ROLE ENACTMENT AS A SOCIALLY RELEVANT EXPLANATION OF SELF-PERSUASION

This paper reports four tests of Berger's role enactment model of persuasion. The model is addressed to generalizing counter attitudinal communication to social situations when persons find themselves encoding belief-discrepant messages. This encoding takes the form of role enactments which lead to attitude change. Crucial to predicting from the model are variables identifying the communicator's self-perceived role enactment competence (SPREC), post performance evaluation (PPE), information, and role involvement. Studies 1 and 2 found no support for predictions concerning the predictive utility of information but did point to the importance of SPREC and PPE in assessing post enactment attitude. Study 3 tested a re-conceptualization of Berger's model and confirmed a multivariate relationship among SPREC, PPE, message intensity, and attitude change. In Study 4 ego involvement was conceptually linked to role involvement, and results confirmed the SPREC, PPE, involvement, message intensity, and attitude change relationship.     

A Meta-Analysis Summarizing the Effects of Pornography II Aggression After Exposure

This meta-analytic review examines the effect that exposure to pornography produces on aggressive behavior under laboratory conditions considering a variety of possible moderating conditions (level of sexual arousal, level of prior anger, type of pornography, gender of subject, gender of the target of aggression, and medium used to convey the material). The summary demonstrates a homogeneous set of results showing that pictorial nudity reduces subsequent aggressive behavior, that consumption of material depicting nonviolent sexual activity increases aggressive behavior, and that media depictions of violent sexual activity generates more aggression than those of nonviolent sexual activity. No other moderator variable produced homogeneous findings. The implications of the results for theoretical approaches to understanding the impact of pornography receives discussion, as do the limitations of such findings.     

Surveying the Effect of Media Effects A Meta-Analytic Summary of the Media Effects Research in Human Communication Research

This is a unique investigation that is particular to the needs of this special issue of Human Communication Research (HCR). Specifically, this study analyzes the media effects research that has been published in HCR during the past 25 years via meta-analysis. Numerous significant findings point to various themes and trends regarding media research in HCR. First, age is related to processing ability, understanding, and attending to media such that as children age, they better understand media messages. Second, the mass media are a significant source of learning. Third, the media can influence attitudes, which in turn, may influence or shape behaviors. Political, social, and educational implications of the findings are discussed. In addition, directions for future research, including the use of meta-analysis as a methodological tool, are discussed, as is the social responsibility of scholars in exploring the positive effects of media as opposed to ones with potentially antisocial outcomes.