need for responsible water consumption, as stated in Sustainable Development Goal 12. However, individuals’ water-saving behaviors in their current state are not enough. This situation entails a resistance to change (RC) in consumer habits and a lack of perceived risk of scarcity. The novelty of this study lies in examining the influence of RC (through its emotional, cognitive, and confidence components) and perceived risk on water-saving intention. Interviews (n = 384) were conducted in the southeast Mediterranean area of Spain by interviewers using a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The results of the structural equation modeling show that the perceived risk and the components of cognitive rigidity and negative emotions exert a direct influence on water-saving habits and an indirect influence on water-saving intention. None of the components of RC directly influence intention, and a lack of confidence in the outcomes of water saving does not influence water-saving habits or water-saving intention. In addition to the results obtained, the novelty of the work lies in the idea that in order to influence the perception of the risk of water scarcity through awareness campaigns, it is better to use an emotional message rather than showing facts or information because this does not drive water-saving behavior.

What You Say and Where You Say It Matter: Effects of Facebook Message Publicity and Support Type on Evaluation of Support Message Quality

Guided by the masspersonal communication model, this study examined the impact of the communication channel (masspersonal vs. interpersonal) and support message type on evaluation of social support message quality in Facebook settings. An online factorial experiment with 480 participants revealed that support messages sent through interpersonal channels (e.g., private messaging) were perceived as higher in quality than those sent through masspersonal channels (e.g., status update). Regardless of channels, participants considered tangible support messages as higher quality than informational and emotional support messages. Implications for computer-mediated communication and social support theories and practices were discussed.

Effectivity assessment of interpretive signs for biodiversity conservation

The interpretive sign is to communicate specific educational and/or management learning, behavioral and emotional messages to visitors. Interpretive signs are most commonly used for self-guiding trails, or for wayside exhibits at points of interest. This study aims to assess the effectiveness of interpretation signs on biodiversity at the Dramaga IPB Campus. The research was conducted at the Dramaga IPB Campus, Bogor in January-March 2020. This research was conducted through field observations, literature and document studies, and interviews using a questionnaire to 90 respondents classified into the general public, students, and lecturers. The signs effectiveness assessment is approached based on three components: layout, design, and media content. The results showed that the media for interpretation of the Dramaga Campus of IPB as the center for tropical biodiversity information was considered ineffective. This is because there are only seven criteria out of 14, which are considered effective based on the assessment of field observations and the results of respondents’ assessments. The criteria that are considered effective are not obstructed by other objects, protected from sunlight and rain, using illustrations, appropriate board height, the suitability of themes, and illustrations’ suitability. Eight areas are considered effective, and five areas that are considered ineffective.

Communicating sadness: The impact of emotional crisis communication on the organizational post-crisis reputation

In this study, we conducted two experiments to examine how emotions expressed, both verbally and visually, by the CEO of an organization in crisis affect organizational reputation. In the first experiment, we compared the impact of emotional (sadness) message framing to rational framing during the acute crisis stage. Results revealed that verbally communicating sadness increased public empathy toward the CEO, which, in turn, had a positive bearing on the organization’s reputation. However, communicating sadness also resulted in reduced perceptions of the CEO’s competence, which was harmful to the organization’s reputation. In the second experiment, we examined the impact of both verbal and visual (i.e., facial) expressions of sadness during the post-crisis stage. Both verbal and visual expressions of sadness in the crisis response positively affected reputation by evoking empathy toward the CEO. However, visual cues of sadness only appeared to matter when the verbal message lacked an expression of emotions.