A Bayesian model of the jumping-to-conclusions bias and its relationship to psychopathology

The mechanisms by which delusion and anxiety affect the tendency to make hasty decisions (Jumping-to-Conclusions bias) remain unclear. This paper proposes a Bayesian computational model that explores the assignment of evidence weights as a potential explanation of the Jumping-to-Conclusions bias using the Beads Task. We also investigate the Beads Task as a repeated measure by varying the key aspects of the paradigm. The Bayesian model estimations from two online studies showed that higher delusional ideation promoted reduced belief updating but the impact of general and social anxiety on evidence weighting was inconsistent. The altered evidence weighting as a result of a psychopathological trait appeared insufficient in contributing to the Jumping-to-Conclusions bias. Variations in Beads Task aspects significantly affected subjective certainty at the point of decisions but not the number of draws to decisions. Repetitions of the Beads Task are feasible if one assesses the Jumping-to-Conclusions bias using number of draws to decisions.

Why Do People Believe in Vaccine Misinformation? The Roles of Perceived Familiarity and Evidence Type

The proliferation of health misinformation poses a significant threat to public health, making it increasingly important to understand why misinformation is accepted. The illusory truth effect, which refers to the increased believability of a message due to repeated exposure, has been widely studied. However, there is limited research on this effect in the context of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. This paper aims to examine the role of perceived familiarity with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on various message perceptions, including perceived accuracy, agreement, perceived message effectiveness, and determinants of vaccination, including vaccine attitude and vaccination intention. Furthermore, it explores the impact of misinformation evidence (statistical vs. narrative) on the magnitude of the effects of perceived familiarity. To investigate these factors, a between-subjects experimental study was conducted, employing a 2 (Familiarity: strong vs. weak) × 3 (Evidence type: statistical, narrative, and both evidence) + 1 (Control: a message about drinking water) design. The results revealed that perceived familiarity with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation significantly predicted perceived accuracy, which was found to be negatively correlated with vaccine attitudes and vaccination intentions. Moreover, statistical evidence presented in misinformation was perceived as more persuasive in perceived message effectiveness, compared to narrative and mixed evidence. Interestingly, the effects of perceived familiarity were not contingent on the type of evidence used in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. These findings emphasize the importance of avoiding the repetition of misinformation, reducing the processing fluency associated with misinformation correction, and educating individuals on how to critically evaluate statistical evidence when encountering (mis)information.

Selecting the special or choosing the common? A high-powered conceptual replication of Kim and Markus' (1999) pen study

Kim and Markus (1999; Study 3) found that 74% of European Americans selected a pen with an uncommon (vs. common) color, whereas only 24% of East Asians made such a choice, highlighting a pronounced cross-cultural difference in the extent to which people opt for originality or make majority-based choices. The present high-powered study (N = 729) conceptually replicates the results from Kim and Markus (1999; Study 3), although our effect size (r = .12) is significantly weaker than that of the original study (r = .52). Interestingly, a larger proportion of Chinese, but not US, participants selected a pen with an uncommon color now than during the original study. Thus, our findings indicate a potential transmission of certain Western values to cultures traditionally characterized by collectivism and conformity, likely exacerbated by the globalization of mass media and the rapid economic growth in many East Asian countries.

A Meta-Analysis Comparing the Effectiveness of Narrative vs. Statistical Evidence: Health vs. Non-Health Contexts

This study is a meta-analysis of primary studies that make a direct comparison between narrative and statistical evidence in both health- and non-health-related communication contexts. The meta-analysis included 50 studies with 65 experimental pairs (k = 65) based on 13,113 (20-1270) participants. We examined the overall persuasiveness of evidence type by computing the correlations (r's) for all pairs, based on the random-effects model, which revealed an effect size of 0.016 (95% CI, -0.014 to 0.045, p = 0.296). Two types of evidence did not significantly differ in effectiveness under either communicative context. The moderation analysis indicated that narrative evidence had a significant advantage over statistical evidence for health messages advocating for prevention behaviors. Compared to non-student samples, the narrative evidence trumped statistical evidence for health-related issues. As communication research continues to investigate the implications for message persuasiveness derived by narrative and statistical appeals, our study suggests that the relative effectiveness is likely a complicated and nuanced matter. Practical implications and limitations have also been outlined.

Direct and crowding-out effects of a Hepatitis B vaccination campaign

We evaluate the direct and spillover causal effects of a Hepatitis B (HB) vaccination campaign in French schools on the vaccination adherence of the targeted pupils. Using a regression discontinuity design, we show that this campaign created an exogenous shock on vaccination behavior, increasing the HB vaccination rate for children aged 11 and above. At the same time, we show a drop in the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccination rate of the targeted pupils and an increase in the parental belief that measles is a benign disease. We interpret these results as a salience effect: the focus on HB vaccination leads to a decrease in the belief that other vaccines are as important. The effect on MMR vaccination was relatively unexpected and may imply a negative externality. Measles is an extremely contagious disease. If the vaccination rate falls, the disease will spread further, raising the question of the net effect of the HB vaccination campaign on the well-being of the population.

Effects of media portrayal on perceived cruise risk, image, and intentions

This research examines how news media portrayal of Covid-19 cases on cruise ships can produce decision biases. Two experiments were conducted in which news stories were varied according to format, base rate, framing and number size. The results demonstrate that prior cruise experience increases travel intentions and cruise image and lowers perceptions of cruise risk. Perceived risk is higher when the number of cases is presented in concrete numbers versus abstract percentages. Negative framing increases perceptions of cruise risk versus positive framing, especially when expressed in small numbers. The results extend beyond Covid-19 by demonstrating that sensationalism in the news media can result in decision biases that over- emphasize negative outcomes and increases risk perceptions in the minds of consumers. The findings suggest travel companies should work together with news media outlets when crisis situations arise to shift away from sensationalism and provide concrete information that is useful for consumers.

Stories or Directives: A Cross Cultural Comparison of Governmental Messages to Their Constituents during COVID-19

This cross-sectional investigation examines the message strategies employed by the CDC and the NHC regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and established that messages sent by the CDC via Twitter differed significantly from the messages posted by the NHC via Weibo. Within a random sample (n = 200) of CDC and NHC messaging, six common themes emerged. They were: offering general advice, offering advice for professionals, pandemic progress, organizational efforts, knowledge popularization, and event notification. Results suggest the CDC offered advice to the general public (n = 50) more often than the NHC (n = 19). Similarly, the CDC offered more advice oriented toward professionals (n = 20) than the NHC (n = 9). The NHC, was more likely to discuss the role of government in remedying the pandemic (n = 12) than the CDC (n = 0) and more likely to employ a narrative style in their messaging (n = 35) than the CDC (n = 1).

What Were the Information Voids? A Qualitative Analysis of Questions Asked by Dear Pandemic Readers between August 2020-August 2021

In the current infodemic, how individuals receive information (channel), who it is coming from (source), and how it is framed can have an important effect on COVID-19 related mitigation behaviors. In light of these challenges presented by the infodemic, Dear Pandemic (DP) was created to directly address persistent questions related to COVID-19 and other health topics in the online environment. This is a qualitative analysis of 3806 questions that were submitted by DP readers to a question box on the Dear Pandemic website between August 30, 2020 and August 29, 2021. Analyses resulted in four themes: the need for clarification of other sources; lack of trust in information; recognition of possible misinformation; and questions on personal decision-making. Each theme reflects an unmet informational need of Dear Pandemic readers, which may be reflective of the broader informational gaps in our science communication efforts.This study highlights the role of an ad hoc risk communication platform in the current environment and uses questions submitted to the Dear Pandemic question box to identify informational needs of DP readers over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings may help clarify how organizations addressing health misinformation in the digital space can contribute to timely, responsive science communication and improve future communication efforts.

The Effects of Anthropomorphism, Message Framing, and Voice Type on Unhealthy Sleep Behavior in Young Users: The Mediating Role of Risk Perception

Insufficient sleep is a severe social public health problem that can adversely affect the physical and mental health of young people. This study examined risk perceptions for unhealthy sleep behaviors and intentions for healthy sleep behaviors under different combinations of anthropomorphism, message framing, and voice type in cartoons. We used a three-factor between-subject experiment of two (anthropomorphism: anthropomorphic vs. non-anthropomorphic) × two (message framing: positive frame vs. negative frame) × two (voice type: cartoon child voice vs. adult female voice) design. We examined the effects of different audiovisual combinations of cartoon attitude, risk perception, and behavioral intention and the mediating role of risk perception. The research results show that (1) the integration of anthropomorphic design elements can positively impact users’ attitudes toward cartoons; (2) when the interface information is presented in a negative frame, anthropomorphism can more positively influence users’ attitudes toward cartoons than non-anthropomorphism; and (3) anthropomorphism, message framing, and voice type in cartoons significantly interact with risk perception. In addition, risk perception mediates the influence of anthropomorphism, message framing, and voice type on behavioral intention.

Analysis of text factors impacting donation behavior in public welfare crowdfunding projects

BACKGROUND: The textual description of a public service crowdfunding project is an important factor influencing the audience’s donation behavior, but the existing studies on the textual characteristics of the project are rather scattered. OBJECTIVE: This paper attempts to systematically sort out the characteristics of project texts along the lines of linguistic and non-linguistic factors, clarifying the relationship between the characteristics of project texts, project sources, and social donation behavior. METHODS: Based on Aristotle’s persuasion theory, language factors are measured from three dimensions of appeal to personality, appeal to logic, and appeal to emotion, while other text features unrelated to persuasive language are classified as non-language factors. When discussing the influence path of linguistic and non-linguistic factors on donation behavior, this paper controls the project type to test the moderating role played by the identity characteristics of crowdfunding initiators. RESULTS: The results show that the use of personality-based language (third-person words), logic-based language (money words and quantitative words), and emotion-based language (tone of voice and negative emotions) all have a significant positive effect on the audience’s donation behavior, while the use of second-person words in personality-based language has a negative effect on donation behavior; the identity of the project initiator (project origin) plays a complex and diverse moderating role in the influence of project text features on donation behavior. CONCLUSION: There are obvious differences in the description of different text strategies adopted by the project initiator.

The Moderating Effects of “Dark” Personality Traits and Message Vividness on the Persuasiveness of Terrorist Narrative Propaganda

Terrorism researchers have long discussed the role of psychology in the radicalization process. This work has included research on the respective roles of individual psychological traits and responses to terrorist propaganda. Unfortunately, much of this work has looked at psychological traits and responses to propaganda individually and has not considered how these factors may interact. This study redresses this gap in the literature. In this experiment (N = 268), participants were measured in terms of their narcissism, Machiavellianism, subclinical psychopathy, and everyday sadism—collectively called the Dark Tetrad. Participants were then exposed to a vivid or nonvivid terrorist narrative (or a control message). Results indicate that Machiavellianism interacts with both narrative exposure and narrative vividness to amplify the persuasive effect of terrorist narratives. Neither narcissism, subclinical psychopathy, nor everyday sadism had such an effect. These results highlight the importance of considering the psychological traits of audiences when evaluating proclivity for radicalization via persuasion by terrorist narratives.

Can behavioral interventions be too salient? Evidence from traffic safety messages

Although behavioral interventions are designed to seize attention, little consideration has been given to the costs of doing so. We estimated these costs in the context of a safety campaign that, to encourage safe driving, displays traffic fatality counts on highway dynamic message signs for 1 week each month. We found that crashes increase statewide during campaign weeks, which is inconsistent with any benefits. Furthermore, these effects do not persist beyond campaign weeks. Our results show that behavioral interventions, particularly negatively framed ones, can be too salient, crowding out more important considerations and causing interventions to backfire-with costly consequences.

An Intervention Utilizing the Salience Principle to Reduce Pharmacy Students' Psychological Attraction to Smartphones

Objective. To determine pharmacy student reactions to and experiences with an intervention based on the principle of salience to reduce psychological attraction and attention to smartphones.Method. For a period of three weeks, participants were directed to change their smartphone's color setting to grayscale mode, turn off social media notifications, remove social media icons from smartphone home screen, and place the device away from their bed when sleeping. A thematic analysis was performed on responses to an anonymous, open-ended survey question that asked participants to record any positive/negative changes to their life and well-being as a result of participating in the study.Results. Thematic analysis revealed 20 unique themes and a variety of notable observations, including a reduction in both smartphone and social media use, reduced allure because of grayscale mode, frustrations caused by grayscale mode, increased productivity, and general improvements in sleep, face-to-face interactions, and overall well-beingConclusion. Results of this study provide initial evidence that changes to smartphone settings and physical placement at night may lead to positive outcomes. Participants reported primarily positive effects regarding well-being and reduced smartphone usage as a result of participating in the study. In many cases, less time on smartphones meant improved sleep, more productivity, more time for social/leisure activities, improved face-to-face interactions, and/or improvement in well-being.

Collateral Damage: The Relationship Between High-Salience Events and Variation in Racial Discrimination

To what extent are individual or organizational biases affected by racially salient events? We propose that acts of discrimination and the individual biases that undergird them are sensitive to high-salience events and will oscillate with the salience of the focal attribute. In short, that the propensity to discriminate reflects both individual and environmental differences, and therefore a given person may become more prone to discriminate in the aftermath of a high-salience event. We test our hypothesis in three online experiments that examine how varying the salience of race affects the evaluation of in-group or out-group founders. We find that respondents evaluate their in-group members more favorably, and out-group members less favorably, when exposed to a high-salience event, which translates into a significant disadvantage for the minority (African American) group. We complement these studies with an assessment of how police shootings affect fundraising outcomes on Kickstarter to confirm the external validity of our findings. Together, these studies indicate that racially salient events depress the quality evaluations and success odds of African American entrepreneurs relative to others. Hence, discrimination levels can be affected by salient yet unrelated events, and such events are consequential for the economic fortunes of individuals belonging to minority and disadvantaged groups.

Does the framing of patient cost-sharing incentives matter? the effects of deductibles vs. no-claim refunds

Understanding how health care utilization responds to cost-sharing is of central importance for providing high quality care and limiting the growth of costs. We study whether the framing of cost-sharing incentives has an effect on health care utilization. For this we make use of a policy change in the Netherlands. Until 2007, patients received a refund if they consumed little or no health care; the refund was the lower the more care they had consumed. From 2008 onward, there was a deductible. This means that very similar economic incentives were first framed in terms of smaller gains and later as losses. We find that patients react to incentives much more strongly when they are framed in terms of losses. The effect on yearly spending is 8.6 percent. This suggests that discussions on the optimal design of cost-sharing incentives should also revolve around the question how these are presented to patients.

