William D Crano

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Claremont Graduate University

This indispensable collection provides extensive, yet accessible, coverage of conceptual and practical issues in research design in personality and social psychology. Using numerous examples and clear guidelines, especially for conducting complex statistical analysis, leading experts address specific methods and areas of research to capture a defin...

Background There are many reasons why individuals with depression may not seek help. Among those with elevated depressive symptomatology, some previous interventions aimed at increasing help-seeking have unintentionally decreased help-seeking intentions. Beck’s cognitive theory of depression posits that individuals with elevated depressive symptoma...

The current study examined how the composition of intergroup contexts affects intergroup communication. We propose that when multiple outgroups exist, an extreme faction can make more moderate factions appear reasonable, creating pathways for influence. We also considered the role that an influence target’s fit with their ingroup (self-prototypical...

The Context Comparison Model (CCM) provides a promising avenue to guide persuasive communication development by highlighting the features of the communication context that require consideration, including source, target, and task variables. The model was tested in a study of global climate change. American participants read a text outlining scienti...

Psychological reactance (PR) is a psychological state or trait typified by resistant responses to threats to behavioral freedom. PR has been linked with negative health behaviors, including risky substance use; however, factors that may foster approaches to mitigate the impact of PR on these behaviors, as well as rejection of other health promotion...

We organized recently an international workshop in Greece, to confront our ideas about two major theories of Serge Moscovici. The theory of social representations (1961) and the theory of minority influence (1976). It was a question of tracing the perspectives of the legacy he had left us. This book is the collective trace of this work. It is organ...

The present research investigates how psychological mechanisms and social network structures generate patterns of cultural change and diversity. The two psychological mechanisms studied here are cultural drift and indirect minority influence; the former is parameterized by an error rate (ε) and the latter by a leniency threshold (λ). The patterns o...

Vaccinations offer the only real resolution to the pandemic. Masks and distance help keep the virus at bay, but they are not long-term solutions. Effective vaccines are now reaching millions in high-income countries, and, in time, they will reach underserved regions. The missing link in the vaccination chain will be trained people to administer the...

Objective: To reduce uncertainty about the effectiveness of Departments of Motor Vehicles (DMV) interventions, we assessed the influence of several DMV-based media campaigns on organ donor registration. Method: Across 4 studies, campaigns were implemented in 8 (Studies 1-3) or 9 (Study 4) New Mexico DMVs. Three theories guided message developmen...

Many past cannabis prevention campaigns have proven largely ineffective due in part to the diversity of adolescents’ cannabis-relevant beliefs. The current studies evaluated the impact of a sequential multiple message approach tailored to the usage norms of adolescents expressing negative attitudes toward a cannabis prevention appeal. A multiple-me...

Discrimination is often perceived as stemming from outgroups. Yet, intragroup hostilities between Latinx in the US might occur if disassociation from a stigmatized sub-group may serve to protect one’s status. This paper tests potential disassociation effects by examining whether US Latinx distance themselves from an associated stigmatized identity...

Using social networks to inform prevention efforts is promising but has not been applied to vaping. To address this gap, we pilot tested the peer-led Above the Influence of Vaping (ATI-V) and examined diffusion through 8th grade networks in three schools. Fifty students, nominated and trained as Peer Leaders, implemented prevention campaigns inform...

Italian sounding – i.e., the Italian appearance of a product or service brand irrespective of its country of origin – represent a global market phenomenon affecting a wide range of economic sectors, particularly the agro-food sector. Although its economic impact has been repeatedly stressed from different point of views (policy, economy, culture, e...

Abstract Social psychology provides a treasure-trove of insights into adaptations that may limit the devastating effects of climate change. Vested Interest Theory may contribute to this knowledge base, suggesting that one's vested interest may significantly influence appropriate coping behaviors, as it is has been shown to enhance the relation betw...

Social psychology provides a treasure-trove of insights into adaptations that may limit the devastating effects of climate change. Vested Interest Theory may contribute to this knowledge base, suggesting that one's vested interest may significantly influence appropriate coping behaviors, as it is has been shown to enhance the relation between attit...

Introduction. Research indicates a link between adolescent e-cigarette use and combustible tobacco cigarette (CTC) initiation, and recent studies suggest their connection with marijuana uptake. Our 3-year longitudinal cohort study investigated the implications of adolescent, peer, and family e-cigarette use with adolescents’ expectations and willin...

Given the food challenges that society is facing, we draw upon recent developments in the study of how food reputation affects food preferences and food choices, providing here a starting standard point for measuring every aspect of food reputation in different cultural contexts across the world. Specifically, while previous attempts focused either...

