Hypothetical Messages Research Articles

Friends' Perspective: Young Adults' Reaction to Disclosure of Chronic Illness.

Chronic illness can negatively impact adolescents' and young adults' social support. Social support can buffer the negative impact of living with chronic illness. The purpose of this study was to test the acceptability of a hypothetical message to promote social support after a recent diagnosis of a chronic illness. Young adults (18-24; m = 21.30; N = 370), the majority of which were Caucasian, college-students, and female, were asked to read one of four vignettes and to imagine this situation happened while they were in high school. Each vignette contained a hypothetical message from a friend diagnosed with a chronic illness (cancer, traumatic brain injury, depression, or eating disorder). Participants answered forced-choice and free-response questions asking about the likelihood they would contact or visit the friend, and feelings about receiving the message. A general linear model was used to assess quantitative results, and qualitative responses were coded using the Delphi coding method. Participants responded positively, reporting a high likelihood to contact the friend, and feeling glad to receive the message regardless of vignette viewed; however, those who read the eating disorder vignette were significantly more likely to express discomfort. In qualitative responses, participants described positive emotions associated with the message and desire to support the friend. However, participants reported significantly greater discomfort with the eating disorder vignette. The results provide evidence for the potential of a short, standardized disclosure message to promote social support following chronic illness diagnosis with some additional considerations for those recently diagnosed with an eating disorder.

The multidimensional evaluation of enacted social support: Best practices for use based on issues of factor structure, study design, and scale instructions

The Multidimensional Evaluation of Enacted Social Support (MEESS) measures communicated support in terms of supportiveness, helpfulness, and sensitivity. However, a systematic review of studies using the scale showed that the scale is mostly used as a unidimensional measure of support. Additionally, the scale is prone to having high interfactor correlations, and researchers rarely perform a confirmatory factor analysis to verify the scale’s factor structure. Therefore, we conducted two studies (Combined N = 1609) using nationally representative samples of U.S. adults to investigate the scale’s factor structure in message recall and hypothetical message study designs. We also explored whether the scale is best presented one factor at a time with factor-specific instructions as opposed to presenting the scale as a single set of items with one instruction set. Study 1 results indicate that the one-factor and three-factor solutions are both adequate without performing modifications during confirmatory factor analysis, but the three-factor model did provide a small but significantly better fit to the data than the one-factor model. In Study 2, both the one- and three-factor solutions had adequate fit; however, when using the factor-specific instructions, the three-factor solution had a far superior fit compared to the one-factor solution. Given the purpose of the scale as a multidimensional evaluation of social support, we recommend always conducting a confirmatory factor analysis when using the MEESS and to present the scale with separate instructions for each factor’s items.

The Effects of Type of Pronouns and Hope Appeals in Supportive Messages About COVID-19

This study examined the role of pronouns in supportive messages and hope appeals in facilitating people's coping with coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Participants included 256 residents of New York State, and they evaluated hypothetical messages about COVID-19. Results showed that when people have a communal orientation to coping, you-language (vs. we-language) supportive messages led to more emotional improvement. The presence (vs. absence) of hope appeals in supportive messages increased communal coping. We discuss the implications of results in promoting emotion- and action-focused coping.

Public Response to Official Information on Cancer and Cancer Clusters

ABSTRACT Official information about cancer and cancer clusters from state health departments clashes with lay views. A few studies have covered site-specific communication by telephone and public meetings, and hypothetical messages, but not generic information actually provided. Public response to such information was probed with a random survey of New Jersey households (n = 327), part of a quasi-experiment contrasting the agency's cognitive message and an alternative message adding procedural and affective information. Respondents rated both information types as understandable, helpful, and trustworthy, particularly among those trusting the agency, agreeing with officials’ views of facts, and with low concern about local clusters. Anxiety about cancer, aversion to uncertainty, cancer experience, and familiarity with clusters or the agency did not affect responses. Agreeing with officially defined facts (knowledge) was associated with trust in the agency and concern about clusters, but scepticism about expert knowledge. Information exposure increased trust, belief in expert knowledge (except on whether cancers cluster), and (some) factual knowledge, but also increased self-reported concern among those already concerned. These findings suggest that, absent specific learning, people believe scientific information is understandable, helpful, and trustworthy when they already trust experts and institutions; people with prior distrust offer less positive evaluations.

Messages About Weight Management: An Examination of How Acceptance and Challenge Are Related to Message Effectiveness

A confirmation perspective was employed to assess weight management messages individuals receive from significant others. Confirmation was conceptualized as having two components: acceptance and challenge. Both were hypothesized to predict message effectiveness. Study 1 explored types of weight management messages and how they varied in acceptance and challenge. Study 2 showed effective messages had higher acceptance and challenge than ineffective messages. Further, acceptance and challenge in hypothetical messages predicted perceived message effectiveness. Analyses also suggested adapting messages based on individual differences (e.g., preferences regarding communication) may be more efficacious in promoting healthy behaviors than adapting messages based on demographic characteristics.

