Effective responder communication,perceived responder legitimacy,and group identification predict public cooperation and compliance in a mass decontamination visualization experiment

This article describes a visualization experiment that tests hypotheses based on the social identity approach about effectiveness of communication strategies during mass decontamination. Specifically, the mediating role of social identity processes between effective responder communication and relevant outcome variables (e.g., public compliance), is examined. After visualizing that they had been involved in a hypothetical incident involving decontamination, participants (N = 129) received one of three different communication strategies: (1) health‐focused information about decontamination, sufficient practical information; (2) no health‐focused information, sufficient practical information; and (3) no health‐focused information, low practical information. The communication strategy perceived as most effective included health‐focused information and practical information; this resulted in the highest levels of expected compliance, mediated by social identity variables. Implications for management of mass decontamination are discussed.     

Putting the social back into physical distancing: The role of digital connections in a pandemic crisis

During the COVID-19 pandemic, physical distancing is necessary to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. To compensate for the lack of social encounters, people have been advised to connect with others via digital communication channels. Drawing on a psychological framework combined with assumptions from communication science, we therefore investigated whether technology-mediated communication can actually meet individuals' social needs to foster compliance with distancing measures and whether there are differences between distinct communication channels. Based on an online survey (N = 301) during the first national lockdown in Germany, we found that the impact of audio-visual communication is limited. Instead, the data showed that text-based communication indirectly fostered willingness to adhere to physical distancing through the pathway of increased feelings of social support and life satisfaction. Three follow-up surveys (N = 180) revealed that while feelings of social support increased, people's technology-based communication and willingness to adhere to distancing measures decreased. Our results challenge the assumption that audio-visual communication compensates for lack of physical contact more effectively than text-based communication. This study highlights the potential of text-based communication to increase feelings of social support, which may be particularly important during a pandemic.     

Precursors and Underlying Processes of Adolescents' Online Self-Disclosure: Developing and Testing an “Internet-Attribute-Perception” Model

This study developed and tested an “Internet-attribute-perception” model that explains how self-disclosure develops in instant messaging (IM) interactions. Following hyperpersonal communication theory, two attributes of computer-mediated communication (i.e., reduced nonverbal cues and controllability) were assumed to be responsible for increased online self-disclosure in IM. However, our model posed that any actual effects of these attributes would depend on users' perceptions of the relevance of these attributes. Furthermore, our model posed that these perceptions would mediate the relationship between personality characteristics (i.e., pri vate and public self-consciousness, and social anxiety) and online self-disclosure. Using structural equation modeling on a sample of 1,203 Dutch adolescents, we found that adolescents' perceptions of the relevance of reduced nonverbal cues and controllability encouraged their feelings of disinhibition, which in turn increased their online self-disclosure. As expected, private and public self-consciousness and social anxiety stimulated adolescents' perceptions of the relevance of reduced nonverbal cues and controllability, but did not directly influence online self-disclosure. The study shows the vital role of users' perceptions of CMC attributes in Internet-effects research.     

Moral Identity Predicts Adherence to COVID-19 Mitigation Procedures Depending on Political Ideology: A Comparison Between the USA and New Zealand

Reducing the spread of infectious viruses (e.g., COVID-19) can depend on societal compliance with effective mitigations. Identifying factors that influence adherence can inform public policy. In many cases, public health messaging has become highly moralized, focusing on the need to act for the greater good. In such contexts, a person's moral identity may influence behavior and serve to increase compliance through different mechanisms: if a person sees compliance as the right thing to do (internalization) and/or if a person perceives compliance as something others will notice as the right thing to do (symbolization). We argue that in societies that are more politically polarized, people's political ideology may interact with their moral identity to predict compliance. We hypothesized that where polarization is high (e.g., USA), moral identity should positively predict compliance for liberals to a greater extent than for conservatives. However, this effect would not occur where polarization is low (e.g., New Zealand). Moral identity, political ideology, and support for three different COVID-19 mitigation measures were assessed in both nations (N = 1,980). Results show that while moral identity can influence compliance, the political context of the nation must also be taken into account.     