High-controlling (HC) language is explicit, clear, and efficient; however, it can be perceived as threatening, thus risking rejection. The benefits and drawbacks of using HC language presents a dilemma for message designers. Psychological reactance researchers have begun to examine strategies designed to utilize the virtues of HC language while mit...

As we write this article, the expanding coronavirus pandemic has crushed healthcare systems around the world. Increasingly, ministries of health, non-governmental organizations and hospitals are turning to their reserve workforces — retired professionals, medical and nursing students, and community health workers (CHWs). In under-resourced regions,...

Adolescent depression is associated with many negative outcomes, including elevated marijuana use. Although parental influences on adolescent depressive symptoms and marijuana use have been examined independently, their interrelation remains understudied. The current research investigates the hypothesis that lower levels of parental monitoring and...

Vested interest theory (VIT) predicts that perceived importance and hedonic relevance of an expected behavioral outcome affects attitude-behavior consistency. Applied to college students’ nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NUPS), the theory posits that persuasive information that weakens vested perceptions regarding assumed advantages of st...

Social psychological research has contributed to the betterment of society in many ways, but its present contributions to the prevention of adolescent depression, a leading cause of adolescent and young adult suicide, have not yet made the desired impact. Clinical scientists and practitioners have been most involved in research and treatment of dep...

Despite an increasingly ethnically and racially diverse population in the United States (U.S.), growing evidence indicates that minorities are underrepresented in national forest visitation. Many reasons for continuing underrepresentation have been examined, involving research reaching back multiple decades. In the current study, a random sample of...

Introduction: Attitudes of drug-abstinent youth considering marijuana initiation can be highly ambivalent. Invalidating pro-usage elements (i.e., opinions) of ambivalent marijuana attitudes, while leaving anti-marijuana elements intact, may create stronger, less ambivalent marijuana resistant attitudes and lower usage intentions, while concurrently...

Introduction: Attitudes of drug-abstinent youth considering marijuana initiation can be highly ambivalent. Invalidating pro-usage elements (i.e., opinions) of ambivalent marijuana attitudes, while leaving anti-marijuana elements intact, may create stronger, less ambivalent marijuana-resistant attitudes and lower usage intentions, while concurrentl...

Guided by vested interest theory, the impact of educating potential organ donors about the beneficial experiences afforded to families of deceased donors was assessed. Participants were informed about these benefits by taking a survey that asked them to indicate both their awareness, and the appeal, of numerous existing benefits (e.g. grief service...

The effectiveness of media-based campaigns to discourage psychoactive substance use (PSU) has come under severe question. This chapter outlines some of the many reasons for campaign failure. These include the nonoptimal choice of theoretical framework, failure to recognize the essential relation of persuasion in prevention, necessity to overcome re...

The present research investigates whether and how different the emergent patterns of group change and diversity within a group produced by indirect minority influence and random errors. We compare two mechanisms (a) random errors (Bednar, Bramson, Jones-Rooy, & Page, 2010; Nowak & Lewenstein, 1996) and (b) indirect minority influence (Jung, Bramson...

Background: Vested interest (VI) has been found to enhance attitude-behavior consistency in several contexts. With an eye toward a potentially novel method of prevention (i.e., reducing perceived VI to minimize attitude-behavior consistency among those positively inclined toward psychotropic substance use), the current investigation explores wheth...

A short chapter reviewing the ways parental behavior can affect the likelihood of their children using or avoiding cannabis. Discussion includes relation of expectations, attitudes, and fear of punishment relate to usage, and emphasizes the importance of parental monitoring, warmth, and communication in authoritative and effective parenting.

This is a chapter to be included in an Introduction to Substance Use Prevention. It details a new model to facilitate development of substance-preventive messages, based on many years of research in persuasion.

The goal of the research was to determine whether artworks said to be created by famous artists were appreciated more than the same artworks attributed to non-famous artists. Analysis indicated that the works attributed to famous artists were more appreciated than the identical works attributed to non-famous artists: the works were liked more and j...

The influence of parents’ behavior on their children’s cannabis use is the focus of this chapter. Cannabis is the most common illicit drug used by adolescents in the United States. Despite massive expenditures on prevention, cannabis usage rates among adolescents have remained stable over the last decade, and recent trends have shown a slight uptic...

The present paper describes an agent-based model of indirect minority influence. It examines whether indirect minority influence can lead to social change as a function of cognitive rebalancing, a process whereby related attitudes are affected when one attitude is changed. An attitude updating algorithm was modelled with minimal assumptions drawing...

Objective: The purpose of this study is to provide an evidence based foundation to implement interventions that improve the health of the population of UB, particularly pregnant women and their yet to be born children by reducing the impact of exposure to the ultra-high air pollution levels found in the city. Methods: This is a hospital based cross...

Pérez and Mugny (1987) extended the scope of minority influence research in a classic study that explicitly drew a distinction between in-group and out-group minority influence sources and their effects on majority acceptance. Their study also refocused the field from a social influence, perception-oriented view to a more dynamic persuasion, attitu...

Social Signal Processing is the first book to cover all aspects of the modeling, automated detection, analysis, and synthesis of nonverbal behavior in human-human and human-machine interactions. Authoritative surveys address conceptual foundations, machine analysis and synthesis of social signal processing, and applications. Foundational topics inc...

Social commentary about prevention messages may affect their likelihood of acceptance. To investigate this possibility, student participants (N = 663) viewed three anti-marijuana advertisements, each followed immediately by videotaped discussions involving four adults or four adolescents using either extreme or moderate language in their positive c...

Adolescent alcohol use has been linked with a multitude of problems and a trajectory predictive of problematic use in adulthood. Thus, targeting factors that enhance early prevention efforts is vital. The current study highlights variables that mitigate or predict alcohol use and heavy episodic drinking. Using Monitoring the Future (MTF) data, mult...

Culturally, people tend to abstain from alcohol intake during the weekdays and wait to consume in greater frequency and quantity during the weekends. The current research sought to empirically justify the days representing weekday versus weekend alcohol consumption. In study 1 (N = 419), item response theory was applied to a two-parameter (difficul...

Marijuana is the most widely used illegal substance among adolescents. Marijuana usage rates, behaviors, perceptions and beliefs, and risk and protective factors are highlighted in this entry. Theoretical frameworks and research designs for incorporating diverse methods to plant the seed for future marijuana investigations are discussed.

Binge drinking is associated with many health and financial costs and is linked to risks of legal consequences. As alcohol use typically is initiated during adolescence, the current study assessed the relationship between parental behaviors and strategies in forecasting adolescents’ likelihood of binge drinking and later arrest. Restricted data fro...

Objective: Group norms and drinking motives are crucial predictors of adolescents' alcohol intake. The current study examined the role of drinking motives in the association between descriptive group norms and alcohol intake. Method: A sample of 525 Italian adolescents (56% men) was surveyed. Participants completed measures of group norms, drink...

The article outlines a series of persuasion theories in social psychology. Persuasion may affect both attitudes and behaviors. The following basic approaches are considered: the learning approach, which emphasizes the process of learning attitudes; the consistency approach, which focuses on the importance of consistency between attitudes and behavi...

This article presents a summary of developments in the study of attitude formation and attitude change, two defining features of social psychology from its inception as an empirical science. Research on conceptualizations of change is discussed, as are variables implicated as attitude change agents. The interconnection of implicitly and explicitly...

Introduction: Research on vested interest theory (VIT) indicates that the importance and hedonic relevance of attitudes moderates the link between attitudes and attitude-congruent behavior. Though largely untested in prevention research, this relationship may prove crucial in determining the success or failure of prevention efforts. The current st...

This study assessed the moderating effects of attitude ambivalence on the relationship between social norms, attitudes, and behavioral intentions to use tobacco. It was predicted that people would use social norms to reduce attitude ambivalence, and that reduced ambivalence would lead to changes in attitudes and behavioral intentions. To test this...

Objective: This study examined relations between adolescents' family structures, social ties, and drug-related attitudes, and their misuse of prescription opioids and stimulants. Different relationships were anticipated for the substances based on prior research highlighting varying motivations for their use. Method: Based on an earlier model of...

The subjective group dynamics model describes conditions for sanctioning deviant in-group members. A description of a new or established group member's (the target) attitude toward “Obamacare” was provided to 136 Republican participants. The target expressed a group-normative, ambivalent, or deviant opinion. Participants indicated the self-relevanc...

Recent research has indicated that the frequently noted relationship between spatial skills and reading comprehension may be the result of a functional dependency, rather than an instance of “third variable causation.” The current study was an attempt to test this hypothesis experimentally within the context of a remedial reading program for rural,...

Used to train generations of social scientists, this thoroughly updated classic text covers the latest research techniques and designs. Applauded for its comprehensive coverage, the breadth and depth of content is unparalleled. Through a multi-methodology approach, the text guides readers toward the design and conduct of social research from the gr...

This self-­‐ archived version is provided for non-­‐ commercial and scholarly purposes only Crano, W. D., & Gardikiotis, A. (in press). Attitudes and attitude change. In J. D. Wright (Ed.) International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2 nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.

This self-­‐ archived version is provided for non-­‐ commercial and scholarly purposes only Gardikiotis, A., & Crano, W. D. (in press). Persuasion theories. In J. D. Wright (Ed.) International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2 nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.