The Persuasive Influence of Emotion in Cancer Prevention and Detection Messages

This paper reviews and summarizes the literature on the relationship between emotion and persuasion as it bears on the production of cancer prevention and detection messages. A series of propositions are presented that serve to illustrate the intricacies of the emotion–persuasion relationship. These propositions deal with the necessary conditions for emotional arousal, individual differences in emotional reactivity to cancer messages, the potential for emotion-inducing messages to produce persuasive and counterpersuasive effects, the conditions that circumscribe the influence of emotions on persuasion, and the mechanisms by which that influence is achieved. To the extent that the literature permits, advice on message design is offered. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2006.00286.x Among its many responsibilities, the National Cancer Institute produces messages that encourage individuals to (a) behave in ways that lessen their risk of cancer and (b) recommend actions to detect cancer in its earliest stages. Given the inherently threatening nature of cancer, it may be impossible for such messages to achieve these goals without intentionally or unintentionally arousing their audiences’ emotions. Although emotions can overwhelm individuals, they may also motivate behaviors that are psychologically difficult to enact. The effective use of emotions as persuasive devices, however, requires an understanding of not only principles related to emotional arousal but also the processes that allow emotional arousal to be translated into an effective action. This article is intended to speak to these two overarching issues. Although there is scant literature linking persuasive effects of emotion and cancer-related issues, we illustrate our claims with cancer-related research whenever possible, including previously unpublished data on individuals’ reactions to an antitobacco public service announcement (PSA). However, we augment these data with hypothetical message scenarios to further illuminate our points, which we outline in the eight propositions that follow.

Queuing Network Theory Applied to Manned System Performance Prediction

This paper is a condensation of material presented in greater detail elsewhere (Kornfeld, et. al, 1985). An attempt is made to show the development of a queuing network theory model and how that model might be used for quantitative human factors analysis of a hypothetical message handling system. The system is postulated to consist of a menu-driven report preparation process with a pressure/touch sensitive screen for detecting operator control actions based upon human information processing and decision-making that occur when messages arrive at an operator's console.

Evaluations of Credibility of the Source of a Message

This srudy investigated subjects' perceptions of the credibility of message sources who either agreed or disagreed with them on general opinion items and particular written messages. Sixty undergraduate students enrolled in interpersonal communication classes first completed a 10-item questionnaire on campus issues using seven-point scales. The students were also asked to write short signed essays expressing their feelings about the use of bell-curve grading to combat grade inflation. The subjects' ideas served as the basis for written messages developed by the experimenter which either agreed or disagreed with the use of bell-curve grading. Subjects were then asked to rate the credibility of a hypothetical message source who either agreed or disagreed with their ratings of the opinion items and whose written position on grade inflation either agreed or disagreed with theirs. Fifteen subjects were assigned to each cell of a 2 x 2 design. Source credibility was evaluated on a 32-item scale containing items drawn from others' work (1, 2, 3 ) . An oblique factor analysis indicated a factor structure compatible with those reported by the above researchers. Factor scores were constructed from the complete factor loading matrix and used in a multivariate analysis of variance. A significant main effect for the source's written message on bell-curve grading (F4.m = 11.62, p < .001) was noted. Examination of the univariate P-ratios (based on Z scores since both Liken and semantic differential items appeared on the credibility measure) indicated that message sources were judged equally on the trustworthiness factor regardless of whether the~r written comments agreed or disagreed with the perceivers'. Significant F values were discovered for the charisma (F1.w = 11.19, p < .001), co-orientation (F1.w = 4.83, p < .03), and expertise (F1.m = 34.62, p < .001) factors. Subjects found the message source who disagreed more charismatic ( M = -1.83) than the conformer ( M = -2.60). Conversely, the agreeing message source was rated higher in co-orientation ( M = -7.02) and expertise ( M = -4.40) than the disagreeing source ( A I = -7.84 for coorientation and M = 5 32 for expertise). These findings suggest a source promoting a message that disagrees with the receiver's view is well adv~sed to expect and compensate for low evaluations in coorientation and expertise. As long as a substantive message is presented, the disagreeing source can seem reasonably trustworthy and quite charismatic. V

Nonverbal Communication from Superiors and Peers

Increased awareness of nonverbal communication in organizations raises the issue of how subordinates integrate the various components of superiors' messages. The double-bind theory and other research suggest that a dependent relationship such as that between organizational subordinate and superior might alter the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal information. Responses to hypothetical messages composed of verbal, vocal, and facial information from an organizational superior were compared with responses to messages from a peer. In the superior condition, subjects gave greatest weight to verbal content in judgments of overall supportiveness, while messages from peers were judged more by facial expression. In both conditions negative information had more impact than positive information. No significant differences between conditions were found in perception of sincerity. Inconsistency between any two channels caused the message to be perceived as insincere.

Message Preferences: An Approach to the Assessment of Interpersonal Standards

Summary On the basis of a cybernetic model of behavior control, hypothetical messages are proposed as a means of assessing interpersonal standards applicable to the subject's different relationships. Twelve groups of boys aged 10-13 years rated a set of 63 messages which were attributed to one of four sources: Mother, Best Friend, Policeman, or Boys Club Staff Member. Seven messages were highly acceptable, and six were unacceptable under all conditions. Seven other messages were consistently more acceptable from Mother than from Best Friend. Results were discussed in terms of their implications for the assessment of conflicts in interpersonal situations.