The Role of a Narrative's Emotional Flow in Promoting Persuasive Outcomes

The study of narrative persuasion has increased dramatically in the past decade. Whereas much of this research focuses on story and character involvement, the role of emotion—and emotional flow specifically—has been understudied. In this article, we explore the multiple ways that the desire for and the experience of emotional shifts may promote the persuasive influence of narratives. First, we propose that the desire for an emotional shift (e.g., mood management) can guide message selection. Then, the emotional flow, or the series of emotional shifts in response to the unfolding story, may promote and sustain continued engagement with the narrative world. As such, influence of the narrative is likely enhanced. We then argue that the heightened state of narrative engagement and its associated emotional states have implications for post-message attitudes, both short-term attitude change as well as over-time change via emotion-driven topic involvement and social sharing. A research agenda for greater integration of emotion into narrative research is proposed.     

ESAP Students’ Comprehension of Multiple Technical Reading Texts: Insights from Personal Epistemological Beliefs

Given the importance associated with multiple-document literacy in the present-day knowledge societies and the dearth of research in English Language Teaching in general and English for Specific/Academic Purposes (ESAP) contexts in particular on multiple-document comprehension and the significance of reader beliefs in this type of comprehension, the present study was carried out with the aim of investigating the relationship between ESAP students’ personal epistemological beliefs and their inferential intratextual and intertextual understanding of multiple texts. To this aim, 64 first-semester midwifery students were selected as the participants of the study. They were required to read four passages on multi-fetal pregnancy which discussed different aspects of this phenomenon. Having filled out the Epistemological Beliefs Inventory, they were tested on the inferential intratextual and intertextual comprehension of the texts. Results of the analyses of the data revealed significant associations between epistemological beliefs and the inferential comprehension of multiple texts. The results also indicated the poorer performance of the participants in intertextual inferential understanding of the texts compared with the intratextual understanding of them. The study concludes with tentative implication of the findings for ESAP reading courses.     

Cosmetic Surgery Makeover Programs and Intentions to Undergo Cosmetic Enhancements: A Consideration of Three Models of Media Effects

The recent proliferation of reality‐based television programs highlighting cosmetic surgery has raised concerns that such programming promotes unrealistic expectations of plastic surgery and increases the desire of viewers to undergo such procedures. In Study 1, a survey of 170 young adults indicated little relationship between cosmetic surgery makeover program viewing and body satisfaction or perception of risk but a small positive association with desire to undergo cosmetic surgical procedures. In Study 2, a survey of 271 young women allowed for a test of three theoretical explanations for this association. Evidence in support of cultivation theory, social cognitive theory, and social comparison theory emerged, thus highlighting the need for a more integrated theoretical model of media effects.     

Reduction of Perceived Social Distance as an Explanation for Media's Influence on Personal Risk Perceptions: A Test of the Risk Convergence Model

The risk convergence model proposes reduction of perceived social distance to a mediated personality as a mechanism through which the mass media can influence audiences' personal risk perceptions. As an initial test of the model, this study examined whether 5 audience variables known to facilitate media effects on personal risk perceptions—identification, parasocial interaction, personal relevance, transportation, and perceived realism—would exert their influences through the reduction of perceived social distance. The results indicate that reduction of perceived social distance fully explained the process of identification and transportation influencing personal risk perceptions, while partially mediating the relationship between personal relevance and personal risk perceptions. Theoretical and practical implications for health risk communication and entertainment education are discussed.     

The role of healthy emotionality in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems: a cross-sectional study

Cognitive Processing - Understanding pandemic-related psychopathology development is limited due to numerous individual and contextual factors. It is widely accepted that individual differences to...     

Inspired by Hope,Motivated by Envy: Comparing the Effects of Discrete Emotions in the Process of Social Comparison to Media Figures

Despite considerable research and theorizing regarding the process of social comparison, limited attention has been given to the role of discrete emotions in this context, particularly as they may influence the behavioral responses resulting from comparison to similar others. In the context of cosmetic surgery makeover programs, we explore how discrete emotions may mediate the effects of social comparison on behavior and how different emotions, envy and hope in particular, may differentially relate to behavioral motivation. Based on the survey responses of 236 female students, results suggest that social comparison to media figures correlates with a range of emotional responses as well as with behavioral motivation for invasive cosmetic enhancements. Envy maintained a significantly greater association with behavioral motivation than hope or any other emotional response. Further, mediational analyses were consistent with the argument that envy, but not hope, mediates the social comparison–behavioral motivation relationship. The relationship between character identification and social comparison, as well as processes associated with downward social comparison, are also explored. This research helps illuminate the driving mechanism for social comparison's effects on behavior and has implications for better understanding how media exposure may stimulate this process.     

Why Misery Loves Company: The Role of Self-Forgiveness in Reducing Regret Through Media Consumption

ABSTRACT

Building on the existing research on the role of media use in coping with negative emotions, this article seeks, first, to replicate previous findings that media consumption may reduce regret and, second, to extend that work by investigating the regret-related cognitive mechanism through which regret reduction occurs. The possible negative consequences of regret reduction are also explored. Four hundred undergraduate women, 30% of whom had previously had a one-night stand (ONS) with differing degrees of lingering regret, watched one of six versions of a television program representing ONS behavior. Results largely replicated earlier research (Nabi, Finnerty, Domschke, & Hull, 2006) in terms of program enjoyment and regret reduction. Further, self-forgiveness emerged as the single predictor of regret reduction, though it also increased perceived likelihood of a future ONS. Conversely, learning from past mistakes associated with higher post-viewing regret, but lower perceived ONS likelihood. The complicated role of entertainment media as coping devices and the need to explore message features the might promote effective coping are emphasized.     

Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Pain- A Study in Indian Population Using European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer(EORTC) Questionnaire

Quality of life in chronic pain Health-related quality of life was compared in patients of chronic pain with that of general population.We designed this study as a prospective, observational trial in a tertiary care centre. Quality of life was measured using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). The EORTC QLQ-C30 is a valid alternative to the SF-36 in the assessment of QOL in patients with chronic pain especially when a broader assessment of symptoms is desired. All participants completed a set of questionnaires on demographic variables, cause, pain intensity (VAS) and quality of life (EORTC qlq c30). A total of two hundred participants were enrolled including 100 patients with chronic pain. Chronic pain was defined as one which is persisting beyond 3 months. The study revealed significantly decreased quality of life in patients with chronic pain as compared to general population (p?<?0.001). Patients with chronic pain had significantly decreased score in Physical functioning, Role functioning, emotional and social functioning on functional scales and increased scores of pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances and financial difficulties on symptom scales. The study revealed sex-related differences on the QoL with females having a lower global QOL. It is thus concluded that patients with chronic pain especially females have decreased quality of life as compared to general population     

Beyond Cultivation: Exploring the Effects of Frequency,Recency, and Vivid Autobiographical Memories for Violent Media

Using Shrum's (1996) heuristic processing model as an explanatory mechanism, we propose that people who hold vivid autobiographical memories for a specific past experience with media violence will overstate the prevalence of real-world crime versus individuals without vivid memories. We also explore the effects of frequency and recency on social reality beliefs. A survey was administered to 207 undergraduate students who were asked to recall one violent television program or movie seen in the past. Participants were asked to write essays describing the violence, which were coded for vividness. Results support not only cultivation theory, but also the effects of memory vividness: participants with more vivid memories of blood and gore gave higher prevalence estimates of real-world crime and violence than participants with less vivid memories. Findings also suggest that females had more vivid memories for prior media violence than males. Implications for cultivation, the heuristic processing model, and vividness research are discussed.