Message Valence Research Articles

EWOM and the importance of capturing consumer attention within social media

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is widely regarded as one of the most influential factors impacting consumer behavior, yet traditional models were constructed oblivious to the potential of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and social media. In particular, very little is known about the dynamics affecting consumer attention within two-way many-to-many mediated environments even though attention constitutes a critical step. Thus, we construct a conceptual framework that grounds consumer attention within a larger progression of behavioral responses to eWOM. We then conduct an experiment (n = 28) that isolates contextual antecedents of attention to positive, negative, and neutral WOM for both luxury and non-luxury brands within a social media platform. Using behavioral eye-tracking, we find that WOM message valence interacts with brand type to affect attention differently. Implications of these findings for facilitating eWOM are discussed with future research directions suggested.

Effect of Team Identification, Message Valence and Social Media on Sport Consumer Information Processing

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of media sources and message valence on individuals’ information processing by means of information processing perspective, and to examine the moderating effect of team identification on the media sources and message valence. A between-subject experimental design of 2 (positive message vs. negative message)×2 (traditional media vs. social media)×2 (high identification vs. low identification) was utilized with the participants randomly assigned into the treatments. The results showed that no significant differences in message credibility or attitude toward the message based on media sources. Furthermore, better message credibility and attitude toward the message revealed for the positive message than the negative message. Moreover, no moderating effect of team identification was found on the relationship between media sources and attitude toward message. Similarly, no moderating effect of team identification was found on the relationship between message valence and attitude toward message. These findings suggested that sport organizations are using social media and positive message to market or promote the sporting events or sport teams.

The impact of advertising, trustworthiness, and valence on the effectiveness of blogs

Blogs have seen explosive growth over the last five years. Given this growth, it is important for marketers to understand how they can effectively use blogs to reach their target audiences. We examine the impact of the presence of advertising, blogger trustworthiness, and message valence on the effectiveness of blogs. Our research demonstrates that the effectiveness of a blog is higher when the blogger is perceived to be trustworthy, while the presence of advertising on a blog decreases its effectiveness. Our research also suggests that negative blog posts with no advertisements will be more effective than any other type of blog. Although blogs are a new and unique medium for marketers, our research suggests that the fundamental theories developed in marketing apply to this medium as well. In the absence of blog specific research, marketing managers may be able to extend their current knowledge of the effectiveness of traditional media to blogs as well.

The effect of media modality and the valence of risk messages on affective risk perception and behavioral intention

본 연구에서는 미디어 형식과 위험 메시지 구성에 따라 방사선 조사식품에 대한 즉각적이고 감정적인 반응과 숙고적 행동의도가 어떻게 형성되는가를 살펴보고자 했다. 이를 위해 3x2 피험자간 실험을 통해 방사선 조사식품과 관련된 문자, 음성, 동영상 형태의 정보를 긍정 혹은 부정적으로 서술하여 피험자에게 제공했다. 이후 암묵적 측정법의 일환인 수정된 EAST 방법을 이용하여 피험자의 감정적 위험인식을 측정하고 설문을 이용해 방사선 조사식품의 구매의도를 측정했다. 연구결과는 전반적으로 미디어 형식과 메시지 구성이 피험자의 감정적 위험인식과 구매의 도에 유의미한 영향을 주는 것으로 나타났다. 특히 미디어 형식의 효과는 메시지 구성 간의 상호작용 효과가 유의미하였다. 즉 문자와 동영상 정보의 경우 긍정적 메시지가 위험인식을 낮추고 구매의도를 높이지만 부정적 메시지는 반대의 결과를 보였다. 그러나 음성 조건에서는 긍정적 정보와 부정적 정보가 감정적 위험인식과 구매의도에 차별적인 영향을 주지 못했다. 이러한 결과는 같은 정보라도 어떠한 미디어를 통해 전달되는가에 따라 위험인식이 다르게 형성될 수 있으며 이 때 메시지의 내용구성에 따라 미디어 형식의 효과는 다르게 나타날 수 있다는 것을 시사한다.