The Politics of Counseling: Looking Back and Forward

This article examines reasons for the counseling profession's movement away from its activist roots toward policies and agendas that are less socially engaged. Concern with individualism, struggle for public acceptance, continued reliance on narrow research interests, and increased emphasis on accreditation and credentialing are all discussed as factors contributing to the counseling profession's inability to advocate for effective social change.     

A Randomized Trial of Internet-Delivered Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder in High School Students

Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) has been shown effective for university students with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and public speaking fears. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the promising results can be transferred to high school students suffering from this condition. A total of 19 speech-anxious high school students with SAD were randomized either into 9 weeks of Internet-delivered CBT or to a wait-list control group. Significant improvements were found on measures of social anxiety, general anxiety, and depression. Effects were maintained at 1-year follow-up. The average within- and between-group effect sizes (Cohen's d) for the primary social anxiety scales at posttest were 0.98 and 1.38, respectively. However, the average number of completed modules in the CBT program was low. Although compliance can be improved, the results suggest that Internet-based guided self-help is effective in the treatment of high school students with SAD.     

Risk perception and conspiracy theory endorsement predict compliance with COVID-19 public health measures

Public health measures such as spatial distancing and physical hygiene have been found effective in mitigating the spread of the coronavirus. However, there is considerable variability in individual compliance with such public health measures and factors contributing to these interindividual differences are currently still understudied. The present study set out to determine the role of risk perception and conspiracy theory endorsement on compliance with COVID-19 public health measures and explored variations in these associations across participant age and the developmental status of a country, leveraging a large multi-national data set (N = 45,772) across 66 countries/territories, collected via online survey during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and May 2020). Human Development Index (HDI), developed by the United Nations Development Program, was used as a proxy of a country's achievement in key dimensions of human development. Overall, higher risk perception was associated with greater compliance, particularly in individuals with greater conspiracy theory endorsement. Specifically, people from more developed countries who perceived themselves less at risk but showed stronger conspiracy theory endorsement reported the lowest compliance with COVID-19 public health measures. Findings from this study advance understanding of the interplay between risk perception and conspiracy theory endorsement in their effect on compliance with COVID-19 public health measures, under consideration of both individual-level and country-level demographic variables and have potential to inform the design of tailored interventions to fight the current and future global pandemics.     

The illusion of courage in self‐predictions: Mispredicting one's own behavior in embarrassing situations

People exhibit an “illusion of courage” when predicting their own behavior in embarrassing situations. In three experiments, participants overestimated their own willingness to engage in embarrassing public performances in exchange for money when those performances were psychologically distant: Hypothetical or in the relatively distant future. This illusion of courage occurs partly because of cold/hot empathy gaps. That is, people in a relatively “cold” unemotional state underestimate the influence on their own preferences and behaviors of being in a relative “hot” emotional state such as social anxiety evoked by an embarrassing situation. Consistent with this cold/hot empathy gap explanation, putting people “in touch” with negative emotional states by arousing fear (Experiments 1 and 2) and anger (Experiment 2) decreased people's willingness to engage in psychologically distant embarrassing public performances. Conversely, putting people “out of touch” with social anxiety through aerobic exercise, which reduces state anxiety and increases confidence, increased people's willingness to engage in psychologically distance embarrassing public performances (Experiment 3). Implications for self‐predictions, self‐evaluation, and affective forecasting are discussed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social Perceptions as Mediators of the Effect of Speech Rate

Research on the relationship between speech rate and persuasion has provided inconsistent results. Recently, it was proposed that speech rate similarity affects compliance by increasing social attractiveness, which is more important to compliance than speaker credibility. Further, it was speculated that social attractiveness produces obligations to aid the speaker. This experiment tested these claims by predicting that if obligations mediated compliance, social attractiveness would only improve compliance when the speaker benefited from that compliance. In a 5 (Speaker Speech Rate) × 2 (Benefit to Speaker) design, 257 listeners, pretested on their speech rate, were exposed to 1 of 10 requests soliciting volunteers for a bogus research project. As expected, speech rate similarity enhanced social attractiveness, and faster speech rates increased speaker competence and dominance. Social attractiveness had a main effect on compliance, suggesting a direct effect on attraction. Higher sociability/character assessments and lower dominance increased compliance when the speaker benefited more, providing only limited support for the mediating role of obligations. Increased dominance and status also augmented compliance, especially when the speaker benefited less from compliance. Thus speech rate and other nonverbal behaviors may effect compliance by increasing the speaker's social attractiveness, creating obligations to comply, or exerting persuasive force through higher status and power.     

