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The Influence of Online Comments on Perceptions of Anti-Marijuana Public Service Announcements on YouTube
Abstract
Web-based media often present multiple sources of influence, such as mass media and peers, within one interface. When individuals identify with peers who are visually anonymous and with whom they do not directly interact, they should be susceptible to social influence from that group. This study examined the interplay among antimarijuana public service announcement (PSA) videos in a YouTube environment and adjacent message postings from other viewers about those videos. Results show that supportive or derisive comments affected PSA evaluations but not marijuana attitudes, whereas the interaction effect of identification and comment valence affected both PSA evaluations and marijuana attitudes. Other factors previously related to PSA evaluation such as message strength and perceivers' sensation-seeking did not interact with hypothesized factors.
... Identification has also been suggested as a mediator and/or a moderator rather than an outcome or an effect [8,[13][14][15]. The interaction between communication valence and social identification has been shown to influence positive attitudes towards the content itself [16]. ...
... Similar effects can be seen in other forms of media. Negative messages written by strong social identification ties have been shown to reduce positive evaluations toward the video content itself [15]. Taken together, identification and message affect likely influence impressions, but the relationship path is somewhat unclear. ...
... Rather, the valence of the comment affected participants' identification level with the content creator which, in turn, affected enjoyment. This result extends research demonstrating the effect of the relationship between content valence and social identification on video evaluation [15]. The current research posits that valence of the comment relating to the video content can affect not only identification with the comment writer as studied previously but also identification with the content creator. ...
Two studies were conducted to test the convergence of mass and interpersonal media processes and their effects on YouTube. The first study examined the influence of interpersonal interactions on video enjoyment. The results indicated that positive comment valence affected participants’ identification with the content creator, which then affected enjoyment of the video. To investigate the effects of convergence from a macro-level perspective, the second study tracked and recorded data from 32 YouTube videos for 34 days and recorded the following data for each video: number of views, likes, and comments/responses. The results indicated that the more content creators and users interact, the more likes the video receives. However, user-to-user interactions are associated with a decrease in the number of likes a video receives.
... A specific focus within this research is the study of online user comments written on social media and on YouTube in particular. It has been shown, for example, that people's attitudes towards and experiences of videos depend on the comments that accompany these videos (e.g., Hsueh et al., 2015;Möller et al., 2021;Shi et al., 2014;Waddell & Sundar, 2017;Walther et al., 2010;Ziegele et al., 2018). Other studies focused on how viewers use comments to converse about the content that they are watching (e.g., Dubovi & Tabak, 2020;Poché et al., 2017;Song et al., 2015). ...
... Particularly YouTube is characterized by its large number of public comments, and active user engagement in the comment section (Khan, 2017). YouTube comments have been previously studied to understand attitudes and opinions of users (Alhujaili & Yafooz, 2021), to examine user discourse about specific topics (e.g., Schneider, 2016), or to understand the influence of these comments on users (e.g., Möller et al., 2021;Walther et al., 2010). When conducting studies on user comments, it is indispensable to first identify and eliminate irrelevant comments as these might seriously bias study results. ...
... Although the usage of computational methods, and machine learning in particular, is increasing within the field of social sciences in general, it is not often used by scholars taking a media psychological perspective to study YouTube comments. This is striking as entertainment scholars studying the effects that YouTube comments may have on video viewers base their work on the assumption that the comments that video viewers see are actually relevant (e.g., Möller et al., 2021;Walther et al., 2010). Relying on SML, we demonstrate how such models can help filter relevant user comments on YouTube before proceeding with classifications that allow us to predict the underlying meaning of comments. ...
Social scientists often study comments on YouTube to learn about people’s attitudes towards and experiences of online videos. However, not all YouTube comments are relevant in the sense that they reflect individuals’ thoughts about, or experiences of the content of a video or its artist/maker. Therefore, the present paper employs Supervised Machine Learning to automatically assess comments written in response to music videos in terms of their relevance. For those comments that are relevant, we also assess why they are relevant. Our results indicate that most YouTube comments are relevant (approx. 78%). Among those, most are relevant because they include a positive evaluation of the video, describe a viewer’s personal experience related to the video, or express a sense of community among the video viewers. We conclude that Supervised Machine Learning is a suitable method to find those YouTube comments that are relevant to scholars studying viewers’ reactions to online videos, and we present suggestions for scholars wanting to apply the same technique in their own projects.
... In fact, political messages on social media are often accompanied by social endorsement cues such as likes, shares, and comments. Studies show that social media users are increasingly using these cues as shortcuts to form perceptions and evaluations of the content (Metzger et al., 2010;Walther et al., 2010). What is more relevant, one recent study on PRT in the online environment has found that social endorsement cues could mitigate the threats imposed by persuasive messages and thus reduce reactance (Li & Sundar, 2021). ...
... Social endorsement cues, such as likes and shares, on social media posts have been extensively studied in persuasion literature. Studies drawing on online information processing theory hold that these online metrics serve as salient cues and influence users by eliciting mental shortcuts (Metzger et al., 2010;Walther et al., 2010). As expected, social endorsement cues can shape how people perceive media sources and media content. ...
... As expected, social endorsement cues can shape how people perceive media sources and media content. For instance, a higher number of favorable social endorsement cues can produce more positive perceptions of media sources and content (Walther et al., 2010). More relevant to the current study, Li and Sundar (2021) show that higher social endorsement cues play an important role in decreasing reactance, such that the difference in perceived threat between high-threat and low-threat messages will be mitigated when strong bandwagon cues are used. ...
This study extends the psychological reactance theory by demonstrating that online political discussions, without explicit social influence attempts, can arouse psychological reactance by certain message features. Based on a 2 (stance: agreement vs. disagreement) × 2 (tone: civil vs. uncivil) × 2 (social endorsement: low vs. high) between-subjects online experiment in the United States (N = 418), the present study found that both disagreement and uncivil comments led to psychological reactance directly and indirectly via perceived threat to freedom. Unexpectedly, uncivil disagreement had smaller effects on psychological reactance than civil disagreement. In addition, although social endorsement cues did not show any independent effects on psychological reactance, they were found to exacerbate the direct effect of uncivil disagreement on psychological reactance. Overall, our study develops important theoretical connections between political deliberation and psychological reactance literatures. It also yields practical implications for fostering an inclusive and healthy environment for online political discussion.
... Several studies have supported that online comments affect attitudes and perceptions. Walther et al. (2010) studied the influence of online comments attached to a public service announcement on the harmful effects of marijuana by measuring experimental participants' evaluations of the announcement before and after exposure to comments. They found that positive and negative comments had positive and negative effects, respectively, on evaluations of the announcement and that the effects were stronger when prior attitudes were closer to the comments. ...
... We found that exposure to positive comments has a mild statistically significant effect on users' attitudes in the direction of less prejudice. This finding is consistent with social judgment theory and with the findings of other studies (e.g., Velasco, 2016;Walther et al., 2010;Kim & Wojcieszak, 2018). The detected effect seems realistic, given that our stimuli (diverse, civil, not extreme, not provocative) fall within a spectrum of expected mild influence, as observed. ...
... On the other hand, contrary to the prediction of social judgment theory and to the findings of other studies (e.g., Velasco, 2016;Walther et al., 2010;Sung & Lee, 2014;Shi et al., 2014;Hsueh et al., 2015), we found no significant effect of exposure to negative comments on participants' attitudes. We are unable to assess the substantive value of this discrepancy at this point. ...
In recent years, there is interest in examining the effects of user comments on online content consumers’ attitudes and perceptions. Building on theoretical foundations from social psychology and using an online experimental design, we investigated whether exposure to online comments attached to news content affects attitudes toward refugees. We recruited students from a public university in the Mediterranean region and, after administering a printed pretest on their attitudes toward refugees, we assigned them into three groups: one that read a series of positive comments about refugees (positive experimental group), one that read a series of negative comments about refugees (negative experimental group) and one that did not read comments (control group). The comments and a neutral reference news video were communicated to the participants via email during a five-day period after the pretest. After the implementation of the experimental stimuli, we administered a modified version of the pretest as a posttest. We found that exposure to positive comments reduced prejudice and that the intensity of prior prejudice was positively associated with the magnitude of prejudice reduction. Exposure to negative comments did not affect prejudice. A repeat posttest, administered one week after the posttest, showed stability of the observed attitude change.
