Werner Wirth

• Full Professor
• Professor Emeritus at University of Zurich

Background Social norm appeals are effective in promoting sustainable majority behavior but could backfire when the target behavior is only performed by a minority of people. However, emphasizing that an increasing number of people have started engaging in the behavior or that the majority approve the behavior might prevent such negative effects. H...

In Germany, over 60% of people use YouTube as a search engine and watch explainer videos or tutorials at least occasionally. Two studies were conducted to determine how explainer videos can be optimised to promote sustainable minority behaviour such as voluntary carbon offsetting. A typical way to present information in explainer videos is by using...

Voluntary carbon offsetting (VCO) is a simple bridging mechanism to address climate change. However, while a majority approves of VCO, less than 10 percent offset their emissions. It was investigated whether VCO can be encouraged with an injunctive majority social norm appeal (SNA), describing VCO as either approved and desired, or absolutely essen...

Purpose When promoting sustainable products on Instagram, influencer marketing can be an effective tool when they are perceived as credible because consumers usually cannot verify the sustainability of products themselves. However, when they disclose their posts as an ad, their credibility might be weakened which can lead to less interest in the pr...

Furchtappelle können ihre Wirkung verfehlen, wenn Rauchende abwehrend darauf reagieren, zum Beispiel indem sie die dargestellten Gesundheitsrisiken für sich selbst als irrelevant einstufen. Damit unterschätzen sie ihr persönliches Gesundheitsrisiko gegenüber dem Gesundheitsrisiko, das sie anderen Rauchenden zuschreiben (unrealistischer Optimismus)....

The present study investigated the influence of related and unrelated emotions on judgments about a news article. An experimental study was designed to manipulate both the relatedness of an elicited emotion (i. e., anger) to the news article and processing depth. Following mood and emotion effects theory, related anger was expected to have a strong...

The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was applied to analyse the role of perceived benefits (PB) on intentions to book a sustainable hotel. Data for the research came from 2564 respondents to an online survey conducted in Switzerland, Germany, and USA. A multi-group structural equation modelling (SEM) determined how PB (environmental, social, and e...

The study explores how news messages carrying parts of the populist ideology contribute to a polarization of public opinion about populism. It combines a content analysis of news coverage on two policy areas (N = 7,119 stories) with a two-wave panel survey (N = 2,338) in four European metropolitan regions (Berlin, Paris, London, Zurich). In three r...

This volume assembles a wide range of perspectives on populism and the media, bringing together various disciplinary and theoretical approaches, authors and examples from different continents and a wide range of topical issues. The chapters discuss the contexts of populist communication, communication by populist actors, different types of populist...

Right-wing populism has a long tradition in Switzerland. Nevertheless, only little is known about how populist messages in the media contribute to the success of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and to the acceptance of the party’s anti-immigration policies. In this study, we combine data from a large media content analysis (including newspapers and...

Marketing for sustainable tourism primarily attracts customers with a biospheric–altruistic value orientation. To reach a broader consumer group and also persuade people with a self-enhancement orientation to book sustainable hotels, the effectiveness of three different communication styles (emotionality levels, amount of sustainability information...

The rising voter support for populist parties in Western Democracies in recent years has incited academic interest in populist voters and attitudes connected to the voting propensity of populist actors. In line of this research, numerous scales to measure populist attitudes among voters have been proposed. In most cases, however, the measurement of...

The present two-study work aims to contribute to an understanding of the causes and consequences of perceived processing fluency. Regarding its causes, the experimental studies (N1 = 399; N2 = 337) found that features of television reports (e.g., footage used, background music) can heighten perceptions of processing fluency. Regarding its consequen...

The success of populist political actors in Western democracies and the dramatization and emotionality of political communication in news media have been the object of several theoretical and empirical studies in the past decade. It has been argued that the mediatization of politics and the convergence of populist and tabloid communication styles f...

This study examines the perceived benefit of sustainable consumption from a consumer perspective. Communicating corporate social and environmental responsibility is beneficial from a company perspective; however, the advantages for consumers have not yet been sufficiently clarified. We investigated two well-being dimensions as the identified benefi...

This study aims to investigate the relationships between citizens’ populist attitudes, perceptions of public opinion, and perceptions of mainstream news media. Relying on social identity theory as an explanatory framework, this article argues that populist citizens assume that public opinion is congruent with their own opinion and that mainstream m...

The persuasiveness of right-wing populist communication has become a widely discussed topic; it is often assumed that such messages might foster anti-immigrant attitudes among citizens. The present study explores the effects of the different components of right-wing populist communication—anti-immigrant messages, populist content, and populist styl...

In the wake of the recent successes of populist political actors and discussions about its causes in Europe, the contribution of the media has become an issue of public debate. We identify three roles—as gatekeepers, interpreters, and initiators—the media can assume in their coverage of populist actors, populist ideology, and populist communication...