The Effects of Health Threat Seriousness and Personal Efficacy upon Intentions and Behavior1

Eighty dental patients were pretested with a scale measuring health locus of control and then exposed to a persuasive communication designed to manipulate their beliefs about the seriousness of periodontal disease and their susceptibility to it. The high seriousness condition increased feelings of fear, concern, and threat as well as intentions and reported compliance with recommended oral hygiene procedures. However, patient's perceived personal efficacy in performing the recommended behavior was the most important predictor of subsequent behavior. The implications of the results for Roger's protection motivation theory are discussed.     

Deciding to Dissolve: Individual- and Relationship-Level Predictors of Roommate Breakup

The desire to change roommates served as a model of nonromantic relationship dissolution within 115 college roommate dyads. We measured personality, mental health, social/communication patterns, and academic achievement attitudes over the course of a semester, and we used multilevel modeling to estimate individual-level and relationship-level predictors of dissolution. Self-characteristics (e.g., one's own depression), roommate characteristics (e.g., roommate's poor communication), and relationship characteristics (e.g., similarity in attitudes toward competition) each increased desire to end the roommate relationship. In these data, unique contributions from one's own psychological health, one's own and one's roommate's social/communication style, and roommates' attitude similarity predicted relationship dissolution.     

False‐self sensitivity to countertransference: Anatomy of a single session

This paper describes how a patient's sensitivity to the counter‐transference sparked a transference regression that generated insight about her core conflict: False‐Self compliance at the expense of her needs for love, emotional support, and nurturance.

My patient's regression was important, first, because it produced symptoms that dramatically illustrated to her how much self‐denial she was willing to exercise to feel needed by others. Previously, such insight had not been effective because of the extraordinary secondary gains of her behavior. This time was more successful because of the ego‐dystonic symptoms that developed, with intense shame and embarrassment. Second, the regression resulted in a transference dream that provided her with new insights into the anxiety she was warding off through False‐Self compliance to the narcissistic requirements of her parents.     

Distancing and Solidarity as Resistance to Sexual Objectification in a Nude Dancing Bar

ABSTRACT

Drawing on observation and interviews in a mid-Atlantic nude dancing bar, I examine front-stage customer-dancer relations as well as dancers' discourse among themselves backstage. I use James Scott's theoretical framework regarding subordinate group resistance strategies to analyze dancers' attempts to resist customers' harassment. On the micro-level dancers exercise agency, reconstructing their identities within the larger context of macro-level oppression. Dancers' front stage tactics include spatial distancing, verbal one-liners, physical aggression, calling on customers, and united action with other dancers. Backstage, dancers reframe the public text, articulating their own identity construction by creating a social site for solidarity and desexualizing the body.     

Image Induction and Social Influence: Explication and Initial Tests

Image induction posits that social influencers can manipulate a target's self-image to gain increased compliance. By preceding a request with a question that creates a salient self-image in a target, targets are more likely to behave consistently with that image by complying with the request. Three studies provide empirical tests of image induction. Results indicate that the addition of an image-inducing pretreatment question is associated with increased rates of compliance when compared to a control group. These findings held across two types of image induction manipulations (helpfulness, willingness to try new things), two types of behaviors (agreeing to complete a survey, agreeing to receive a free soft drink sample), and both face-to-face and written requests.     