... For example, Oliver et al. (2015) found that viewing meaningful videos was associated with greater perceptions of interconnectedness with diverse groups rather than a specific group. In the social media context, however, users can be motivated to form identity perceptions aiming at a specific group of peer users whose emotions and thoughts can be directly observed through user-generated comments (Walther et al., 2010). Thus, elevation may also lead to heightened perceptions of the self being part of this specific group of peer users whom users mentally interact with through viewing comments. ...
... Three items were used to measure ingroup identification (Walther et al., 2010), including "I see myself as a part of the people who provided these comments"; "I feel a bond with the people who provided these comments"; and "I see myself similar to the people who provided these comments"; 1 ¼ strongly disagree, 7 ¼ strongly agree, M ¼ 4.30; SD ¼ 1.66; α ¼ .92). ...
Emerging research suggests that entertainment media consumption may elicit meaningful emotions that can be leveraged for social good. This study combines theories of eudaimonic media and social identity to test the outward-focused mechanism explaining how meaningful media experiences might influence health persuasion outcomes. Two experiments were conducted to examine the efficacy of meaningful media experiences in changing vaccine-hesitant individuals' vaccination attitudes and intentions in the context of entertainment social media consumption and incidental exposure to vaccination messages embedded in user comments. Results showed that viewing meaningful music videos was associated with elevation, ingroup identification, and universal orientation. Elevation and ingroup identification mediated the association between media consumption and vaccination attitudes and intentions. Results offered theoretical and practical insights concerning the outward-focused mechanism underlying the impact of media-induced elevation on health persuasion.
... According to Choi (2023), this platform averages 40.95 million users monthly, which accounts for approximately 79% of Korea's population. Moreover, previous studies often utilized YouTube for data collection (Feng and Chen 2022;Luong et al. 2024;Walther et al. 2010;Yu 2020). Table 1 presents the video sources in this study in the order of upload date. ...
... These operations included changing accented characters to standard English characters, expanding contractions, removing @user from each comment, lemmatizing each word, removing stop words using NLTK, removing digits from each comment, and removing special characters and punctuation using TextBlob (Babu and Kanaga 2022). Additionally, we eliminated all second-level responses for the following reasons: users seldom click the "view reply" button on YouTube (Walther et al. 2010). Additionally, second-level replies tend to focus on the top-level comments rather than the video itself. ...
Brands are embracing sociopolitical issues in their advertising campaigns, a strategy termed “woke advertising,” to tailor to contemporary social movements. To create social impact, brands upload the woke campaigns on social media platforms, such as YouTube, to arouse discussion. However, the conversation among consumers regarding a woke campaign may move from level-headed debate to emotionally fueled fighting. Thus, research is needed to understand why consumers generate hate/toxic speech in the context of woke advertising. Based on previous research, we adopted machine learning algorithms to classify the comments on two woke campaigns into toxic and non-toxic comments, analyzed the topics of each comment type, examined the engagement performance of each comment type, and tracked the growth of each type of comments over time. Empirical findings shed light on two main sources of cognitive dissonance in the context of woke advertising (i.e., the stance of the woke campaign, and others’ comments on the woke campaign) and indicate that both supporters and opposers of a woke campaign may use hate/toxic speech to attack the source of cognitive dissonance. Moreover, given the source of cognitive dissonance, consumers may or may not leverage their persuasion knowledge to cope with a woke campaign.
... Studies also found that derisive (vs. supportive) comments led readers to have poorer evaluations of an antimarijuana public service announcement (Walther et al., 2010). ...
Historically, pandemics have spurred an influx of disorganized information and escalated intergroup animosity, and COVID-19 is no exception. Pandemic reporting often features cues and testimonials to mark the distinction between “us” versus “them”; however, the influence of such journalistic practices on intergroup animosity remains largely unexplored during public health crises, let alone their potential interplay with ubiquitous user-generated comments that often accompany pandemic news stories in the digital era. We conducted an online survey experiment with a sample of U.S. participants ( N = 1428) during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, systematically varying the presence of stigmatizing outgroup cues, testimonials from in-versus outgroups, and social media comments either predominantly endorsing or condemning xenophobia. Our findings reveal that stigmatizing outgroup cues amplified the effects of testimonials detailing ingroup suffering, thus heightening anti-Chinese sentiment. These results underscore the importance of evaluating the implications of journalistic practices in public health reporting on intergroup dynamics and social solidarity. Additionally, we found that online comments predominantly condemning xenophobia moderated the effects of ingroup testimonials in the direction of inducing more positive sentiments, highlighting the vital role of an engaged audience in moderating the influences of public health news coverage.
... Among the direct influencing factors on the mental system are difficulties in writing, reading, thinking, creative thinking, memory, attention, irascibility, passive attitude, attention, concentration, mental states, social frustration, mental tone, and school performance. From the standpoint of the research, these categories of factors can be grouped according to particular goals such as: the impact of mass media on perceptions and attitudes (Bandura, Albert (2009), the influence of the mass media on social behaviors and values, respectively on self-image and self-esteem (Perloff, 2014;Jan et al., 2017), the influence of mass media on emotions and affective experiences (Barlett and Gentile, 2015), the influence of mass media on cognitive and emotional states (Reid and Reid, 2007), the influence of mass media on social interactions and communication (Walther et al., 2010). Numerous examples of how the mass media affects people's mental health can be found in the specialized literature. ...
The current work aims to present the impact of mass media on young people’s behaviour from the standpoint of marketing, beginning with an analysis of this impact treated in the specialized literature and continuing with a verification study on a specific group of students. The topics covered in this paper, meant to be the first in a series of deeper investigations into this area, focus on the elements that have an impact on the young consumer’s mental system and mass media influence factors, and a study on specific impact elements like video games, smartphones, and social networks, particularly TikTok. The mass media component will focus on both content elements and mass media supports, from their well-established perspectives, such as: television, radio, print, electronic, and Internet media, social networks, telephony, and video games. The target audience for the study will be young people, with a focus on young students from a faculty of economic sciences. The research will attempt to capture the influential aspects of mass media that this audience prefers to access, including the Internet, the most popular social networks, mobile phones, and other commonly used devices.
... The comment section on YouTube videos not only provides feedback for video creators 11 , but also serves as a venue for communication and information sharing among viewers 12,13 , providing a new experience for video audiences that is different from traditional media such as television programming 14 . Moreover, comments on online content are known to shape viewers' perceptions of the content itself 15,16 . However, the comment section is often plagued by uncivil comments [17][18][19] , particularly on anti-vaccine videos 20 . ...
Anti-vaccine trolling on video-hosting websites hinders efforts to increase vaccination rates by using toxic language and threatening claims to intimidate people and promote vaccine hesitancy. However, there is a shortage of research investigating the effects of toxic messages on these platforms. This study focused on YouTube anti-vaccine videos and examined the relationship between toxicity and fear in the comment section of these videos. We discovered that highly liked toxic comments were associated with a significant level of fear in subsequent comments. Moreover, we found complex patterns of contagion between toxicity and fear in the comments. These findings suggest that initial troll comments can evoke negative emotions in viewers, potentially fueling vaccine hesitancy. Our research bears essential implications for managing public health messaging and online communities, particularly in moderating fear-mongering messages about vaccines on social media.
... The downloaded data included comments together with their uploaders' usernames, number of likes, and uploaded time, all of which are publicly available data on the YouTube front end. Subsequently, we removed all the second-level replies and retained the top-level comments (comments that are displayed underneath a YouTube video without folding), because second-level replies (comments that are displayed underneath a top-level comment and that need to be unfolded to read) focus not on commenting on the videos directly but on the top-level comments (Walther et al. 2010). As a result, we collected 26,786 top-level comments from Lil Miquela's YouTube videos, 282 top-level comments from Bermuda's YouTube videos, and 825 top-level comments from Blawko's YouTube videos. ...