Considering the temporary leader in temporary work arrangements: Sensemaking processes of internal interim leaders

Though temporary work arrangements have garnered increased attention among scholars and practitioners, there has been little research into internal interim leaders (i.e. interims hired from within the organization) as a distinct case of temporary worker and leader. Internal interims are a fixture in organizational leadership and often serve during critical periods of change. As such, it is important to examine these leaders’ actions and the social, organizational, and individual dynamics that inform them. Toward this end, the present study examines the sensemaking processes of 24 internal interims using a qualitative approach. We describe five distinct sensemaking processes ( dutiful, traditional, aspiring, reluctant, and self-conscious) shared by the 24 participants and discuss how several social dynamics (message valence and consistency) and individual factors (prior leadership and future aspirations) influenced these divergent processes. Further, we contend that internal interims adopt more passive ( caretaking) or proactive ( trailblazing) styles of leadership based on these socially and individually informed sensemaking processes. Finally, we highlight directions for future research (motivating factors for serving as an internal interim, experiences with stigma and alienation, and processes of identity formation and identification) that may concomitantly enhance our understandings of internal interims as well as temporary workers and leaders at large.

Does E-mail Facilitate Negative Performance Feedback Giving?: Supervisor and Subordinate Responses Compared via the Concept of Social Accountability

With full- or part-time employees in Hong Kong as subjects, two studies examined how supervisors (n = 113) and subordinates (n = 145) reacted to a feedback scenario under the social accountability conditions depicted by a 2 (Valence: Positive or Negative) × 2 (Medium: FTF or e-mail) factorial design. Message valence explained greater variance than did medium, and e-mail was viable in mitigating both accountability-related reactions. Negative feedback, compared to positive feedback, created higher accountability that led participants in the role of a manager to feel greater anxiety and pressure, to perceive less effective message delivery and image and relationship management, and more likely to anticipate accountable behaviors. The perceptions by subordinate-subjects largely mirrored those by supervisor-subjects.

Effects of Media Framing of Obesity Among Adolescents

This article examined the effects of media framing of obesity on adolescents' causal attributions, causal beliefs, and evaluations of health messages. The goal was to understand what types of messages are most effective in communicating the risks of obesity, leading to changes in beliefs and attitudes. To do so, an experiment was conducted with a 2 × 2 between-subject factorial design, with the factors being frames (episodic vs. thematic) and valences (positive vs. negative). The dependent variables were message attitude, causal attribution, and individual and societal causal beliefs. Results indicated that those exposed to the episodic frame, compared to the thematic frame, were more likely to attribute the cause of obesity to individuals and evaluate the messages more positively. Message valence, however, had limited impact. These results have both theoretical and practical implications.

User- Versus Mainstream-Media-Generated Content: Media Source, Message Valence, and Team Identification and Sport Consumers’ Response

Despite the growing interest in social media and user-generated content, both academics and practitioners are struggling to understand the value and consequences of social media (e.g., blogs). This study employed a 2 (media source: mainstream/ social media) × 2 (message valence: positive/negative) × 2 (team identification: high/low) between-subjects design on source credibility and attitude toward an article. Positive and negative messages about the university’s varsity men’s basketball team were presented in either the mainstream media (sport magazine) or a user-generated format (blog). The results revealed that message valence had a significant main impact on triggering biased source evaluation and attitude toward the message. In turn, media source had a significant main effect on source expertise, but no main effects were found for trustworthiness and attitude. Team identification moderated the effect of media source on cognitive processing, suggesting that highly identified fans evaluated mainstream content more favorably, whereas less identified fans preferred user-generated content.

Hard Wired for Negative News? Gender Differences in Processing Broadcast News

The experimental study reported here investigated information processing of broadcast news at the intersection of audience gender (male versus female) and message valence (positive, negative, and ambiguous). Both audio and video dimensions of stimuli were manipulated to create the three valence frames. The data produced interactions between gender and message valence for self-reported arousal, as well as recognition memory and comprehension of news content. In particular, male viewers are associated with a negativity bias, reporting the highest arousal levels and producing the best recognition memory and comprehension scores for negatively valenced messages. Women, in contrast, show signs of an avoidance response to negatively framed news, rating positively valenced stories as more arousing as well as processing such messages more effectively than negatively framed messages. Within the information-processing paradigm these findings suggest that the gender variable deserves more research attention. The results also have implications for journalism practitioners.

Antismoking Messages for the International Teenage Segment: The Effectiveness of Message Valence and Intensity across Different Cultures

Based on an experiment among more than 2000 students in nine culturally diverse countries, this article investigates how the cultural characteristic of uncertainty avoidance moderates the impact of valence and intensity on the effectiveness of antismoking messages. The results show that adolescents with high uncertainty avoidance respond more favorably to loss-framed advertisements than to benefit-framed advertisements, whereas the opposite holds for those with low uncertainty avoidance.

A Test of the Third-Person Effect in Public Relations: Application of Social Comparison Theory

Based on a social comparison theoretical framework, this study explores the third-person effect in public relations and examines situational variables such as message topic, message valence (i.e., positive versus negative), perceived desirability of being affected by the message, and receiver characteristics. A lab experiment (n=229) was conducted. This study provided additional empirical evidence of the prevalence of the third-person effect in the context of positive and negative news releases.

Improving Media Richness Theory

Media richness theory predicts that managers, driven by the instrumental goal of task efficiency, choose media based on the match up of message equivocality and media richness. This study proposes that relational and self-presentational goals are also relevant in manager-subordinate interactions, particularly when messages differ in valence, and investigated 107 managers in Hong Kong. Findings with respect to traditional media show (a)media richness theory holds when messages are positive, (b) self-presentational goals are the most powerful predictor of media choice when messages are negative, (c) relational goals have some impact on managers’ media choice, and (d) complexity is a sensitive predictor of media choice. Thus, media richness theory can be improved by incorporating a broader consideration of relevant interaction goals and the constructs of message valence and complexity.

Trust in risky messages: the role of prior attitudes.

Risk perception researchers have observed a "negativity bias" for hazard-related information. Messages indicating the presence of risk seem to be trusted more than messages indicating the absence of risk, and risk perceptions seem more affected by negative than positive information. Two experiments were conducted to examine alternative explanations of this finding within the area of food additives. Study 1 (N = 235) extended earlier work by (a) unconfounding message valence (positive or negative) from message extremity (definite or null finding) and (b) exploring the role of prior attitudes. Results suggested that negative/risky messages were indeed trusted more even when extremity was taken into account. However, prior attitudes significantly moderated the effect of message valence on trust. Positive messages were distrusted only by those with negative prior attitudes. Study 2 (N = 252), further explored the role of prior attitudes and extended the work by examining reactions to risky messages about a positively viewed additive--a vitamin. The results again found a moderating effect of prior attitudes on message valence. Participants had greater confidence in messages that were more congruent with their prior attitudes, irrespective of valence. Furthermore, positive messages had a greater impact on risk perception than negative messages. These findings suggest that greater trust in negative messages about hazards may be a product of a "confirmatory" rather than a "negativity" bias.

The Effects of Message Valence and Listener Arousal on Attention, Memory, and Facial Muscular Responses to Radio Advertisements

This study tested the validity of using facial electromyography (EMG) as a physiological measure of the valence of radio listeners' emotional responses to advertisements and explored the effects of message valence and listener arousal on attention and memory. A within-subjects experiment was conducted in which participants listened to ten 60-second radio advertisements that had been coded in a pretest as having either a positive or negative emotional tone. Facial EMG, heart rate, and skin conductance data were collected during exposure to the advertisements. Following exposure, participants completed free recall and recogniton memory tests. Results demonstrated the validity of using facial EMG to assess the valence of emotional response to media messages. Heart rate data suggest that negative messages receive more attention than positive ones. Furthermore, how arousing a message is appears to be a better predictor of memory than message valence.

Can You Back That Up?

Participants evaluated two candidates for the U. S. Senate (one a "shared-ideology" candidate with regard to the participant, the other an "opposing-ideology" candidate), each of which engaged in either a positive campaign (provided positive assessments of the candidate's character) or a negative campaign (provided negative assessments of the opposing candidate's character). Each participant read advertisements in which one candidate provided specific evidence to support his character assertions, whereas the other candidate did not provide such evidence. As predicted, evaluations of the shared-ideology candidate were significantly hurt by the failure to specifically support the character assertions. In contrast, evaluations of the opposing-ideology candidate were not damaged by the failure of the candidate to supply supporting evidence for the character assertions. In addition, effects extending and qualifying the synergistic interaction of the valence of competing campaigns were demonstrated. The roles of message valence, supporting evidence, and the in-group/out-group relationship between communicator and recipient in political communication are discussed.

An Exploratory Study of Message Affect Behavior

This article presents the results of an investigation wherein Rogan and Hammer's language intensity/message affect coding metric was used for evaluating variability in the emotional language of Euro-Americans and African Americans responding to a freeresponse scenario. Overall, the findings from this study indicate that there are significant differences in the level of affect present in messages communicated by African Americans compared with messages communicated by Euro-Americans. Specifically, the EuroAmerican respondents employed significantly greater language intensity and significantly more positive message valence compared with more negatively valenced and neutral language intensity used by African American respondents. These findings provide additional insight into traditional, qualitatively derived assumptions regarding the affective communication patterns of Euro-Americans and African Africans. The results also serve to bolster the applicability and validity of Rogan and Hammer's coding metric.

Gender Comparisons in Responsiveness to Others' Evaluations in Achievement Settings

An experiment tested three possible explanations for gender differences in responsiveness to others' evaluations in achievement settings. Results replicated previous studies and showed that women and men perceived the valence of evaluative messages similarly. Further, women's privately made self-evaluations reflected the valence of others' evaluations to a greater extent than men's. Finally, women saw others' evaluations as more accurate assessments of their performance than did men and said they were more influenced by those evaluations than did men. The best explanation for the gender difference in responsiveness to others' evaluations, therefore, seems to lie in women's and men's differing construals of the informational value of those evaluations. The authors propose that different experiences girls and boys have with evaluative feedback may lead to gender differences in beliefs about the informational value of others' evaluations of our competence.

Emotion, Hemispheric Specialization, and Visual and Verbal Memory for Television Messages

This article investigates variations in visual and verbal memory for television messages as a function of the emotional valence of the message. It is theorized that emotional processing is lateralized, with positive emotions receiving greater left-brain processing and negative emotions greater right-brain processing. Because the left brain is the primary locus for verbal information processing and the right brain is the primary locus for visual-spatial processing, it is hypothesized that memory for negative emotional messages will be more visual than verbal, whereas memory for positive emotional messages will be more verbal than visual. This hypothesis is tested at the encoding and recall stages of processing by measuring subjects' recall and recognition for messages that vary in emotional valence. Results suggest that message valence may be related to the amount of visual or verbal information encoded. However, the effect is less evident at the retrieval stage.

Impact of message valence, focus, expressive style, and gender on communication patterns among maritally distressed couples.

This study explored the sequential communication patterns of maritally distressed couples. The findings confirmed the presence of negative and nonnegative (positive and neutral combined) reciprocity. The results indicated that partners tend to respond negatively if their spouses have just spoken about the partners or the relationship and that wives are more likely to respond negatively than husbands, regardless of how positive or negative the communication was. Analyses demonstrated that the speaker's gender, the positive/negative nature of the message, the focus, and the delivery skill of the message did not affect the empathic nature of the partner's subsequent response.

Impact of message valence, focus, expressive style, and gender on communication patterns among maritally distressed couples.

Impact of message valence, focus, expressive style, and gender on communication patterns among maritally distressed couples.