A Content Analysis of Social Support Messages about Environmental Breast Cancer Risk within Blogs for Mothers

Bloggers can help stimulate online conversations among their readers about a variety of health topics, including breast cancer. However, in previous studies, researchers have not specifically examined supportive messages within an online blogger community that stem from an intervention where bloggers were provided with evidence-based information about breast cancer risk that they could tailor and disseminate to their readers. In the current study, we content analyzed 282 supportive messages within online conversations from participants in blogger communities over a 2-month period immediately following an intervention where the authors provided 74 bloggers who write about motherhood issues with an infographic based on evidence-based information from the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP) about environmental breast cancer risk/prevention. Bloggers who shared information about their personal breast cancer risk generated a significantly higher number of blog reader comments than bloggers who did not share information about their personal breast cancer risk. Bloggers who cited breast cancer statistics in posts were more likely to draw esteem and emotional support from their readers. Bloggers' repetition of information from blog intervention messages was more likely to elicit esteem, informational, and emotional support from readers. Disclosure of a personal breast cancer diagnosis was associated with mixed types of social support messages. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed along with key limitations of the study and future directions for research in this area.

Development of a Codebook of Online Anti-Vaccination Rhetoric to Manage COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

Vaccine hesitancy (delay in obtaining a vaccine, despite availability) represents a significant hurdle to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy is in part related to the prevalence of anti-vaccine misinformation and disinformation, which are spread through social media and user-generated content platforms. This study uses qualitative coding methodology to identify salient narratives and rhetorical styles common to anti-vaccine and COVID-denialist media. It organizes these narratives and rhetorics according to theme, imagined antagonist, and frequency. Most frequent were narratives centered on "corrupt elites" and rhetorics appealing to the vulnerability of children. The identification of these narratives and rhetorics may assist in developing effective public health messaging campaigns, since narrative and emotion have demonstrated persuasive effectiveness in other public health communication settings.

Effects of Statistical and Narrative Health Claims on Consumer Food Product Evaluation

This research aims at exploring the underlying mechanisms how consumers respond to statistical and narrative health claims when they evaluate food products. Moreover, personality traits and product-related information are also incorporated to discuss their effects on the relationship between message types and consumers’ food product evaluation. The results indicate that statistical health claims are more persuasive than narrative health claims. In addition, the results show that individuals’ health knowledge, NFC moderate the relationship between message types and product evaluation. It argues that individuals with limited health knowledge evaluate food product more favorably when statistical health claims are used, while individuals with more health knowledge evaluate food product more favorably when narrative health claims are used. Moreover, it reveals that individuals with high NFC evaluate food product more favorably when statistical health claims are used, while individuals with low NFC evaluate food product more favorably when narrative health claims are used.

The Effectiveness of Online Messages for Promoting Smoking Cessation Resources: Predicting Nationwide Campaign Effects From Neural Responses in the EX Campaign

What are the key ingredients that make some persuasive messages resonate with audiences and elicit action, while others fail? Billions of dollars per year are put towards changing human behavior, but it is difficult to know which messages will be the most persuasive in the field. By combining novel neuroimaging techniques and large-scale online data, we examine the role of key health communication variables relevant to motivating action at scale. We exposed a sample of smokers to anti-smoking web-banner messages from a real-world campaign while measuring message-evoked brain response patterns via fMRI, and we also obtained subjective evaluations of each banner. Neural indices were derived based on: (i) message-evoked activity in specific brain regions; and (ii) spatially distributed response patterns, both selected based on prior research and theoretical considerations. Next, we connected the neural and subjective data with an independent, objective outcome of message success, which is the per-banner click-through rate in the real-world campaign. Results show that messages evoking brain responses more similar to signatures of negative emotion and vividness had lower online click-through-rates. This strategy helps to connect and integrate the rapidly growing body of knowledge about brain function with formative research and outcome evaluation of health campaigns, and could ultimately further disease prevention efforts.

Incorporating message format into user evaluation of microblog information credibility: A nonlinear perspective

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A new theoretical framework is developed to explore microblog information credibility by incorporating message format.

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Argument quality has a decreasing incremental effect on microblog information credibility, suggesting that argument quality is a hygiene factor.

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Source credibility was found to have a positive and linear effect on microblog information credibility, consistent with the role of a bivalent factor.

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Multimedia diagnosticity was found to have an increasing incremental effect on microblog information credibility.

The spreading of misinformation and disinformation is a great problem on microblogs, leading user evaluation of information credibility a critical issue. This study incorporates two message format factors related to multimedia usage on microblogs (vividness and multimedia diagnosticity) with two well-discussed factors for information credibility (i.e., argument quality and source credibility) as a holistic framework to investigate user evaluation of microblog information credibility. Further, the study draws on two-factor theory and its variant three-factor lens to explain the nonlinear effects of the above factors on microblog information credibility. An online survey was conducted to test the proposed framework by collecting data from microblog users. The research findings reveal that for the effects on microblog information credibility: (1) argument quality (a hygiene factor) exerts a decreasing incremental effect; (2) source credibility (a bivalent factor) exerts only a linear effect; and (3) multimedia diagnosticity (a motivating factor) exerts an increasing incremental effect. This study adds to current knowledge about information credibility by proposing an insightful framework to understand the key predictors of microblog information credibility and further examining the nonlinear effects of these predictors.

Concrete Messages Increase Healthy Eating Preferences

Public health campaigns utilize messaging to encourage healthy eating. The present experimental study investigated the impact of three components of health messages on preferences for healthy foods. We exposed 1676 online, American study participants to messages that described the gains associated with eating healthy foods or the costs associated with not eating healthy foods. Messages also manipulated the degree to which they included abstract and concrete language and the temporal distance to foreshadowed outcomes. Analysis of variance statistical tests indicated that concrete rather than abstract language increased the frequency of choosing healthy over unhealthy foods when indicating food preferences. However, manipulations of proximity to outcomes and gain rather than loss frame did not affect food preferences. We discuss implications for effective public health campaigns, and economic and social cognitive theories of persuasion, and our data suggest that describing health outcomes in concrete rather than abstract terms may motivate healthier choices.

Applying NUDGE to Inform Design of EBP Implementation Strategies in Community Mental Health Settings

We demonstrate the application of NUDGE (Narrow, Understand, Discover, Generate, Evaluate), a behavioral economics approach to systematically identifying behavioral barriers that impede behavior enactment, to the challenge of evidence-based practice (EBP) use in community behavioral health. Drawing on 65 clinician responses to a system-wide crowdsourcing challenge about EBP underutilization, we applied NUDGE to discover, synthesize and validate specific behavioral barriers to EBP utilization that directly inform the design of tailored implementation strategies. To our knowledge, this is the first study to apply behavioral economic insights to clinician-proposed solutions to implementation challenges in order to design implementation strategies. The study demonstrates the successful application of NUDGE to implementation strategy design and provides novel targets for intervention.

The effect of spatial location of calorie information on choice, consumption and eye movements

We manipulated the presence and spatial location of calorie labels on menus while tracking eye movements. A novel "lab-in-the-field" experimental design allowed eye movements to be recorded while participants chose lunch from a menu, unaware that their choice was part of a study. Participants exposed to calorie information ordered 93 fewer calories (11%) relative to a control group who saw no calorie labels. The difference in number of calories consumed was greater still. The impact was strongest when calorie information was displayed just to the right of the price, in an equivalent font. The effects were mediated by knowledge of the amount of calories in the meal, implying that calorie posting led to more informed decision-making. There was no impact on enjoyment of the meal. The eye-tracking data suggested that the spatial arrangement altered individuals' search strategies while viewing the menu. This research suggests that the spatial location of calories on menus may be an important consideration when designing calorie posting legislation and policy.

Narrative warmth and quantitative competence: Message type affects impressions of a speaker

Persuasion research often focuses on how source characteristics affect attitude change in response to a message; however, message characteristics may also alter perceptions of the source. The Message-Based Impression Formation effect (M-BIF) suggests that perceivers use features of messages to infer characteristics of the source, and that such inferences may have a variety of consequential outcomes. In particular, the choice of narrative versus statistical evidence may have implications for the perceived warmth and competence of a source. In five experiments, narrative arguments led to greater perceptions of source warmth and statistical arguments led to greater perceptions of source competence. Across the two behavioral studies, a matching effect emerged: participants preferred to work on cooperative tasks with partners who had provided narratives, and competitive tasks with partners who had provided statistical evidence. These results suggest that the evidence type chosen for everyday communications may affect person perception and interpersonal interaction.

Towards an Ethical Game Design Solution to Loot Boxes: a Commentary on King and Delfabbro

King and Delfabbro (2019b) proposed the adoption of social responsibility measures to combat predatory monetisation in video games, such as loot boxes. This paper rectifies a game example mistakenly used by King and Delfabbro and provides further game examples to illustrate, critique and extend the proposed measures. This paper argues that the proposed measures are unlikely to be widely adopted by the video game industry, given the industry’s economic interests in the continued unhindered implementation of predatory monetisation, their preference for continued ‘self-regulation’ and their past resistance against potential regulation. With reference to South Korean law, this paper explores the possibility of codifying and enforcing the proposed measures as law and argues that overly paternalistic regulations are insensible and impractical. This paper recommends the use of regulatory nudging to encourage video game companies through incentives, such as discretionary grants and tax relief schemes, to adopt the proposed social responsibility measures and develop towards an ethical game design framework.