The purpose of this research is to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) influencer attributes scale (AIAS), which consists of key measures of AI influencers’ perceived attributes, as well as to unveil the relationship between each attribute and consumers’ acceptance of AI influencers as product/brand endorsers. Given the two properties of AI influencers (i.e., consumers perceive AI influencers as having humanlike personas, consumers perceive AI influencers as products of new technology), we reviewed literature on anthropomorphism and technology acceptance. Guided by previous literature and through a mixed-methods approach (i.e., machine learning, qualitative analysis, and survey), we identified seven key attributes of AI influencers (i.e., anthropomorphism, artificiality, attractiveness, luminary, quality, trendiness, and robophobia). Results indicated that six of these key attributes (i.e., anthropomorphism, attractiveness, luminary, quality, trendiness, and robophobia) significantly affected consumers’ acceptance of AI influencers as product/brand endorsers.
... More specifically, substantial research has found the detrimental effect of oppositional and negative comments on persuasion outcomes of health promotional messages (Duong et al., 2019;Kim et al., 2021). Subsequently, recommendations to advertisers and social marketers have been centered on engaging in social media listening and monitoring to address public sentiments or limiting users' ability to provide divisive and opposition comments (Kim et al., 2021;Walther et al., 2010). Practitioners have found it more convenient to turn off user-generated comments than invest substantial resources to monitor and address public sentiments through comments (Labarre, 2013). ...
Purpose-Campaigns to promote the COVID-19 vaccination messages to vaccine-hesitant consumers in the late stages of the pandemic are often met with resistance. This study aims to explore a way to leverage positive emotions induced from entertainment media consumption to promote vaccination messages to this audience group.
Design/methodology/approach-An online experiment was conducted with vaccine-hesitant consumers (N = 409). Participants viewed personally relevant entertainment music videos or mundane videos and vaccinated messages embedded in user-generated comments.
Findings-Data revealed that feelings of inspiration and nostalgia induced from entertainment media consumption increased vaccination intentions via increased risk perceptions and reduced anti-vaccination attitudes.
Practical implications-Social marketers should consider leveraging the combined effect of entertainment media-induced positive emotions and user-generated comments to motivate behavioral change among vaccine-hesitant individuals in the late stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originality/value-The present study adds to social marketing literature by showing mechanisms that positive emotions induced from entertainment social media consumption might lead to health behavioral change.
... The comment section on YouTube videos not only provides feedback for video creators [12], but also serves as a venue for communication and information sharing among viewers [13,14], providing a new experience for video audiences that is different from traditional media such as television programming [15]. Moreover, comments on online content are known to shape viewers' perceptions of the content itself [16,17]. However, the comment section is often plagued by uncivil comments [18][19][20], particularly on anti-vaccine videos [21]. ...
Anti-vaccine trolling on video-hosting websites hinders efforts to increase vaccination rates by using toxic language and threatful claims to intimidate people and promote vaccine hesitancy. However, there is a shortage of research investigating the effects of toxic messages on these platforms. This study collected YouTube anti-vaccine videos and examined the relationship between toxicity and fear in the comment section of these videos. We discovered that highly liked toxic comments elicited a significant level of fear in subsequent comments of the same videos. Moreover, we found intricate contagions across toxicity and fear within the comments. These findings suggest that initial troll comments can evoke negative emotions, which may fuel vaccine hesitancy on social media. Our research bears essential implications for managing public health messaging and online communities, particularly in moderating fear-mongering messages about vaccines.
... However, public conversations about Sofia on social media may signal to some observers that she often recorded or shared explicit videos. Prior research has demonstrated that social media comments have the potential to affect one's attitudes about a subject, particularly when the observer identifies with those commenting (Walther et al., 2010). Depending on how a victim's experience is conveyed online, observers may perceive the victim as being responsible (or not) for their victimization. ...
Individuals who have experienced harm (also known as victims) by people, organizations, or adverse events sometimes use social media to share their experiences with others, search for information, and find social support. While some observers offer support and engage in inclusion toward victims on social media, other observers blame victims for their plight and participate in revictimization and exclusion. Victim blaming, which can lead to social exclusion, disproportionately impacts those in society who are already at risk for exclusion and may perpetuate existing racial, ethnic, gender, and economic inequalities. This research provides a theoretical framework to identify reasons why observers engage in such wide-ranging responses to victims on social media. Specifically, we consider social inclusion and exclusion at the confluence of a social phenomenon (victim blaming), a theory (just world theory), and an information technology artifact (social media) among a specific type of actor (observers). Our theoretical framework of social media inclusion and exclusion is informed by just world theory and considers how social media functionalities can promote social media inclusion or exclusion. We also offer research questions to stimulate future research related to social media inclusion, social media exclusion, and just world theory.
... News users form public opinion by comparing the opinions of others posted in comments with their own, evaluating the original article itself beyond the level of understanding. In many studies, people not only recognized public opinion in the online space through comments, but also guessed public opinion in the offline space [20]. Comments demonstrated a third-person effect influencing perceptions of media bias or political attitudes toward others. ...
... Halim et al. (2022) found that the number of positive and negative comments on a video is a significant determinant of the video's popularity. The importance of comment management for YouTube advertising has also been examined in the context of an anti-drug campaign (Walther et al., 2010), a firm's corporate social responsibility (Liao & Mak, 2019), and a YouTube influencer's content sponsored by a health clinic unit (Reinikainen et al., 2020). However, the importance of comment management on YouTube has not been discussed in the context of destination advertising. ...
This research aims to understand the unique aspects of social media that should be considered by a destination marketing organization (DMO) to create advertisements that attract the interests of tourists on YouTube. It examines the effectiveness of two YouTube-specific practices—native advertising and comment management. Two studies with a multi-method approach examined the effects of such practices on tourists’ perceptions regarding DMOs’ YouTube advertisements and destinations. The results showed that tourists positively perceived the advertisements and the destinations when DMOs’ YouTube advertisements were recognized as non-advertising content, and when native advertising was emphasized in the comment section of the YouTube advertisements. By delving into the necessary adaptations within the current video marketing communication framework for social media platforms, this study contributes to the field of destination advertising. Moreover, it provides practical insights into effective video advertising strategies for social media platforms that DMOs can implement.
... In order to acquire primary data, the researcher used a questionnaire comprising a series of questions or statements for respondents to answer. Researchers will divide the questionnaire into two categories based on earlier study methodologies employed by Walther et al. (2010) and Sikorsi & Hänelt (2016): questionnaires with good news comments and questionnaires with negative news comments, which will be presented to respondents at random. To analyze the influence of reader comments, the researcher uses a Likert scale. ...
Technological developments provide significant changes in the field of journalism, especially in the news by the mass media. The online news portal currently provides a comment column feature for news readers to comment on the existing news. This study aims to (1) look at the effect of reader comments on students' perceptions of controversial news about campus through the LINE Today feature, (2) analyze the difference in influence between positive comments and negative comments on students' perceptions of campus controversy news through the LINE Today feature. This study uses a quantitative approach with a questionnaire method to the research population. The sample is students of the Department of Communication, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Hasanuddin University who have accounts on the LINE application, totaling 199 people with the total sampling method. Regression analysis technique was used to see the effect of reader comments on student perceptions. To compare the effect of positive and negative reader comments, a comparative analysis technique is used, namely variance. The results showed that (1) There was a significant effect of reader comments on students' perceptions of campus controversy news through the LINE Today feature using both positive and negative stimuli; (2) There is a difference in the effect of positive and negative comments on students' perceptions of campus controversy news through the LINE Today feature.stimuli have a greater influence on student perceptions
... Most importantly, although the initial post and the audience's comments appear in clearly delimited areas, it has been demonstrated that users tend to conceptualise posts as a unified entity made up of the initial post plus the comments that it triggers. Ballantine et al. (2015) commented on the way in which the perceptions of a profile owner are influenced by the peer comments and postings that others leave on their profiles (see also Walther et al. 2010). These authors draw from warranting theory (Walther and Parks 2002), which signals the importance of the perceived validity of the information about another user that others observe online. ...