Ein Teil des Erfolgs populistischer Bewegungen ist ihrer Kommunikation und Präsenz in den Medien geschuldet. Journalist_ innen geben populistischen Akteuren nicht nur eine Bühne für ihre Themen, sondern schließen sie zum Teil vom politischen Diskurs aus oder kritisieren sie stärker als andere politische Akteure. Genauso können Massenmedien auch zu...

In the wake of the recent success of populist political actors and causes in Europe, the role of the media in the promotion of populism has become an issue of public debate. We understand populism as a thin ideology that is articulated discursively by political and media actors and focus on two ideational constituents of media populism, namely ‘peo...

Theoretically, populism has been conceptualized as a political ideology with three sub-dimensions: anti-elitism attitudes, a preference for popular sovereignty, and a belief in the homogeneity and virtuousness of the people. However, empirical research to date has treated populist attitudes as a unidimensional construct. To address this issue, we p...

This study examined the relationship between German tourists’ trust perceptions and their intention to book a sustainable hotel, pioneering a new quantitative approach to sustainable tourism marketing. Data came from 300 respondents who participated in an online survey. Respondents were given a digital brochure to read containing information about...

Das SNF-Projekt „Intention to book a sustainable hotel – application and extension of the Theory of Planned Behaviour“ untersuchte die kommunikative Vermittlung von Nachhaltigkeit im Tourismus. Ziel ist es, am Beispiel von Hotelbuchungen zu analysie-ren wie nachhaltiger Konsum gefördert werden kann und welche kommunikativen Stil-mittel das Verhalte...

The study explores how news messages carrying parts of the populist ideology contribute to a polarization of public opinion about populism. It combines a content analysis of news coverage on two policy areas (N = 7,119 stories) with a two-wave panel survey (N = 2,338) in four European metropolitan regions (Berlin, Paris, London, Zurich). In three r...

Tourists find it hard to evaluate the advantages of a sustainable hotel and others may be even sceptical about sustainable tourism altogether. The study reported here was designed to investigate the associations between perceived benefits, perceived costs, and perceived value while booking a sustainable hotel. In addition, the moderating role of sc...

In their daily routine, all citizens partake, albeit not always consciously, in mass communication. This communication takes place in various channels, such as newspapers, magazines, television, billboards, and social media sites. It even occurs indirectly via discussions with other media users. Extensive research over the past decades has shown th...

Research on the truth effect has demonstrated that statements are rated as more credible when they are repeatedly presented. However, current research indicates that there are limits to the truth effect and that too many repetitions can decrease message credibility. This study investigates whether message negativity contributes to this boomerang ef...

This study examined the relationship between German tourists’ trust perceptions and their intention to book a sustainable hotel, pioneering a new quantitative approach to sustainable tourism marketing. Data came from 300 respondents who participated in an online survey. Respondents were given a digital brochure to read containing information about...

Werbung ist ein facettenreiches Phänomen in der Forschung sowie in der Praxis, das ebenso vielseitig definiert werden kann. Damit fällt es schwer, Werbung klar von anderen geplanten Kommunikationsprozessen abzugrenzen. Die Entwicklung der Werbung hängt sowohl mit der Entwicklung der industriellen Massenproduktion und des Massenkonsums als auch mit...

This working paper approaches the study of populism from an explicit political communication perspective and thereby adds a new and original dimension to the existing literature. It first reviews the existing approaches to populism and then combines them within an integrative framework for populism research. This framework understands populism as i...

Several researchers have pursued the question of whether affective or cognitive persuasion appeals are more successful in changing attitudes. The vast majority of studies in this field have found that the persuasiveness of affective and cognitive appeals depends on the extent to which recipients’ existing attitudes are based on affect or cognition:...

The task of financial decision making poses substantive challenges and difficulties for investors, which is not surprising given the complexity of financial products and the neverending innovations in the financial services and information technology sectors. The thousands of options available to investors and the enhanced regulatory disclosure req...

Das Handbuch gibt als erstes deutschsprachiges Werk einen systematischen Überblick über das gesamte Forschungsfeld „Werbung“ aus kommunikationswissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Als dezidiertes Forschungshandbuch bietet es Interessierten, Forschenden und fortgeschrittenen Studierenden der (akademischen) Forschungspraxis einen ganzheitlichen Orientieru...

The study of spatial presence is currently receiving increased attention in both media psychology and communication research. The present paper introduces the Spatial Presence Experience Scale (SPES), a short eight-item self-report measure. The SPES is derived from a process model of spatial presence (Wirth et al., 2007, Media Psychology, 9, 493–52...