How Can People Be Induced to Willingly Change Their Behavior? The Path from Persuasive Communication to Binding Communication

How can people be induced to willingly change their behavior? The present article has three main objectives. Its first purpose is to review some of the procedures pertaining to the ‘free will’ compliance paradigm. These procedures increase the likelihood that others will freely comply to one's requests (low‐ball, teasing, foot‐in‐the door, touch, and ‘you are free to’ procedures). The second objective is to introduce a theory stemming from social psychology, namely, the theory of commitment. Finally, we wish to describe the binding communication approach that can be situated at the intersection of research conducted in both the fields of communication, more specifically in the domain of persuasive communication, and the fields of commitment and free will compliance. A project carried out to encourage school children to behave in a more environmentally friendly way will be described to illustrate the approach.     

“Seeing is believing”: The effects of facial expressions of emotion and verbal communication in social dilemmas

In social dilemmas, verbal communication of one's intentions is an important factor in increasing cooperation. In addition to verbal communication of one's intentions, also the communication of emotions of anger and happiness can influence cooperative behavior. In the present paper, we argue that facial expressions of emotion moderate verbal communication in social dilemmas. More specifically, three experiments showed that if the other person displayed happiness he or she was perceived as honest, trustworthy, and reliable, and cooperation was increased when verbal communication was cooperative rather than self‐interested. However, if the other person displayed anger, verbal communication did not influence people's decision behavior. Results also showed interactive effects on people's perceptions of trustworthiness, which partially mediated decision behavior. These findings suggest that emotion displays have an important function in organizational settings because they are able to influence social interactions and cooperative behavior. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Embedding a functional analysis of compliance in small group instruction

Research on adaptations to standard functional analyses for use in classroom settings has increased in recent years. However, few studies have focused on procedural variations specific to assessing noncompliance in the context of academic instruction. In the current study, we trained a special education teacher to embed a functional analysis of compliance in small group instruction. The goal of the functional analysis was to identify an effective reinforcement contingency for compliance for a second grade student with an intellectual disability. Results suggested a combined escape + tangible contingency increased compliance to instructional prompts relative to other conditions. The functional analysis of compliance represents a variation on previous functional analyses of noncompliance with potential to increase ecological and social validity of assessment procedures for classroom settings.     

“I Hope I'm Not Disturbing You,Am I?” Another Operationalization of the Foot‐in‐the‐Mouth Paradigm1

A study by Howard (1990 ) proposed a compliance technique built on a social routine. We tested a technique based on an alternative routine. Our hypothesis was that asking people about their availability before making a request would result in increased compliance. A group of 1,791 participants were asked to answer a questionnaire by phone for a consumer survey. The results showed that compliance rates were higher when the requester inquired about respondents' availability and waited for a response than when he pursued his set speech without waiting and inquiring about respondents' availability. The results are discussed based on 2 complementary consistency mechanisms ( Aune & Basil, 1994 ; Tedeschi, Schlenker, & Bonoma, 1971 ).     

Public Health Communication Theory and Strategies for Interpersonal Violence Prevention

ABSTRACT

The article reviews experience and lessons learned from public health communication to identify promising strategies for interventions seeking to promote interpersonal violence prevention. A public health perspective highlights multiple levels of analysis in tandem with concomitant communication theory invoking social, institutional, community, and individual change processes. Points of emphasis include a long-term perspective for social change and the importance of achieving high levels of exposure to communication efforts. Alternative communication strategies such as social mobilization, the use of local media, and media advocacy may foster incremental legal reform and service provision, as well as transformed social expectations and norms.     

The Influence of General and Exercise Specific Social Support on Self‐Efficacy for Overcoming Barriers to Cardiac Rehabilitation1

Self‐efficacy (SE) for overcoming barriers to exercise is key to continued exercise behavior in cardiac rehabilitation (CR). This study examined factors influencing patients' SE for overcoming barriers to exercise in CR. It was hypothesized that stress after a cardiac event would have a negative impact on SE, but that social support would be related to less stress and more SE. Measures of SE for overcoming barriers to exercise in CR, perceived stress, general forms of social support, and sources of support for exercise were completed by 459 men and 138 women upon entry into CR. Structural equation modeling revealed that general support was related to less stress and more support for exercise, which were both related to increased SE.