Humour is pervasive on social networking sites and can be found in all of the areas on these sites designed for user interaction, ranging from the user’s profile, to comments and a messaging areas also available on most of these sites. The chapter starts with a description of social networking sites in general and specifically as “repositories” of humorous discourses, together with their differing qualities, which influence how humour is created, managed and interpreted therein. Several humorous strategies on these sites are also described, with special emphasis on the famous incongruity-resolution pattern. The importance of being able to retrieve from context the necessary information to derive humorous effects is also underlined. The chapter then analyses different types of humour on social networking sites: from a single user, from site compilations, from sites emphasising collective identities, within comments to posts and the interactions arising there, and from corporate sites.KeywordsSocial networking sitesHumorous commentsCorporate humourCollective humourIncongruity-resolution
... A key component of natural language processing research is the use of collected data sets. Analysis and review of users' opinions have many applications, which can be mentioned in recommender systems [1], topic modeling [2], detection of cyberbullying [3], and drug abuse [4]. Many of these comments exist on the web, and extracting and cleaning them is a prerequisite for analyzing them, and they can provide valuable and factual information. ...
The tourism industry has undergone a significant shift towards data-driven strategies in recent years. As a means of improving the quality of their service and performance, service providers are analyzing feedback from their customers to increase the number of tourists they attract. Negative feedback also provides valuable insights into the factors that detract from a location's appeal. Datasets that gather information on people's experiences and opinions of tourist destinations can be analyzed to extract valuable information. However, there are currently few existing datasets that specifically capture user reviews about historical and tourist attractions in Iran. To fill this gap, users have shared their travel experiences on various websites, and sentiment analysis can be employed to extract insights from this data. Effective sentiment analysis requires a suitable approach for data extraction, pre-processing, and storage. This study provides a framework for the user review dataset preparation, including data collection, ETL, data storage, and evaluation phases. A rich dataset containing user reviews about 178 Iran's historical and tourist attractions was prepared through the proposed framework in which automated crawlers were developed to collect data from Tripadvisor platforms. Data labelling was achieved using the DistilBERT-base-uncased language model for sentiment analysis and human evaluators for final annotations. A total of approximately 25 thousand samples were included in the dataset, and positive user comments outnumbered negative user comments by a wide margin. This high percentage of positive comments suggests that the locations were of a satisfactory standard, making it likely that users would return in the future. The findings of this study can help providers to improve the overall quality of their services by analyzing user reviews. The proposed framework and achieved dataset can also guide future efforts to leverage data for improved performance and customer satisfaction in the tourism industry by identifying areas that need improvement.
... ess of time and space borders. Khan (2017) reports in his study that responders in YouTube are able to engage in written conversation addressing the ads broadcasted via the YouTube channel. Users on YouTube also play roles not only as the consumers of the information brought by the video but also as responders that can comment on the posted videos (Walther, et. al., 2010). ...
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This SFL study attempts to scrutinise the process-type switching and its underlying meanings in the cyber-based interactive responses towards an issue of transgender. The issue is confined to the suspected genital reconstruction surgery of an Indonesian celebrity that becomes viral and triggers public debate on social media. 254 Indonesian clauses of interactive comments addressing the issue of transgender identity on a YouTube video of more than 2 million views were analysed. Prompting and replying responses were investigated for their categorization of process types by employing the tables of analysis adapted from the experiential meaning framework of Halliday and Matthiessen (2004). The analysis reveals some occurrences of process type switching in the interactive responses among responders in addressing the Indonesian sensitive and viral issue of transgender identity. In responding to the prompting comments, responders tended to employ relational and material clauses to establish values, evidences, and impacts in objective ways while they also used mental and verbal processes to affect one another in subjective ways. This Hallidayan study hints that the process switching among responders in addressing the issue of transgender is associated with the strategies for maintaining and spreading their ideology by confirming, strengthening, adding, and even arguing.
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... Unsurprisingly, social media comments are speculated to have a similar influencing role in shaping public opinion as the news media. Social media users likely rely on comments to assess the credibility of content shared (Metzger et al., 2010) and evaluate content in line with the sentiments expressed in comments (Konijn et al., 2013;Walther et al., 2010). News media outlets, such as newspapers, television shows, and radio stations, have acknowledged this shift in media consumption and attempted to adapt by creating a social media presence themselves (Winter et al., 2015). ...
Animal welfare legislation in Australia is influenced by “community expectations.” Given a major source of publicly available information on animal welfare law is that from media articles, it is likely the information discussed online could be influencing public opinion and consequently shaping animal welfare legislation reform efforts. This study examined the social media discourse in response to news articles on animal welfare law in Australia. A content analysis was applied to Facebook comments from posts originating from a formal news agency discussing animal cruelty and penalties over a 6-month period between 1 June 2019 to 1 December 2019. All posts were screened against eligibility criteria and imported into NVivo for inductive coding. A total of 24 Facebook posts with an accumulative 1,723 comments were coded and thematically analyzed. Six primary themes were generated from the analysis: (1) failure of the court system; (2) failure of the legislation; (3) failure of the government; (4) emotive reactions; (5) risk of violence; and (6) mistrust in the media. The social media discourse was scathing of the legal system, with a particular focus on failings of the animal welfare law justice system. It is likely that this type of discourse surrounding animal law enforcement could be playing an influential role over the “expectations” influencing animal welfare legislation reform in Australia.
... User comments' influence on readers has been researched, and the new changes brought by computer-mediated communications have been considered in recent research. The existing empirical studies indicate that online user comments can have an impact on readers' opinions (Houston, 2011;Hsueh, Yogeeswaran, & Malinen, 2015;Walther, DeAndrea, Kim, & Anthony, 2010;), whereas the effect of pro-regime comments seems to be different. Existing studies describe the effects of China's undercover online commentators as ineffective and counterproductive (Han, 2015;Wong & Liang, 2021). ...
China, as an authoritarian regime that has tight control over social media, has always sought to manipulate public opinion. In addition to censorship, the state mobilizes undercover paid posters to manufacture a pro-regime opinion environment. In this study, we examine the effectiveness of this adaptation by conducting an online survey experiment. We explore whether pro-regime comments accompanying a news post can effectively affect viewers’ private and expressed thoughts, as well as whether these are driven by normative or informational social influence. The results indicate that pro-regime comments cannot significantly influence individuals’ attitudes in favor of the authorities. Moreover, uniform pro-regime comments can even produce counterproductive effects. However, pro-regime comments do have an impact on individuals’ opinion expressions. Respondents who take dissenting viewpoints tend to avoid expressing themselves when facing a climate of pro-regime opinion. Additionally, the persuasive effects of high-quality pro-regime arguments were found to be better compared to low-quality arguments.
... Within this line of inquiry, a growing body of research in health communication focuses on users' online comments (Laestadius & Caldwell, 2015;Lee & McElroy, 2019). Among such studies, some focus on investigating the effects of online commenters on one another (Anderson, Brossard, Scheufele, Xenos, & Ladwig, 2014;Lee & Jang, 2010;Shi, Messaris, & Cappella, 2014;Walter, DeAndrea, Kim, & Anthony, 2010), while others explore similarities and differences in readers' frames and media frames in online news comments (Coleman, Thorson, & Wilkins, 2011;Holton, Lee, & Coleman, 2014). Still others investigate the notion of positive participatory journalism between online commenters and health journalists through online interaction (Lee & McElroy, 2019). ...