Several researchers have pursued the question of whether affective or cognitive persuasion appeals are more successful in changing attitudes. The vast majority of studies in this field have found that the persuasiveness of affective and cognitive appeals depends on the extent to which recipients’ existing attitudes are based on affect or cognition:...

Werden Texte detailliert inhaltsanalytisch untersucht, um beispielsweise die Rolle von Akteuren im Wahlkampf oder den semantischen Gehalt einer Debatte zu erfassen, so steht der Forscher häufig vor dem Problem, innerhalb einer Analyseeinheit (z.B. dem Text als Ganzes) mehrere getrennt zu erhebende Analyseeinheiten (z.B. Akteure oder Argumente) erhe...

Die Methode der Inhaltsanalyse als zentrale Erhebungsmethode in der Kommunikationswissenschaft ist umfassend dokumentiert, z. B. bei Merten (1995), Früh (2001) oder Rössler (2010), im anglo-amerikanischen Sprachraum Krippendorff (2009) oder Neuendorf (2010). Beschrieben werden besonders Aspekte der Projektplanung, der Codebucherstellung sowie Ablau...

Several studies have identified important factors for search success in online searches, but until now it has not been determined whether the influence of these factors varies during the search process. This study analyzes (a) whether search expertise, prior topic knowledge, topic interest, or flow experience during a search of the World Wide Web (...

Die Weitergabe von Wissen über ein Nachrichtenereignis in der interpersonalen Kommunikation ist ein wichtiger Prozess der Nachrichtendiffusion. Bis heute ist aber weitgehend unklar, welche Merkmale von Nachrichtenereignissen die interpersonale Nachrichtendiffusion beeinflussen. Die vorliegende Studie prüft deshalb den Einfluss von Nachrichtenfaktor...

Although more and more Hotels adopt sustainable management practices worldwide, understanding how to increase consumer booking intentions in such establishments remains a challenge. This project aims to apply and extend the "Theory of planned behaviour" and design communication messages to persuade hotel guests' booking intentions. The current repo...

The study of spatial presence is currently receiving increased attention in both media psychology and communication research. The present paper introduces the Spatial Presence Experience Scale (SPES), a short eight-item self-report measure. The SPES is derived from a process model of spatial presence (Wirth et al., 2007, Media Psychology, 9, 493–52...

Die Inhaltsanalyse ist für die Kommunikationswissenschaft die genuine Erhebungsmethode. Nur inhalts­analytisch lassen sich Medieninhalte empirisch erfassen und analysieren und nur inhaltsanalytisch kann demnach eine Antwort auf die Frage gefunden werden, mit welchen potenziell beeinflussenden Inhalten der Rezipient, überhaupt in Kontakt kommt. Mit...

This study examines the cognitive processes underlying investors’ extrapolations of past fund performance and whether investors’ attention patterns may explain their return-chasing behaviors. We measured the attention that investors paid to mutual fund disclosures in a simplified fund prospectus using unobtrusive infrared eye tracking. Results sugg...

This study examined the influence of an emotionally arousing writing style on attitude formation and change. It has been proposed that different writing styles induce attitudes based on either affect or cognition and with either high or low certainty. Previous work indicates that the interplay of these attitude characteristics determines the persua...

Most online news media today enable and encourage their readers to comment on published content and discuss covered issues. Spontaneous discussions on these platforms among anonymous and intrinsically involved citizens have a high potential for public deliberation. This potential, however, may be lowered in practice by the behavior of the discussan...

This study examined how exaggeration in a biographical film about a political candidate affects attitudes toward the candidate, as well as how this attitudinal effect is contingent on goal-oriented processing strategies and mediated by suspension of disbelief (SOD), a tolerant audience response to a perceived lack of realism. On the basis of a rand...

Nachrichtenfaktoren gelten als kollektive Relevanzindikatoren. Ob sie aber die Rele-vanzattribution durch Rezipienten tatsächlich systematisch beeinflussen, wurde in der bisherigen Forschung vergleichsweise selten untersucht, und die Befundlage ist nicht ein-deutig. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde deshalb erstmals experimentell der Einfluss von Na...

This study examines the cognitive processes involved in consumer investors' information processing of mutual fund characteristics. We tested whether consumer investors' limited processing abilities account for biased return perceptions, as reported in the literature. Consumer investors' processing abilities were manipulated by varying the duration...

The study investigates the quality of media debates on unemployment in six European countries – Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Denmark. Because there exist different normative conceptions of the democratic process (e.g., liberal and deliberative theories), the quality of media debates can be measured according to diffe...

This study examined the influence of an emotionally arousing writing style – as it is common in tabloid formats – on attitude formation and attitude change. It was proposed that different writing styles induce attitudes based on either affect or cognition as well as attitudes with either high or low certainty. Further, it was proposed that the inte...

