EFFECTS OF HUMOROUS ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLLEGE TEXTBOOKS

Written educational selections and cartoons drawn to illustrate different educational points were arranged to effect a factorial variation in (1) level of difficulty of educational material (easy, difficult) and (2) amount of humor (no humor, moderate humor, extensive humor). Students read one version, evaluated it on a number of dimensions, and were tested over the material. Pictorial humorous illustrations were found to have no effect on information acquisition and on motivation, positive effects on appeal, and negative effects on persuasibility.     

Professions, Trades, and the Obligation to Inform

ABSTRACT The concept of a 'professional', as distinguished from that of a 'tradesman', encompasses both white collar workers and those who produce excellent work in any occupation. These divergent meanings have a common philosophical source in the way workers justify their work. A worker becomes a professonal by professing reasons for doing his work in a certain way. A worker is a tradesman if the value of his work in trade is the sole justification for the way it is done. Workers can be both professionals and tradesmen, unless what the consumer will buy and what is proper are different, placing 'reason value'and 'trade value'into conflict. Value conflicts are most likely in occupations involving a high level of theoretical knowledge, where the consumer has trouble judging what is proper. Thus, we say that professional persons work in white collar occupations, but that is misleading, for 'professional'is a way of handling value conflicts, not a kind of work. In value conflicts the worker has an obligation to inform the consumer—to profess reasons—about what is proper work.