This systematic literature review was conducted to provide insights into how online readers' comments have been studied in the context of health over a 10-year span. About 593 studies published between 2010 and 2020; of these, 34 met the research criteria for inclusion. Our findings reveal that 60% of the studies focused on the United States, and a qualitative method was used in 74.3% of these studies. About 23.5% of the studies explored vaccine-related issues. Our results reveal that among the selected studies, 76.5% and 20.6% had female and male first authors, respectively. Textual analysis of abstracts shows that the top five keywords were news, HPV, vaccine, themes, and vaccination. However, 58.8% of the identified studies did not use any theoretical framework. In addition, nine health topics emerged: vaccines; health policies; nutritional and dietary choices; women's health issues; quality of life and well-being; smoking; engagement with health-related news content; COVID-19; and suicide and mental health.
... It can be generated from any entity and accumulate value through interactions with various users (eg. Comments and feedbacks) (Walther et al., 2010). , 2005). ...
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Few studies addressed social media influencers as human brands. Most scholar that studied influencers examined the relationship between followers and influencers in terms of the impact of brand endorsements, and purchase intention. But none of these studies, examined the loyalty towards the influencers themselves as their primary aim.
The aim of the following study is to address specific human brand attributes of influencers and the impact of these attributes on brand trust, brand emotional attachment, and brand loyalty.
METHODS
A mono quantitative approach was used through a self-administered online survey for a total of 510 respondents, where 70% (n = 357) of them follow influencers, aged (mean = 24) and from four different countries (Lebanon (n = 129), Syria (n = 65), Jordan (n = 41), and Hungary (n= 122). The measured attributes were (entertainment, popularity, homophily and expertise), and brand trust, emotional attachment, and finally loyalty towards the influencers. A 5-levels Likert scales was employed to measure these attributes. Additionally, factor analysis was used to confirm the reliability and validity of used items. In addition, Pearson correlation and simple linear regression aimed to discover, and describe the relationship among the variables. Also, Chi-square, and contingency tables were used to highlight some interdependence between the groups as well as ANOVA tests were used to pinpoint differences in answers among different group users (followers).
FINDINGS
The main findings found that the entertainment, popularity, and expertise were positively correlated with the influencer trust. Also, the homophily with the influencer and the entertainment attribute are correlated with the attachment with the influencer. Besides that, trust and attachment are positively correlated with the loyalty towards the influencer. The multiple linear regression found that trust and attachment contribute positively to loyalty. Also, expertise, and entertainment were the main positive contributors towards the trust of the influencer. And homophily was the main contributor towards the attachment with the influencer.
ii
Also, ANOVA tests suggest significant differences among the four nationalities (Lebanese, Syrian, Jordanian, Hungarian. In addition, the chi-square tests suggest a relationship between nationality and some used social media platforms.
KEYWORDS
Influencer, social media, human brand, attachment, trust, loyalty, homophily, expertise, entertainment, popularity.
... Individuals only try to fit into their surrounding social environment rather than with people in general. Therefore, they use comment positions to guide message processing only when they identify with commenters (Walther et al., 2010). Li and Sundar's (2021) study chose a university PSA for college students; the respondents felt that the audiences of the PSA were their peers and therefore perceived social pressure. ...
Campaigns for mask-wearing have become widespread on digital platforms during the COVID-19 outbreak and have garnered varied responses in the form of comments. The present study conducts a 2 (comment position: pro-mask wearing vs. anti-mask wearing) × 2 (comment tone: civil vs. uncivil) between-subjects experiment to investigate whether and how the position and tone of comments accompanying a health campaign on social media affect people’s psychological reactance toward the campaign. The results show that although anti-mask wearing comments following a social media mask-promoting post provoke individuals’ perception about others’ disapproval of the post, the perception did not trigger the individuals’ psychological reactance to the post. Nevertheless, uncivil comments elicit anger, which arouses reactance and cause persuasion failure.
... 2). As a social media site, YouTube's comment section enables interactivity among peer users with high degrees of anonymity (Walther et al., 2010). Web activity through user comments enhances perceptions of interactivity and credibility (Khan, 2017) and results in the co-creation of value between users (Brodie et al., 2013). ...
Think tanks organize at the nexus of business, government, and academia to influence public policy. These organizations take three distinct working forms that utilize different research and communication styles to target different audiences as routes to influence. Traditionally they targeted elite actors such as legislators and executive branch agencies with lengthy scholarly treatises. But with the advent of social media, they can readily extend their reach directly to the voting public. In this chapter, we compare data on the research output and social media footprint of the prototypical organizations that inspired mimesis for each form - the Brookings Institution (a “university without students”), the RAND Corporation (a “contract organization”), and the Heritage Foundation (an “advocacy organization”). We examine their distributions of research output as well as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter activity. Heritage attracts large numbers of followers for postings across platforms. RAND lagged in timing and frequency of platform use. All three increasingly utilize these media with rapidly expanding reach. Content analysis of tweets using the Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC) reveals different routes to persuasion. The results are consistent with our hypothesis that the newer forms of advocacy organization rely more on peripheral routes to influence while the two traditional forms stress central routes to persuasion grounded in a logical argument. Systematic differences in social media use indicate the need for additional research directed at fully understanding the impact of emotion- driven communications in facilitating the rapid formation of highly energized social movements (e.g. COVID-19 anti-shutdown protests and Black Lives Matter).
... On Facebook, research has found that comments posted on news teasers that oppose an individual's opinion on a topic led news audiences to perceive identical news content as biased and showcasing opinions that opposed their own perspective on the issue . Studies found comments accompanying news stories can influence how audiences evaluate content on different platforms, including YouTube videos (Walther et al., 2010) and news on Twitter (Lee et al., 2018) and Facebook (Winter et al., 2016). In fact, Winter et al. (2016) compared the effect of comments against other social media features (e.g., number of likes) and found comments to be more powerful. ...
News organizations increasingly use Facebook to expand their reach and foster audience engagement. However, this free platform exposes news audiences to user comments before accessing and reading news articles. This exposure shapes the visible opinion climate and has the potential to influence readers. Through the application of the hostile media bias hypothesis, the influence of Facebook comments on COVID-19 related news articles and a knowledge-based assessment on perceptions of news bias and credibility are tested using a nationwide sample of Facebook users ( N = 450). Findings show that user comments enhance negative perceptions of bias and diminish perceptions of favorability. The ability for knowledge-based assessments to alleviate this negative influence may induce reactance and needs further investigation.
This research paper examines consumer attitudes towards femvertising within the context of Nike's campaigns in Russia and Turkey. Through a netnographic analysis of YouTube comments, the research reveals how gender, cultural and political context influence responses to women’s empowerment messages in advertising. While women in both countries largely responded positively to femvertising, perceiving it as empowering and motivational, men’s reactions were more polarized. Russian men displayed substantial resistance, with many viewing the advertisement’s feminist undertones negatively and interpreting it as an imposition of Western feminist ideas that undermine traditional values. This opposition aligns with Russian political discourse, which in recent years has shifted towards the preservation and reinforcement of traditional spiritual and moral values. In contrast, Turkish men were relatively more receptive to femvertising messages, though they still expressed some caution. Turkey’s more varied discourse on gender, which balances secular ideas and traditional Islamic values, contributed to a less polarized reaction to femvertising. The study underscores the importance of authenticity in femvertising, noting the potential for backlash and skepticism towards commercialized feminism, particularly among male audiences. It also highlights the importance of diversity, recommending the inclusion of men, alongside women of varied religions, body types, and appearances, to foster inclusivity and prevent discrimination. These findings enrich the literature on gender-focused advertising, emphasizing the importance of cultural sensitivity and adherence to authentic femvertising principles when employing femvertising strategies across diverse cultural landscapes.
Pursuing health equity necessitates recognizing health disparities that disproportionately impact disadvantaged groups and eliminating their barriers to essential health resources. Interactive digital technologies-specifically, popular social media platforms such as blogs and social networks-can be leveraged to engage underserved minority populations in collective social action aimed at addressing key determinants of health disparities and promoting equitable health outcomes. The present research focuses on the plight of African Americans-a minority group facing significant health disparities. Particularly in the domain of bone marrow donation, African Americans remain the group least likely to find a matching donor. Guided by the social comparison framing literature, we conducted an online experiment to investigate how group comparison information (GCI) emphasizing group-based disparities and supportive user comments on social media platforms influence African Americans' intentions to join a bone marrow registry. In doing so, we considered hope as a mediator and group identification as a moderator. Results based on a conditional process analysis showed that GCI led to greater bone marrow donor intentions in the presence of supportive comments through elicitation of hope, particularly among those low in group identification. The current findings demonstrate that it is important to consider the role of supportive message environments and group identification when addressing health disparities with GCI. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Drawing upon the social identity model of deindividuation effects, this study investigated the effects of intergroup relations and discursive quality on individuals’ responses to comments that challenge their existing beliefs on news websites. A two-session online experiment with a 2 (group membership: in-group vs. out-group) × 2 (comment tone: civil vs. uncivil) between-subjects factorial design was conducted. The results showed that exposure to counter-attitudinal comments from in-group members, compared to out-group members, led to greater opinion conformity and less expression of disagreement. Additionally, there was a significant interaction between group membership and comment tone on disagreement expression. When counter-attitudinal comments were uncivil, individuals exposed to in-group comments expressed less dissent in their replies than those exposed to out-group comments. This tendency, however, was not significant when the counter-attitudinal comments were expressed in a civil tone.
This study examined how message themes, frames, and sources in vaping cessation videos on TikTok influenced positive (i.e. likes, shares, positive comments regarding quitting vaping) and negative video engagement (i.e. negative comments regarding quitting vaping). TikTok videos (N = 412) with the hashtags #quitvaping and #quittingvaping were analyzed. Aspect-based sentiment analysis was conducted to evaluate the sentiment of quitting vaping in comments. Negative binomial regression models predicted video engagement from six message themes, ratios of gain and loss frames, and message sources. Themes related to nicotine addiction and physical health effectively drove positive engagement, such as likes and shares. The theme of harmful chemicals elicited mixed responses, generating both positive and negative comments regarding quitting vaping. Videos with a higher ratio of gain frames led to more positive engagement, including likes, shares, and positive comments regarding quitting vaping. Sources with informal expertise (e.g. those who have successfully quit vaping) and current e-cigarette users were more effective in engaging the TikTok audience than non-expert and non-user sources. These findings provide insights into messaging strategies that can effectively engage TikTok audiences and encourage vaping cessation.
Self-image refers to how we perceive our own physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual characteristics. The way we perceive ourselves depends on the degree of self-esteem (self-appreciation, self-respect, self-acceptance) that we have. The purpose of the chapter is to analyze the concept of self-image, through the two facets, self-appreciation, and self-criticism, starting from the values of youth promoted in the online environment. At the same time, the necessary steps to build a personal communication strategy are identified, through which is promoted the self-image of youth in the online environment, to obtain a job. Personal branding in the online environment, focused on authenticity and good reputation, has an impact on career, job, personal and family relationships, all under the careful evaluation of public opinion. In the end, Public Relations techniques, and practices specific to the online environment are described, by which people can avoid image blunders and emotional trauma.
Various scholars have verified that viewing beauty-related content on social media encourages valuing these idealized and unrealistic body shapes. A person's ideas, feelings, and perceptions regarding their body are referred to as their body image. A verified scale was used to assess individuals' appearance-related social media awareness. The study collected data from 229 respondents in China, aged 15 to 60, intending to examine whether individuals' preferences for receiving feedback from strangers or close peers would influence their body image concerns. The results show that people who prioritize comments from unknown people about their photos tend to be less satisfied than those who prioritize comments from people close to them. In addition, the study finds that men have a more neutral attitude towards related content, while women have a more positive attitude. In addition, the study highlights that the proportion of men and women who do not engage in photo editing habits is almost equal, suggesting that when examining the influence of social media on body image, further examination of the mental differences between the sexes is required.
This chapter provides insights into the context of technologically mediated interactions by conducting an in-depth review and critique of technologically mediated theories. It also outlines the relevant technological features and discusses the affordances and constraints associated with each of the three media examined in this study: telephone, email, and Facebook. Within this context, the chapter explores service encounters as a specific type of activity in which the medium utilized plays a significant role. Users not only adapt to the affordances of the medium but also exploit them to their advantage.
This edited volume examines the ways in which rapidly changing technologies and patterns of media use influence, and are influenced by, our emotional experiences. Following introductory chapters outlining common conceptual frameworks used in the study of emotion and digital media effects, this book is then organized around four general areas highlighting the intersection of technology use and emotional experience: how people experience, and researchers measure, emotions in response to digital media use; potential emotional harms and enrichments resulting from online behaviors; the socio-emotional dynamics of online interaction; and emotion’s role in engagement with online information. Chapters span a wide range of topics, including psychophysiological and neuroscientific responses to new media, virtual reality, social media and well-being, technology addiction, cyberbullying, online hate and empathy, online romantic relationships, self-presentation online, information seeking, message sharing, social support, polarization, misinformation, and more. Through a social scientific lens, contributing authors provide nuanced, interdisciplinary perspectives on contemporary social phenomena, offering cogent reviews and critiques of the literatures and avenues for future research. In essence, this volume highlights the centrality of emotions in understanding how ever-present media technologies influence our lived experiences.
Advertisements promoting and discouraging electronic nicotine products (ENPs) are widespread on social media. User interaction is a hallmark feature of social media sites. This study examined how user-comment valence (i.e. positive versus negative comments) influences attitudes toward counter-marketing ads, and determinants of ENP abstinence according to the theory of planned behavior (TPB). College students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions, a positive comment condition (n = 121), in which they were shown a YouTube comment section with eight positive comments and two negative comments; a negative comment condition (n = 126), in which they were shown a YouTube comment section with eight negative and two positive comments; and a control condition (n = 128). Then, all groups were shown a YouTube video advocating for ENP abstinence and completed measures about their attitudes toward the ad (Aad), attitudes toward ENP abstinence, injunctive and descriptive norms about ENP abstinence, perceived behavioral control (PBC) toward ENP abstinence, and intention to abstain from ENPs. Results indicated that exposure to negative comments yielded significantly less favorable Aad when compared to the positive condition, but no difference in Aad was observed between the negative and control conditions, or between the positive and control conditions. Further, there were no differences for any determinants of ENP abstinence. Additionally, Aad mediated the effects of negative comments on attitudes toward ENP abstinence, injunctive norms and descriptive norms about ENP abstinence, and behavioral intention. Findings indicate that negative user comments depress attitudes toward counter-persuasion ads targeting ENP use.
We proposed a dual typology of audiences for social media communication campaigns: the participating audience, who interacts with campaign planners, and the observing audience, who observes those interactions. Situated in a context of promoting seeking counseling for depression, our online experiment (N = 570) demonstrated that the similarity of the observing and participating audiences (high vs. low), the message features of campaign planners’ replies (high person-centeredness vs. low person-centeredness vs. no reply), and the observing audience’s predispositions (with vs. without depressive symptoms) jointly affected the observing audience’s attitude toward seeking counseling. For observers with depressive symptoms, seeing a campaigner addressing a negative comment that reflects a similar concern of their own mitigated the adverse impact of the comment on the observers’ attitude. Our findings introduce a theoretical lens for understanding a communication process unique to campaigns on social media and offer insights into how the process shapes campaigns’ intended responses.