On the Usefulness of Narratives: An Interdisciplinary Review and Theoretical Model

Background

How can we use stories from other people to promote better health experiences, improve judgments about health, and increase the quality of medical decisions without introducing bias, systematically persuading the listeners to change their attitudes, or altering behaviors in nonoptimal ways? More practically, should narratives be used in health education, promotion, or behavior change interventions?

Method

In this article, we address these questions by conducting a narrative review of a diverse body of literature on narratives from several disciplines to gain a better understanding about what narratives do, including their role in communication, engagement, recall, persuasion, and health behavior change. We also review broad theories about information processing and persuasion from psychology and more specific models about narrative messaging found in the health communication and marketing literatures to provide insight into the processes by which narratives have their effect on health behavior.

Results

To address major gaps in our theoretical understanding about how narratives work and what effects they will have on health behavior, we propose the Narrative Immersion Model, whose goal is to identify the parameters that predict the specific impact of a particular narrative (e.g. persuade, inform, comfort, etc.) based on the type of narrative message (e.g. process, experience, or outcome narrative). Further, the Narrative Immersion Model describes the magnitude of the effect as increasing through successive layers of engagement with the narrative: interest, identification, and immersion. Finally, the Narrative Immersion Model identifies characteristics of the narrative intervention that encourage greater immersion within a given narrative.

Conclusions

We believe there are important communication gaps in areas areas of behavioral medicine that could be addressed with narratives; however, more work is needed in order to employ narrative messaging systematically. The Narrative Immersion Model advances our theoretical understanding about narrative processing and its subsequent effects on knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.

The Effects of Graphic Warning Labels' Vividness on Message Engagement and Intentions to Quit Smoking

The current study examined the effects of manipulating the level of vividness through the presence of various textual and visual components in the context of tobacco warning labels. An online experiment was conducted (N=2165) to examine whether increasing the vividness of warning labels, using narrative and non-narrative components, increased engagement with the messages, and the subsequent effects of vividness and engagement on intentions to quit smoking. Results showed that more vivid warning labels led to increased engagement, which in turn was linked to increased intentions to quit smoking. Specifically, the indirect effect of vividness on intentions to quit smoking was largely driven by the emotional component of engagement. Indirect effects of cognitive engagement were only apparent at higher levels of vividness.

Saliency modulates behavioral strategies in response to social comparison

Social comparison has been found to affect humans in many aspects including outcome evaluation, emotional reaction, and decision-making. Here, two experiments were conducted using a gambling task involving monetary gains and losses (absolute outcome: win/loss), whereby participants' outcome was either better or worse than the outcome of a paired player (relative outcome: better/worse). The results of experiment 1 showed that participants switched more frequently after absolute losses compared with absolute gains, consistent with previous studies showing a win-stay lose-shift heuristic in repeated decision-making. Participants also adopted a better-stay worse-switch strategy where they switched more often after worse outcomes than better outcomes when compared with others, demonstrating that the win-stay lose-shift rule is extended to social comparison situations. In Experiment 2, through manipulating visual saliency, we replicated these findings and further demonstrated that decision making is influenced by emphasizing either the absolute (gain/loss) or relative (better/worse) aspect of the outcomes. Our research indicates that attentional modulation of information orchestrates social comparison, possibly by changing how each aspect of the information is weighted. These findings reinforce the idea that attention influences higher-level decision making by changing the weighting of each decisional dimension.

Measuring food preferences through experimental auctions: A review

In this article, we present and critically discuss the current and future key challenges of non-hypothetical experimental auctions (EA) to measure consumer preferences for new food products/attributes. The paper is composed by two complementary parts: a commentary of the core issues, identified in literature, related to internal and external validity of EA studies and a discussion of scholars' views (collected through a survey) on specific issues faced by EA research analysing consumer food preferences. Specific practical implications for EA studies performed by food researchers are also presented. Results highlight the opportunity to perform in-store experiments and the need to provide additional experimental details to allow replicability of research. Scholars also underline the increasing importance of a shared agreement on the use and regulation of deceptive practices in EA studies.

What Is the Story with Narratives? How Using Narratives in Journalism Changes Health Behavior

Health journalists frequently use narratives to bring news stories to life, with little understanding about how this influences the health behavior of readers. This study was designed to examine the effect of a New York Times health news article about a person who developed a life-threatening illness after using ibuprofen on readers' future use of ibuprofen. We recruited an Internet sample (N = 405) to participate in a longitudinal study examining ibuprofen use before, immediately following, and two weeks after reading the story. Ibuprofen use two-weeks after reading the heath news article was significantly lower than baseline use. Furthermore, intentions to use ibuprofen were also significantly reduced suggesting that the observed behavior change may persist beyond the two-week period studied. Health journalists should be cautious in their use of stories about health outcomes, particularly when those stories deviate from data about objective risks.

Feeling the weight of calories: using haptic feedback as virtual exemplars to promote risk perception among young females on unhealthy snack choices

Virtual simulations allow users to feel and manipulate objects as they would in the physical world. Guided by exemplification theory and risk communication research, a virtual exemplar was developed to allow users to feel the weight of the caloric density of unhealthy snacks (e.g., potato chips) to heighten risk perceptions on snack choices. A 3 (base-rate statistics, print exemplar, virtual exemplar) × 3 (Time 1, Time 2, Time 3) mixed design experiment (N = 152) compared the effect of three mediated modes of delivering health information at baseline, immediately after, and 1 week after treatments. Virtual exemplars led to greater spatial presence, issue involvement, and recommended health behavior than did base-rate statistics or print exemplars, but had no effect on perceived vividness. Heightened perceived susceptibility following virtual exemplars persisted for 1 week. Findings emphasized the importance of spatial presence elicited by an exemplar in heightening the perceived susceptibility of health risks both immediately after and 1 week after exposure. The role of spatial presence and vividness in the context of virtual exemplars that afford the illusion of firsthand experiences is discussed and compared against traditional exemplification research that has focused on the impact of secondhand experiences.

The Effectiveness of Web-Based Tailored Smoking Cessation Interventions on the Quitting Process (Project Quit): Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background

Project Quit was a randomized Web-based smoking cessation trial designed and conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan, where its primary outcome was the 7-day point prevalence. One drawback of such an outcome is that it only focuses on smoking behavior over a very short duration, rather than the quitting process over the entire study period.

Objective

The aim of this study was to consider the number of quit attempts during the 6-month study period as an alternative outcome, which would better reflect the quitting process. We aimed to find out whether tailored interventions (high vs low) are better in reducing the number of quit attempts for specific subgroups of smokers.

Methods

To identify interactions between intervention components of smoking cessation and individual smoker characteristics, we employed Poisson regression to analyze the number of quit attempts. This approach allowed us to construct data-driven, personalized interventions.

Results

A negative effect of the number of cigarettes smoked per day (P=.03) and a positive effect of education (P=.03) on the number of quit attempts were detected from the baseline covariates (n=792). Thus, for every 10 extra cigarettes smoked per day, there was a 5.84% decrease in the expected number of quit attempts. Highly educated participants had a 15.49% increase in their expected number of quit attempts compared with their low-educated counterparts. A negative interaction between intervention component story and smoker’s education was also detected (P=.03), suggesting that a high-tailored story given to highly educated people results in 13.50% decrease in the number of quit attempts compared with a low-tailored story.

Conclusions

A highly individually tailored story is significantly more effective for smokers with a low level of education. This is consistent with prior findings from Project Quit based on the 7-day point prevalence.

Does Narrative Feedback Enhance Children's Motor Learning in a Virtual Environment?

Augmented feedback has motivational and informational functions in motor learning, and is a key feature of practice in a virtual environment (VE). This study evaluated the impact of narrative (story-based) feedback as compared to standard feedback during practice of a novel task in a VE on typically developing children's motor learning, motivation and engagement. Thirty-eight children practiced navigating through a virtual path, receiving narrative or non-narrative feedback following each trial. All participants improved their performance on retention but not transfer, with no significant differences between groups. Self-reported engagement was associated with acquisition, retention and transfer for both groups. A narrative approach to feedback delivery did not offer an additive benefit; additional affective advantages of augmented feedback for motor learning in VEs should be explored.

Saliency modulates affective evaluations but not behavioral responses in the ultimatum game

Although numerous studies have demonstrated that the saliency of perceptual information guides attention, the effect of perceptual saliency in high-level social situations remains unclear. Here, in a modified ultimatum game that included both gain and loss sharing, we highlighted either the fairness (fair or unfair) or the valence (gain or loss) aspect of a proposed offer using salient background colors with social meanings. The results showed that emotional responses to proposed offers were influenced by visual saliency. Specifically, individuals felt more dissatisfied about unfair (as opposed to fair) offers when fairness was emphasized than when valence was emphasized or no emphasis; and similarly, individuals felt more dissatisfied about loss situations compared to gain situations when valence was emphasized than when fairness was emphasized or no emphasis. However, this attentional modulation of social information led to changes only on affective responses but not on actual behavioral responses. Our findings indicate that attentional modulation of social information has a profound impact on affective evaluation by changing how information is weighed.

Motivating Cord Blood Donation with Information and Behavioral Nudges

Umbilical cord blood is a source of hematopoietic stem cells essential to treat life-threatening diseases, such as leukemia and lymphoma. However, only a very small percentage of parents donate upon delivery. The decision to donate the cord blood occurs at a very specific time and when parents likely experience emotional, informational, and decisional overloads; these features of cord blood donation make it different from other pro-social activities. In collaboration with an OB-GYN clinic in Milan, Italy, we conducted the first randomized controlled trial that applies tools from behavioral science to foster cord blood donation, and quantified the gains that informational and behavioral "nudges" can achieve. We found that information and "soft" commitments increased donations; approaching expecting parents closer to the delivery date and providing them with multiple reminders, moreover, had the strongest impact. However, a significant portion of women who expressed consent to donate could not do so because of organizational constraints. We conclude that simple, non-invasive behavioral interventions that address information gaps and procrastination, and that increase the salience of the activity can substantially enhance altruistic donations of cord blood, especially when coupled with organizational support.

Effect of Message Format and Content on Attitude Accessibility Regarding Sexually Transmitted Infections

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are widespread in the United States among people ages 15-24 years and cost almost $16 billion yearly. It is therefore important to understand message design strategies that could help reduce these numbers. Guided by exemplification theory and the extended parallel process model (EPPM), this study examines the influence of message format and the presence versus absence of a graphic image on recipients' accessibility of STI attitudes regarding safe sex. Results of the experiment indicate a significant effect from testimonial messages on increased attitude accessibility regarding STIs compared to statistical messages. Results also indicate a conditional indirect effect of testimonial messages on STI attitude accessibility, though threat is greater when a graphic image is included. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Sharing Histories-a transformative learning/teaching method to empower community health workers to support health behavior change of mothers

BACKGROUND

One of the keys to improving health globally is promoting mothers' adoption of healthy home practices for improved nutrition and illness prevention in the first 1000 days of life from conception. Customarily, mothers are taught health messages which, even if simplified, are hard to remember. The challenge is how to promote learning and behavior change of mothers more effectively in low-resource settings where access to health information is poor, educational levels are low, and traditional beliefs are strong.

METHODS

In addressing that challenge, a new learning/teaching method called "Sharing Histories" is in development to improve the performance of female community health workers (CHWs) in promoting mothers' behaviors for maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH).

RESULTS

This method builds self-confidence and empowerment of CHWs in learning sessions that are built on guided sharing of their own memories of childbearing and child care. CHWs can later share histories with the mother, building her trust and empowerment to change. For professional primary health care staff who are not educators, Sharing Histories is simple to learn and use so that the method can be easily incorporated into government health systems and ongoing CHW programs.

CONCLUSIONS

I present here the Sharing Histories method, describe how it differs from other social and behavior change methods, and discuss selected literature from psychology, communications, and neuroscience that helps to explain how and why this method works as a transformative tool to engage, teach, transform, and empower CHWs to be more effective change agents with other mothers in their communities, thereby contributing to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Changing hospitals, choosing chemotherapy and deciding you've made the right choice: Understanding the role of online support groups in different health decision-making activities

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the ways in which people use online support groups (OSGs) in relation to their health decision-making and to identify the key features of the resource that support those activities.

METHOD

Eighteen participants who used OSGs for a range of health conditions participated in qualitative study in which they were interviewed about their experiences of using OSGs in relation to decision-making. Exploration of their experiences was supported by discussion of illustrative quotes.

RESULTS

Across the health conditions OSGs supported two main decision-making activities: (i) prompting decision making and (ii) evaluating and confirming decisions already made. Depending on the activity, participants valued information about the process, the experience and the outcome of patient narratives. The importance of forum interactivity was highlighted in relation to advice-seeking and the selection of relevant personal experiences.

CONCLUSION

People use OSGs in different ways to support their health related decision-making valuing the different content types of the narratives and the interactivity provided by the resource.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Engaging with OSGs helps people in a number of different ways in relation to decision-making. However, it only forms one part of people's decision-making strategies and appropriate resources should be signposted where possible.

The Influence of Statistical versus Exemplar Appeals on Indian Adults' Health Intentions: An Investigation of Direct Effects and Intervening Persuasion Processes

In two separate investigations, we examined the persuasive effectiveness of statistical versus exemplar appeals on Indian adults' smoking cessation and mammography screening intentions. To more comprehensively address persuasion processes, we explored whether message response and perceived message effectiveness functioned as antecedents to persuasive effects. Results showed that statistical appeals led to higher levels of health intentions than exemplar appeals. In addition, findings from both studies indicated that statistical appeals stimulated more attention and were perceived as more effective than anecdotal accounts. Among male smokers, statistical appeals also generated greater cognitive processing than exemplar appeals. Subsequent mediation analyses revealed that message response and perceived message effectiveness fully carried the influence of appeal format on health intentions. Given these findings, future public health initiatives conducted among similar populations should design messages that include substantive factual information while ensuring that this content is perceived as credible and valuable.

An Examination of Adolescent Recall of Anti-Smoking Messages: Attitudes, Message Type, and Message Perceptions

Delayed message recall may be influenced by currently held accessible attitudes, the nature of the message, and message perceptions (perception of bias and message elaboration). This study examined the potential of message perceptions to mediate the influence of valenced attitude accessibility and message type on unaided recall of anti-smoking Public Service Announcements (PSAs). In a field experiment, ninth grade students (N = 244) watched three PSAs and responded to items on laptop computers. Twelve weeks later, follow-up telephone surveys were conducted to assess unaided recall. Both valenced attitude accessibility and message type were associated with message perceptions. However, only perception of message bias partially mediated the relationship between message type and unaided recall.