Emotionale Medienwirkungen werden in vielen unterschiedlichen Forschungskontexten untersucht und dort oft nicht als solche bezeichnet. Ein einheitliches Forschungsfeld ist daher kaum auszumachen. Erschwerend kommt hinzu, dass Emotionen auch in Metakonzepten wie Involvement oder Empathie enthalten sind, die neben emotionalen auch kognitive und konat...

Die kommunikationswissenschaftliche Persuasionsforschung beschäftigt sich vorrangig mit der Frage, wie Medieninhalte Einstellungen der Rezipienten beeinflussen. Fokussierte die Forschung in der Anfangsphase lineare und starke Einstellungsänderungen, so führten empirische Befunde und theoretische Weiterentwicklungen dazu, dass heute ein wesentlich d...

Abstract This study examines the development of video game enjoyment over time. The results of a longitudinal study (N=62) show that enjoyment increases over several sessions. Moreover, results of a multilevel regression model indicate a causal link between the dependent variable video game enjoyment and the predictor variables exploratory behavior...

Standards werden unter anderem auch in der komparativen (auch kulturvergleichenden) Forschung diskutiert. In diesem speziell auf den Vergleich zwischen Nationen oder Kulturen ausgerichteten Forschungszweig wird ein Problem virulent, das zumindest implizit nahezu jeder Art von empirischer Forschung zugrunde liegt1: Inwiefern sind die Resultate solch...

Throughout the last decades, research has generated a substantial body of theory about Spatial Presence experiences. This chapter reviews some of the most important existing theoretical explications. First, building on notions offered in literature, the core of the construct will be explicated: What exactly is meant by the term “Spatial Presence”?...

We examine the notion of eudaimonic entertainment during exposure to a sad but meaningful movie, using a new measure consisting of 5 dimensions derived from research on positive psychology. We, thereby, transfer the conception of eudaimonic well-being to the conception of entertainment. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis show that the 5 dime...

The present paper examines the formation process of spatial presence. It is conceived as a two-step process. The first step consists of the construction of a mental model of the mediated environment. In the second step, spatial presence emerges. It is proposed that on both stages of the formation process both cognitive processes and user traits are...

Based on the mere exposure effect (Zajonc 196838. Zajonc , Robert B. 1968 . “Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Monographs 9 ( 2, Pt. 2 ): 1 – 27 . View all references), the mere unreinforced presentation of product placements can increase brand liking. In an experiment, we manipulated visual placem...

This study (N = 111) sought to assess the roles of emotional involvement and trait absorption in the formation process of spatial presence in a virtual environment. A 2 ´ 2 between-subject design was employed with emotional involvement (low vs. high) as an experimental factor and trait absorption (low vs. high) as a quasi-experimental factor. The r...

The present study investigates the role of affective priming during the processing of news articles. It is assumed that the valence of the affective response to a news article will influence the processing of subsequent news articles. More specifically, it is hypothesized that participants who read a positive article will recall subsequent positive...

This study offers insights into how news media frames interact with existing value orientations in shaping voter preferences. It is assumed that a framing effect should be more pronounced when frames in the news resonate with people’s existing value predispositions. These assumptions were tested in a real-world setting of a political campaign deali...

Although sad films elicit states of sadness and cause onlookers to mourn beloved characters, these media offerings also lead to enjoyment. This paradoxical situation challenges both theoretical approaches and empirical studies in entertainment research. Based on an appraisal-theoretical framework, the present study examined the role of multiple app...

Die in diesem Beitrag vorgenommene Adaption eines Modells zur Erklärung der Genese und Modifikation von Emotionen (Emotions-Metaemotions-egulations-Modell) knüpft an emotionspsychologische Theorien an, die Kognitionen - und hier vor allem Einschätzungen und Bewertungen ("Appraisals") - als Ausgangspunkt oder zumindest zentralen Aspekt für die Emoti...

One of the major problems of comparative research is the question whether the data sets are comparable across nations, cultures or countries In order to test and to secure comparability, a functional equivalence approach is commonly used in psychology and the social sciences. This chapter provides an overview of the challenges of establishing equiv...

Individual differences in field dependence-independence are an integral factor for the perception of product placements. This is because field-independent individuals are better able to separate a stimulus from its embedding context; thus, they can more easily recognize a placement in a complex audiovisual field. In two experiments working with aut...

Individual differences in field dependence-independence are an integral factor for the perception of product placements. This is because field-independent individuals are better able to separate a stimulus from its embedding context; thus, they can more easily recognize a placement in a complex audiovisual field. In two experiments working with aut...

Campaign priming is generally assumed to function through the activation of memory content. By focusing on specific issues or issue aspects, campaigns render corresponding cognitive concepts more accessible and hence influence which concepts are likely to be used in subsequent evaluation processes. Thus, priming is mainly understood as a cognitive...

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