İktidar ve medya ilişkisi her zaman incelenmesi gereken bir konu olmuştur. Özellikle kamu yararı amacıyla gerçekleştirildiği ifade edilen kamu spotları ve iktidarla yakından ilişkili kamu kuruluşlarının reklamları bu anlamda özel bir araştırma gerektirmektedir. Kamu spotu ve kamu kuruluşu reklamlarında iletişimin amacının daha net belirtilmesi, iletişiminin tarafsız olması beklenmektedir. Bu sayede kamu spotu ve kamu kuruluşu reklamları propaganda amacıyla kullanılma şüphesi uyandırmayacaktır. Çalışmada kamu spotu ve kamu kuruluşu reklamlarının iktidarlar tarafından kendi politikalarını yayma amacıyla kullanılması durumu ‘kur korumalı vadeli mevduat ve katılım hesabı’ uygulanması üzerinden incelenmektedir. Araştırma, temel olarak iktidarların politikalarını yaymak amacıyla kamu spotlarını ve kamuya ait kuruluşların reklamlarının kullanıldığı varsayımından hareket etmektedir. Bu kapsamda araştırmanın deseni durum çalışması olarak belirlenmiştir. Araştırmanın örneklemi maksimum çeşitlilik örneklemesi yöntemi ile seçilmiştir. Bahsi geçen ‘kur korumalı vadeli mevduat ve katılım hesabı’ uygulamasının başlatılmasıyla birlikte yayınlanan kamu spotu, kamu bankası reklamı ve özel banka reklamı ele alınmış ve eleştirel söylem analizi çerçevesinde analiz edilmiştir. Çalışma neticesinde, kamu spotunun ve kamu bankası reklamlarının iktidar söylemlerinin ve uygulamalarının yayılmasında aracı olarak kullanıldığı ortaya çıkmıştır.
We conducted two experimental studies to examine how malicious and benign envy and the number of likes as a social proof determine the intention to click “like” on luxury advertisements on social media. As expected, benign enviers reacted positively to an ad with high like totals. In contrast, malicious enviers reacted positively to an ad with low like totals. Testing the effects of culture on this relationship revealed individualistic versus collectivist cultural differences. US consumers tend to have higher intentions to click “like” when malicious envy is paired with low numbers of likes. Comparatively, Korean consumers show higher click intentions when benign envy is paired with high numbers of likes. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.
Recently, scholars have started to investigate how the valence of user comments presented alongside online videos influences viewers’ experiences of and responses to those videos. The present experiment adds to this literature by investigating the role of user comments that accompany an online political satire video in particular. Moreover, it advances our knowledge of the effect of comments by investigating firstly how user comments shape viewers’ experiences of political satire and, secondly, how these experiences subsequently influence viewers’ behavioral intentions. The results show that the valence of comments influences viewers’ behavioral intentions and that this effect is mediated by viewers’ subjective knowledge gain and their eudaimonic entertainment experiences in response to the political satire video. Although the valence of comments also affects political satire viewers’ hedonic entertainment experiences, these specific entertainment experiences do not impact viewers’ behavioral intentions. These results show that comments do not only shape viewers’ experiences as they are watching political satire online, but they also have consequences for what viewers intent to do offline. © 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This article asks whether, and when, participants benefit from seeing each other's faces in computer-mediated communication. Although new technologies make it relatively easy to exchange images over the Internet, our formal understanding of their impacts is not clear. Some theories suggest that the more one can see of one's partners, the better one will like them. Others suggest that long-term virtual team members may like each other better than would those who use face-to-face interaction. The dynamic underlying this latter effect may also pertain to the presentation of realistic images compared with idealized virtual perceptions. A field experiment evaluated the timing of physical image presentations for members of short-term and long-term virtual, international groups. Results indicate that in new, unacquainted teams, seeing one's partner promotes affection and social attraction, but in long-term online groups, the same type of photograph dampens affinity.
An experiment was designed to examine the role of emotion in persuasion. In this study, 140 undergraduates viewed eight public service announcements (PSAs) and then reported on their cognitive, emotional, and attitudinal responses to each. Some participants were instructed to attend to their feelings and use them in evaluating the PSAs (heuristic-enabled condition), whereas others were told to dampen their feelings and not let their emotions influence their judgments of the PSAs (heuristic-disabled condition). After controlling for cognition, the data showed a unique and separate effect for each emotion on perceived message effectiveness. However, the manipulations produced no observable effect on the magnitude of association between emotion and perceived effectiveness. Effects of both emotion and cognition on attitude toward the issue were mediated by perceived message effectiveness. A second study showed that perceived effectiveness and liking for the message are distinct judgments. Effectiveness is the preferred measure for studying PSAs.
Two studies examined hypotheses derived from a Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) as applied to social influence in computer-mediated communication (CMC) in groups. This model predicts that anonymity can increase social influence if a common group identity is salient. In a first study, group members were primed with a certain type of social behavior (efficiency vs. prosocial norms). Consistent with the model, anonymous groups displayed prime-consistent behavior in their task solutions, whereas identifiable groups did not. This sug- gests that the primed norm took root in anonymous groups to a greater extent than in identifiable groups. A second study repli- cated this effect and showed that nonprimed group members con- formed to the behavior of primed members, but only when anony- mous, suggesting that the primed norm was socially transmitted within the group. Implications for social influence in small groups are discussed. This article is concerned with processes of social influ- ence in groups communicating by means of computers. A common feature of communication via e-mail and the Internet is the relative anonymity of contact with others, especially in initial interactions. In two studies, we inves- tigate the effect of visual anonymity on social influence in computer-mediated communication (CMC). In the process, we address basic issues of general concern to social psychology and examine the effects of this increas- ingly popular communication medium. Deriving predic- tions from the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) (Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995), we try to show in the first study that anonymity can enhance the influence of a primed norm. The second study in- vestigates evidence for the transmission of this norm in the interaction between group members who are
The warranting principle pertains to impression formation in Internet communication. It posits that perceivers' judgments about a target rely more heavily on information which the targets themselves cannot manipulate than on self-descriptions. Two experiments employed mock-up profiles resembling the Internet site, Facebook, to display self-generated clues and to display other-generated clues about a Facebook user. The first experiment (N = 115) tested perceptions of extraversion. Although warranting was supported, rival explanations (negativity and additivity) also pertained. The second experiment (N = 125) tested perceptions of physical attractiveness. Friends' comments overrode self-comments, supporting warranting theory exclusively. Implications concern boundary-setting research for warranting, and potential effects of social comments on a variety of new information forms.
This research investigates the influence of an individual's general liking for a public service announcement (PSA) on his or her attitude toward the advocated issue. Drawing up the attitude toward the ad theory, this research argues that one's liking for a PSA or, in other words, one's attitude toward a PSA (APSA), exerts a significant positive impact on issue attitude and that the strength of this positive effect varies as a function of a variety of individual and situational factors. Through two studies involving a total of 230 participants, the effect of attitude toward a PSA on issue attitude is shown to be strong and positive. As expected, the effect tends to be stronger when a message recipient's perceived issue relevance is low versus high, when his or her issue knowledge is low versus high, and when the tone of the message is positive versus negative. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
A sample of 120 participants (half high sensation seekers [HSSs] and half low sensation seekers [LSSs]) were randomly placed in one of four experimental viewing conditions: (a) high sensation value (HSV) televised anticocaine Public Service Announcements (PSAs) embedded in HSV television program context, (b) HSV PSAs embedded in low sensation value (LSV) context, (c) LSV PSAs embed- ded in HSV context, and (d) LSV PSAs embedded in LSV context. After partici- pants observed the PSAs embedded in the context, they completed items dealing with freelcued recall, attitude toward cocaine, behavioral intention to use cocaine, and perceived effectiveness of the PSAs. A message sensation value (MSV) scale, developed in prototype form for this study, was used to establish categories of HSV and LSV PSAs. Sensation seeking and MSV interacted to affect recall, attitude, behavioral intentions, and perceived recall. HSSs tended to recall more, have more negative attitudes toward cocaine, cite less likelihood to use cocaine, and perceive messages as more effective after viewing HSV PSAs. LSSs tended to recall more, have more negative attitudes toward cocaine, cite less likelihood to use cocaine, and perceive messages as more effective after viewing LSV PSAs.
The purpose of this study was to experimentally test the influence of computer-mediated word-of-mouth communication (WOM) on student perceptions of instructors (attractiveness and credibility) and on student attitudes toward learning course content (affective learning and state motivation). It was hypothesized that students who receive positive computer-mediated WOM about an instructor would perceive the instructor as more credible and attractive than students who receive no information or negative information. It was further hypothesized that students who receive positive computer-mediated WOM about an instructor would report greater levels of affective learning and state motivation to learn than students who receive no information or negative information. All hypotheses were supported. Results are discussed in light of the heuristic-systematic processing model, and the implications for instructional communication are addressed.
The principal objective of this paper is to present the results of an experimental study designed to investigate the influence of message design strategies on cognitive processing and changes in attitudes, behavioral intentions, and behavior in relation to marijuana use. Hypotheses and research questions were generated based on an integrated theoretical model of message processing and outcome. Formative research was conducted to investigate the construct of message cognition value and to evaluate anti-marijuana messages designed to vary on sensation and cognition value. In the experiment, 338 18- to 20-year-old college students viewed four anti-marijuana public service announcements four times each over a 4 week period in a laboratory setting. They completed measures of sensation seeking (NFS), need for cognition (NFC), cognitive processing, attitudes toward marijuana use, behavioral intentions to use marijuana, and self-reported marijuana use. Results provide partial support for a main effect of message sensation value (MSV) on changes in attitude, behavioral intention, and behavior, and limited support for an interaction effect of MSV with NFS on change in attitude. Additionally, a significant main effect for message cognition value (MCV) indicates that high cognition value messages led to greater thought listing, free recall, and cued recall than low cognition value messages, but there was no support for an interaction effect of MCV with NFC on cognitive processing. MCV did not have a main effect on attitude, behavioral intention, or behavior, nor was support found for a moderating effect of NFC on attitude, behavioral intention, or behavior. Interaction effects involving NFC/MCV and NFS/MSV were not found. Implications of results for future research and theory development are discussed.
The present study uses a public commitment framework to examine how computer-mediated self-presentations can alter identities. Participants were asked to present with one of two traits, extroversion or introversion, in public or private computer-mediated communication. Public presentations were online, whereas private presentations took place in a text document. Only participants that presented themselves publicly internalized the trait presentation, suggesting that identity shift took place. Public self-presentations also contained more certain and definite forms of language than private self-presentations, suggesting that audiences evoke a more committed form of self-presentation. The findings in this research have important implications for the self-construction of identity online, particularly for individuals that use the Internet as a tool for public self-presentation, such as dating sites, social network sites, or blogs. Also, the findings highlight opportunities for theoretical development on identity construction as a function of computer-mediated communication.
This chapter challenges traditional models of deindividuation. These are based on the assumption that such factors as immersion in a group and anonymity lead to a loss of selfhood and hence of control over behaviour. We argue that such models depend upon an individualistic conception of the self, viewed as a unitary construct referring to that which makes individuals unique. This is rejected in favour of the idea that self can be defined at various different levels including the categorical self as well as the personal self. Hence a social identity model of deindividuation (SIDE) is outlined. Evidence is presented to show that deindividuation manipulations gain effect, firstly, through the ways in which they affect the salience of social identity (and hence conformity to categorical norms) and, secondly, through their effects upon strategic considerations relating to the expression of social identities. We conclude that the classic deindividuation paradigm of anonymity within a social group, far from leading to uncontrolled behaviour, maximizes the opportunity of group members to give full voice to their collective identities.
This article asks whether, and when, participants benefit from seeing each other's faces in computer-mediated communication. Although new technologies make it relatively easy to exchange images over the Internet, our formal understanding of their impacts is not clear. Some theories suggest that the more one can see of one's partners, the better one will like them. Others suggest that long-term virtual team members may like each other better than would those who use face-to-face interaction. The dynamic underlying this latter effect may also pertain to the presentation of realistic images compared with idealized virtual perceptions. A field experiment evaluated the timing of physical image presentations for members of short-term and long-term virtual, international groups. Results indicate that in new, unacquainted teams, seeing one's partner promotes affection and social attraction, but in long-term online groups, the same type of photograph dampens affinity.
Asch proposed that contextual information changes how people interpret objects under evaluation. This paper extended his insight by merging range–frequency theory and the linear discrepancy model into a two-step model of social influence. In the first step, people interpret a message's advocated position differently with knowledge of how other people interpreted the message than without this knowledge. In the second step, peoples’ interpretations influence how their attitudes change toward the message's recommendations. A two-step model was proposed: (a) knowing what bias other people thought a newspaper article presents affected how participants perceive the extremity of this article's advocated position, and (b) participants’ interpretations influenced how they changed their attitudes toward the article's topic. The results from this first experiment were consistent with the two-step model. A second experiment shows that the degree of ambiguity in a message can increase or inhibit this effect. Together, these studies provide insight into how public opinions may serve as contextual influences on people's perceptions of the issues at hand and their responses to them.
Extended a previous exploration of impression formation conducted by the 1st author (1946) by having male and female college students read brief descriptions of a person, in the form of 2 disposition terms. Some of the paired attributes were chosen to be congruent; other pairs were discordant or apparently antagonistic. The task was to describe the person briefly and to indicate how the 2 attributes might be related. The discrepancies were nearly always readily resolved. Several principal modes of resolution of perceived discrepancies and several rules of domination (or subordination) of 1 disposition to another emerged from the findings, thus clarifying some ways in which the unity of an impression is achieved. Findings are at variance with assumptions of many accounts of impression formation that stress simple forms of homogeneity. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
explore the social psychological dimensions of computer-mediated communication (CMC) / interested here in the social psychological factors operating once 'inside' CMC and particularly the role played by social influence processes in relation to outcomes produced in this medium / our main aim, then, is to examine the social psychological processes underlying the products of group communication and decision-making using electronic mail and computer conferencing, as compared to face-to-face communication
models of communication and social influence within CMC: the 'social cues' perspective / an alternative approach: the SIDE [social identity/de-individuation] model (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study investigates the influence of interpersonal communication and intergroup identification on members' evaluations of computer-mediated groups. Participants (N = 256) in 64 four-person groups interacted through synchronous computer chat. Subgroup assignments to minimal groups instilled significantly greater in-group versus out-group identification. One member in each group was instructed to exhibit interpersonally likable or dislikable behavior. Analysis revealed that confederates acting likably were more attractive than those acting dislikably regardless of their in-group or out-group status. Further results indicated that interpersonal behavior interacted with subgroup membership on identification shifts following online discussions. Interpersonal dynamics generally provided stronger effects on members in virtual groups than did intergroup dynamics, in contrast to predictions from previous applications of social identification to computer-mediated communication.
This paper reports the development of a measure of perceived homophily. In both an initial investigation and in four subsequent studies employing samples from diverse populations, four dimensions of response were observed. These dimensions were labeled Attitude, Morality, Appearance, and Background. Additional results indicated that opinion leaders are perceived as more homophilous than non-opinion leaders on the dimensions of Attitude, Morality, and Background. The scales found to measure these dimensions are suggested for consideration by researchers concerned with homophily or interpersonal similarity in human communication.
This research explores how cues deposited by social partners onto one’s online networking profile affect observers’ impressions of the profile owner. An experiment tested the relationships between both (a) what one’s associates say about a person on a social network site via “wall postings,” where friends leave public messages, and (b) the physical attractiveness of one’s associates reflected in the photos that accompany their wall postings on the attractiveness and credibility observers attribute to the target profile owner. Results indicated that profile owners’ friends’ attractiveness affected their own in an assimilative pattern. Favorable or unfavorable statements about the targets interacted with target gender: Negatively valenced messages about certain moral behaviors increased male profile owners’ perceived physical attractiveness, although they caused females to be viewed as less attractive.
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Computer-mediated communication has become integral to our social lives. This chapter reviews four major theories of interpersonal, online communication: social presence theory, social information processing theory, the hyperpersonal model, and the social identity model of deindividuation effects. It identifies the original propositions and the evidence for each model, and then examines the status and application of each model in terms of contemporary social media and online settings. The chapter compares the models’ differences with regard to their central assumptions about how users respond to the relative lack of nonverbal cues as they communicate online.
Many decisions are based on beliefs concerning the likelihood of uncertain events such as the outcome of an election, the guilt of a defendant, or the future value of the dollar. