Persuasive Intent Research Articles

Discounting Counter-Stereotypical Representations in Entertainment Based on Existing Beliefs

ABSTRACT Exposure to counter-stereotypical portrayals in entertainment media has been shown to impact attitudes toward marginalized groups in previous studies, which reveal generally positive but sometimes inconsistent effects. To better understand the role of individual differences in these outcomes, this study examines how perceptions of realism, character typicality, and persuasive intent are influenced by existing stereotypical beliefs. Individuals with high gender- and race-related stereotype endorsement about intelligence were found to perceive counter-stereotypical representations of brilliance as externally unrealistic, undermining the potential for portrayals to positively impact attitudes. This relation was mediated by perceptions of character atypicality. The role of persuasive intent in this process remains inconclusive. By elucidating these mechanisms, this research identifies factors that may impede the prosocial impact of media representations in improving attitudes toward stereotyped groups.

Humans Vs. Service Robots as Social Actors in Persuasion Settings

Our study departs from existing research, which primarily focuses on the benefits of automated social presence in customer service. Instead, we investigate the potential downsides of a service robot’s social presence in marketing persuasion, particularly its influence on consumers’ use of persuasion knowledge. Across five experiments, we aim to: (1) identify factors affecting the social presence of a salesclerk as a persuasion agent (type of service provider, persuasive intent, and robot appearance); and (2) reveal that anthropomorphized service robots in persuasion contexts lead to a decrease in perceived salesclerk sincerity (i.e., social presence effect), ultimately impacting consumer attitudes and behaviors. Additionally, we explore the mechanism behind the social presence effect by examining the moderating role of consumers’ dispositional persuasion knowledge. By applying the persuasion knowledge model to robot-mediated service encounters, this research offers valuable insights into the potential drawbacks of using anthropomorphic robots for marketing persuasion in service relationships.

THE USE OF SCHOLARSHIP BY THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

AbstractThe relationship between scholarship and adjudication has attracted considerable attention in recent years, especially in those areas where significant academic expertise has been developed and academic scrutiny of decisions is common. Yet the role of scholars and scholarship in the context of the adjudicatory practices of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has remained palpably under-investigated. This article begins to fill this gap in the literature by carrying out the first large-scale empirical study of the use of scholarship by the ECtHR. The authors rely on a purpose-built dataset comprising all the citations made by the Grand Chamber of the Court in judgments and separate opinions appended to it. The study finds that the Court's majority uses scholarship for the purposes of reviewing facts and interpreting international and domestic law but does so rarely. The majority of the ECtHR does not use scholarship to interpret the European Convention on Human Rights or for persuasive purposes, unlike the individual Judges in their separate opinions. Indeed, individual Judges refer to scholarship more often, for more varied and arguably different purposes. This use, however, is inconsistent in terms of both frequency and the types of sources referred to.

Англоязычный авторский трэвел-блог: жанровые, структурные и прагмастилистические особенност

The aim of the article is to identify genre, structural, pragmatic and stylistic features of English travel blogs. Travel blog as a genre is a form of Internet communication that combines elements of different registers; it is marked by its dialogic, interactive and polycode features, that is a combination of verbal and non-verbal components serving informative, appealing and persuasive purposes. The article uses discourse, pragmastylistic and contextual analyses. It is obvious that the genre features of analyzed messages of the travel blog are speech forms combining neutral and colloquial registers. The blog structure is horizontal with themes arranged in line with posts links behind them. The posts themselves have no rigid structure, the mandatory parts are headlines and subheadlines – rubrics and the final part containing either impressions of the trip, advertising a certain destination and sponsor, or appeal to the readers to discuss the contents and persuade them to go to the described places. The main part of the blog can have rubrics (tips or description of sights and their evaluation); it can be the interchange of trip experiences with their evaluation and photos for each of those. The pragmastylistic features of the narrative are the syntactic means serving expressiveness and stimulating interest in the blog content, as well as in future trips: parallel constructions, inversion, parcellation. Lexical means create an atmosphere of real communication and trustworthiness: the use of abbreviated morphological and grammatical forms, words formed by conversion, idioms, interjections; phonetic-graphic means include graphon, emoticons, multiplication, capitalisation to accentuate certain parts of the utterance and convey emotions. The paper concludes that both linguistic and extralinguistic means reflect the key genre features and serve the author’s purpose – to get and keep the readers interested, to persuade them to act. The research material were 113 pragmastylistic language units from 15 posts of an English travel blog, where the author shares with the subscribers her impressions of travelling in Europe, Asia and Latin America. The American blogger and freelance journalist Ciara Jonson was chosen due to her blogs being ranked as one of the best travel blogs by travel editions and other bloggers.

Comparative analysis of interactional metadiscursive resources in academic writing by L2 and L1 English writers

Interactional Metadicursive Resources (IMRs) are established as the most common rhetorical features that assist writers in achieving interaction with the discourse community. The purpose of this study was to compare the use of IMRs in research articles (RAs) authored by Yemeni L2 writers and L1 English writers, while also examining the extent to which both groups employ these resources to achieve persuasive purposes. Based on Hyland’s (2019) model, AntConc was used as an analytical tool in a corpus-based methodology to analyze the use of IMRs in their context of use, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Moreover, Swales’ models were adapted to identify rhetorical moves in the different sections of RAs. The findings indicate that L1 writers tended to use IMRs more frequently and effectively to pursue ethos and pathos. However, Yemeni L2 writers tended to use IMRs sparingly, lacking familiarity with their persuasive role. L1 writers tended to express epistemic and affective stances and used these resources throughout their research, while Yemeni L2 writers tended to focus more on propositional content, using limited IMRs in their writing. Furthermore, unlike L1 English writers, who tended to negotiate their claims in the RA introduction and engage their audience in the RA conclusion, Yemeni L2 writers almost exclusively strengthened their line of argument when initiating and concluding their research. The study concludes by discussing the pedagogical implications of the effective use of IMRs in L2 academic writing.

Presidential Transitions and Interests Group Participation in the Notice and Comment Process

Federal administrative agencies are one of the primary policymaking venues in the United States. One of the core features of U.S. administrative practice is the notice-and-comment process in which agencies solicit, collect, and respond to comments from the public before issuing new regulations. In this paper, we develop a model of commenting based on three motivations—litigation preservation; agency persuasion; and expression—and analyze public comments to determine how features of the political environment, and specifically the president in power, affect the pool of commenters. We focus on the 2017 presidential transition, when there was both a change in Presidents and the party in control of the White House. We find that there were greater differences in the pool of commenters between administrations than within administrations and that interest groups tended to participate more when they were more closely associated with the party in power. Our findings support the view that many commenters use the public comment process for persuasive purposes, and not only to preserve litigation opportunities or for purely expressive reasons.

인쇄 공익광고에 나타난 설득의 전략으로서의 개입평가 연구

Objectives The purpose of this paper is to analyze the realizations of the engagement category, one of the subcategories of appraisal, in printed public service advertisements, to see how these realizations serve the discursive purpose of persuasion.
 Methods To achieve this purpose, the content structure of 60 printed public service advertisements made over the past five years was analyzed, and the categories of engagement realized based on sentence units in each content structure and linguistic elements that realize engagement were examined.
 Results The results of the engagement analysis showed that the content structure of public service advertisements and the realization of engagement are significantly correlated, and that the use of engagement is characterized differently depending on the content structure. In ‘raising a problem’, the engagement of ‘monogloss, entertain, deny, and counter’ were realized, and in ‘explaining the situation’, the engagement of ‘monogloss, entertain, deny, and acknowledge’ were realized. In addition, the engagement of ‘monogloss, pronounce, deny, and entertain’ was realized in ‘solution proposal’, and the engagement of ‘monogloss, entertain, concur, counter, and pronounce’ were realized in ‘topic emphasis’.
 Conclusions Through the above analysis results, it was confirmed that the engagement realized in the printed public service advertisement texts were selected and used to achieve the purpose of the discourse of persuasion. The significance of these analysis results are as follows. It is also significant in that it shows the categories and linguistic elements of engagement that are used to achieve the discursive purpose of persuasion, as well as their meaning and function.

Equivalence framing and its effects on truth judgments: evidence from China

Recent research based on samples from Western countries has shown that the framing of information influences judgments of its truth, with negative framed statements perceived as more credible than formally equivalent positive framed statements. However, these findings may not apply to all Chinese residents because of China’s unique news contexts that adhere to positive reporting and a collectivist culture. Although the equivalence framing also affects people’s judgment of the truth of the information in China, it differs from people in Western countries. Chinese people believe statements with positive framed statements are more credible than statements with formally equivalent negative frames. They are more likely to associate positive information with news and show no obvious reactance to the persuasive intention perceived from positive framed statements. In addition, exposure to information from non-official media is changing this particular outcome, and people with frequent access to non-official media show similar responses to those in the West along these paths.

A study of the mechanism of the types of emotions in retailers' review request text on consumers' reviewing intention

PurposeThis study aims to delve into the varying impacts of different types of emotions conveyed through retailers' review request texts on consumers' intention to write a review.Design/methodology/approachTo verify the relationships between these variables, two laboratory experiments were conducted in this study.FindingsThe findings indicate that when accompanied by an objective statement, texts that evoke empathy and favor have a positive influence on consumers' inclination to write a review. Moreover, by examining the underlying mechanism, this study uncovers two interconnected mediators, namely persuasive intent and cognitive (affective) resistance, along with empathy and helping intention. Additionally, the study explores the moderating role of customer satisfaction with the product, shedding light on the contextual factors that influence the effects of emotional cues in review texts.Originality/valueThis research contributes to the literature and practice by focusing on the process of retailers' generating online reviews. This is one of the first studies to systematically examine the effects of emotional text in retailers' review request on consumers' reviewing intention from the perspective of emotional evocation. The experimental findings and the underlying mechanisms emphasize the impact of different types of emotions in retailers' review requests texts on consumers' reviewing intentions. It can help retailers better understand the psychological reactions of consumers when they ask reviews, which provide theoretical support for retailers to design more reasonable asking texts.

Persuasion in the Business Speeches of Chief Executive Officers of Selected International Companies

This study investigated the persuasive strategies employed in the business speeches of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of selected international companies. Anchored in Speech Act Theory within the broader aspect of pragmatics, it analyzed 12 speeches, totalling 14,938 words, from a diverse range of international CEOs. These speeches, intended for both employees and shareholders, provided a rich corpus for examining the nuances of persuasion in a business context. The analysis focused on identifying various categories of persuasion, particularly distinguishing between direct and indirect speech acts. Utilizing a qualitative approach, 1,172 clauses were coded to elucidate the persuasive mechanisms at play. Findings revealed a predominant use of indirect persuasion by CEOs. Despite their intention to persuade, these business leaders predominantly opted for subtle, indirect speech acts, making their persuasive intent both non-obvious and inherent. Contrary to expectations, the study found a marked absence of direct rhetorical devices such as rhetorical questions, suppositions, and wonderings. This aligned with the pragmatic realities of business communication, which often eschews overtly unrealistic assertions. The analysis proposed a novel model for understanding the linguistic strategies of persuasive speech in business, highlighting both utilized and potential areas of persuasive speech acts. The implications of these findings extended beyond the specific speeches analyzed, suggesting avenues for further research. Recommendations included exploring persuasion directed at varied audiences, analyzing the perlocutionary effects post-delivery, and integrating paralinguistic and extralinguistic elements with verbal aspects of business speeches. This research not only mapped the current landscape of persuasive strategies in CEO speeches but also opened new possibilities for linguistic exploration in the realm of corporate communication.

Maternal Perception and Attitude towards Television Food Advertisements Targeting Children: A Cross-sectional Questionnaire Study from Pune, India

Introduction: Television food advertisements targeting children are recognised as a significant health risk, influencing their dietary choices and contributing to the increasing prevalence of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) among children in Low and Middle-income Countries (LMICs). Understanding maternal perceptions and attitudes towards these advertisements is crucial for designing effective public health interventions. Aim: To evaluate maternal perceptions and attitudes toward television food advertisements targeting children, specifically among mothers of children aged 4-11 years. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Dr. D. Y. Patil Dental College and Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India, from My 2023 to November 2023. A total of 332 mothers of children aged 4-11 years were divided into two groups: Group 1 (mothers of children aged 4-7 years) with 159 participants, and group 2 (mothers of children aged 8-11 years) with 173 participants. A prevalidated, closed-ended questionnaire consisting of 24 questions was administered to the mothers. The reliability of the questionnaire was ensured through the preliminary exploratory study and expert reviews, achieving a Cronbach’s Alpha value of 0.84. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests to compare perceptions of mothers in both groups. Results: The study received 332 responses from mothers with children aged 4-11 years. Significant differences between the two age groups were observed. In group 1, 64 (52%) mothers mothers agreed, while 41 (57.7%) mothers in group 2 strongly agreed that their children show a keen interest in watching food advertisements. Additionally, 80 (55.9%) mothers in group 1 agreed, while 39 (44.8%) mothers in group 2 strongly agreed that their children do not understand the persuasive intent of food advertisements, with statistical significance (p-value=0.001). Most mothers, 75 (52.4%) in group 1 and 68 (47.6%) in group 2, agreed that reducing exposure to food advertisements would improve children’s eating behaviour (p-value=0.01). Moreover, 61 (64.9%) mothers in group 1 strongly agreed, and 77 (58.3%) mothers in group 2 agreed that seeing advertisements persuaded children to want unhealthy foods, highlighting significant differences between the age groups (p-value=0.004). Conclusion: Mothers recognise the negative impact of TV food advertisements on their children’s eating habits, particularly noting the use of cartoons and celebrities to promote unhealthy snacks and low-nutrition food that their children struggle to understand. The present study emphasises the urgent need for regulatory measures to protect young viewers and promote healthier dietary choices across different age groups.

A Contrastive Study of Boosters in a Corpus of Academic Spoken English

The present study intended to investigate the use of boosters in the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). It examined whether native and non-native speakers of English differed from each other in boosters’ use based on Hyland (2005) across academic divisions, levels of interactivity, genders, and academic roles in academic spoken English. The results of the UNIANOVA inferential test revealed that not only did native speakers of English utilize boosters more frequently than non-native ones across the four variables, but they also employed boosters in a way that was specific to academic divisions, levels of interactivity, genders, and academic roles. Besides the influence of culture and proficiency on boosters’ use, this corpus analysis study found that native English speakers put their statements under focus so that they sound convincing to the audience in soft sciences more than the hard ones. It also indicated native speakers’ greater attempt to convince their audience of the truth in their propositions, show new pieces of information as true, and back their own manipulative or persuasive purposes in highly interactive speeches more than the other levels of interactivity. Furthermore, it was shown that female native speakers exceeded to express opinions, state a suggestion with confidence in their knowledge of the topic, and minimize the possibility of accepting other options in academic spoken English of the MICASE. Ultimately, it illustrated that native academic speakers of English of faculty role rated higher to strengthen their existence, position, argument, claims, and commitment to their speech.

Persuasion: Theoretic Conceptual Valences

The modern age has subordinated the whole society, imposing a model in which the individual should deliver not only content, but also form. The process of persuasion is applied daily, in everyday institutional and social contexts, etc., with the aim of convincing the other to believe, think and/or act in a certain way, to accept the “form”. The content disseminated in the public space often includes a persuasive valence, that is why is important to know the conceptual and functional aspects of persuasion, in order to be able to elaborate broad and complex analyses of media or advertising discourse. Persuasion is a complex process, through which an individual tries to influence/convince another individual or a group to adopt a certain opinion, behavior or action. The purpose of persuasion is to convince a person or a group of people, in order to change certain perceptions, attitudes, preferences, behaviors regarding a certain product, service, current, person, etc., according to their interests or desires or/and the goals of the sender, that is, the one trying to persuade. In the specialized literature, persuasion is defined as "the art of influencing positively", being used in various spheres such as: advertising, public relations, communication, marketing, politics, etc., applied both in a private setting, in an institutional one or even in the public one.

Explainability as a Psychological Inoculation: Building Resistance to Digital Persuasion in Online Gambling through Explainable Interfaces

Persuasive interfaces raise ethical concerns when users are unaware of persuasion or find it hard to resist it. Inoculation Theory suggests that attitudes can be inoculated against persuasive attacks. Studies show that disclosure statements in native advertising help people recognize persuasive intent. Likewise, just-in-time disclosure statements in persuasive interfaces may have a similar effect. In this article, explainable persuasion was used as an inoculation intervention to build resistance against persuasive interfaces. The effectiveness of this approach was assessed via a 4x2 online experiment, taking online gambling as an illustrative domain. 240 participants (age range 18–73 years, 138 male, 100 female, 2 participants choose not to disclose) were recruited from the UK. Inoculation was delivered through an animated video, while explainable persuasion was operationalized through the disclosure of persuasive intent. The findings showed that explainable persuasion increased awareness of the presence and risks of persuasive interfaces and strengthened user resistance to persuasive attempts. Explainable persuasion, being information-based, can be a cost-effective strategy for helping people stay in control over their digital usage while engaging with persuasive technologies.

Tone and credibility in voluntary disclosures

PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to study attitudinal responses to the tone of a voluntary disclosure. It is known that tone can affect market response. Existing literature assumes that investors' attitudes mediate these effects, but these attitudinal mediators have not been directly measured. The authors are especially interested in cases where a firm is reporting poor financial results. The purpose is to trace the mechanism and conditions under which tone affects the credibility of a voluntary disclosure.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a 2 × 2 between-subjects study that manipulates financial performance (good/bad) and tone (positive/negative). The attitudinal dependent variable is the credibility of the management discussion, with persuasive intent as a mediator of the effects of tone on credibility.FindingsIn the case of bad financial results, a positive tone has a negative effect on credibility as the authors predict. This effect is fully mediated by perceived “persuasive intent”. In the case of good financial performance, credibility is higher when management adopts a positive tone, even though there, too, subjects perceive the persuasive intent.Research limitations/implicationsThe research paper establishes a bridge between the communications and finance literature on the effect of tone in voluntary disclosures. The empirical findings provide initial evidence and new detail regarding an attitudinal response (credibility) that the finance literature often assumes is responsible for mediating market responses to voluntary disclosures. One unexpected finding with interesting implications is that positive tone increases credibility in the case of good news. The implication is that a firm may indulge in taking a victory lap to celebrate good news, without harming the credibility of their corporate communications. Additional research is warranted that combines theory and methods from communications and finance, to further elaborate the attitudinal mechanisms behind the market effects of tone in voluntary disclosures.Originality/valueAt the most general level, the original contribution is the creation of a theoretical and methodological bridge between the communications and finance literature, regarding the effect of tone in voluntary disclosures. This research proposes an integrated theoretical framework, in which the concept of incentives shapes the relationships between the firm's financial situation, a disclosure's tone and its credibility. Methodologically, the authors employ an experimental method, which is more typical in the communications literature, to illuminate the attitudinal effects of tone that are frequently mentioned and assumed in the finance literature.

Affective Responses to Counter-Attitudinal Testimonials Drive Persuasive Effects: The Case of Physician-Assisted Suicide

Overtly persuasive narratives such as testimonials pose significant challenges for theories of narrative persuasion. Such theories argue that overt persuasive intent diminishes entertainment and entertaining narratives reduce counterarguing. We propose that testimonial narratives instead have persuasive advantages through their ability to arouse message-consistent emotions and reduce affective reactance to the messages. Participants ( n = 1478) were randomly assigned to read a testimonial narrative or a non-narrative article about physician-assisted suicide. Articles were perceived as highly persuasive and low in entertainment intent; the testimonial was higher than the non-narrative in perceived eudaimonic intent. As predicted, testimonials reduced counterarguing via increased meaningful affect and decreased affective reactance to the message. Interaction tests showed that these effects were stronger in counterattitudinal participants. Theoretical implications for understanding the effects of testimonial narratives, particularly when the narratives are eudaimonic, are discussed, as are innovations for measuring counterarguing and perceived message intent.

A game of persuasion: influencing persuasive game appraisals through presentation frames and recommendation sources.

As games made with the explicit or implicit purpose of influencing players' attitudes, persuasive games afford a new way for individuals to reflect and elaborate on real-world issues or topics. While research points to effects of these games on their players, little is known about their practical impact. The current study focuses on the decision-making process that takes place between first hearing about a game and deciding to play it. Three elements in a game's presentation to potential players were explored: (1) the way it is framed as an entertaining experience, (2) the way it is framed as intending to persuade its players, and (3) whether it comes recommended by automated systems or through electronic word-of-mouth. These factors were chosen in line with theoretical arguments around framing, eudaimonia, and source credibility. A two (entertainment frame: hedonic versus eudaimonic) by two (persuasive intent frame: obfuscated versus explicit) by two (source of recommendation: system- versus peer-based) between-subjects experimental design was performed across (N = 310) randomly distributed participants. Measures were adapted from previous research and included selection and play behavior, attitudes, and obtrusiveness of persuasive intent, among others. Results show that frames need to be congruent to be effective, with the most effective stimuli being those where persuasive intent was clear and players could expect to engage meaningfully. Peer recommendations led to greater play intention than system-based varieties. While intention to play positively related to actual play behavior, this relationship was likely the result of avid game players displaying more interest in the game regardless of the study's manipulations. Implications are drawn from the advantages of being open about persuasive intent and the composition and drivers of a persuasive game's target audience.

A corpus-based discourse analysis of China’s national image constructed by environmental news in The New York Times

The persuasive function of topoi—the conclusion rules connecting the arguments and claims—in national image construction through news discourse has been relatively under-researched. This article presents findings from a corpus-based discourse analysis of 21 China-related environmental news stories in The New York Times to address this gap. The corpus analysis of frequency was utilized to find out recurrent and characteristic topics in the news discourse, while the concordance analysis revealed the discourse prosody in the news stories. Topoi in the reported speech was scrutinized to uncover the persuasive intentions in the coverage and the press’s opinion of China’s pro-environmental actions. The findings demonstrate that China is constructed as a country pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment and a country that is good at showing resolution of governance but with poor governance capacity. The paper suggests that China should spread environmental-related information more transparently using a vigorous international discourse system and diversify means of communication to offer the world more ways to see China’s pro-environmental actions.

Show me that you are advertising: Visual salience of products attenuates detrimental effects of persuasion knowledge activation in influencer advertising

In the realm of social media influencer advertising, the organic nature of sponsored content can deceive users by concealing persuasive intent. Regulators seek to reinforce users' persuasion knowledge through sponsorship disclosure guidelines, while advertisers explore ethical tactics to prevent the adverse effects of users' ad recognition on the effectiveness of influencer endorsements. With the increasing prevalence of image-based content, the investigation of visual factors, such as the presentation of products, and their moderating influence on the effects of ad recognition becomes ever more relevant. However, previous research has primarily focused on textual factors. Building on congruence theory, we demonstrate that marketers can harness bottom-up attention induced by high visual salience to counteract the detrimental effects of users’ ad recognition. Our findings indicate that ad recognition undermines favorable brand attitudes, word-of-mouth intentions, and purchase intentions by diminishing perceived influencer integrity and enhancing post skepticism. These effects are alleviated when the visual appearance of sponsored products is highly salient in terms of brightness or color. Our work offers a simple yet effective image-based solution for marketers to mitigate ad-related skepticism and elevate the persuasive potential of influencer advertising in the visually-driven realm of computer-mediated communication.

The Study of the Effect of Transportation on Issuerelevant Thoughts in Narrative Persuasion

The previous research of persuasive narrative messages has suggested that transportation into narratives prohibits issue-relevant thinking and critical thoughts on the issue, which is known as “the principle of incompatible of transportation and issue-relevant thought”. However, the previous research did not use narrative appeals with explicit persuasive intent and strong argument. Furthermore, the issues in the narratives were often not personally relevant. Hence, employing thought-listing techniques, this study tested the principle with persuasive narrative messages that had more explicit persuasive intention and more relevant issue to the participants. The findings of this study contradicts the principle: the extent to which the participants were transported into the story was not negatively associated with the number of issue-relevant thoughts, regardless of the valence of the thoughts. Consequently, this study suggests whether people are willing to think about the issue of persuasive narrative messages may be more related to the how explicitly the persuasive intent in narratives is presented in the narratives rather than transportation into the narratives.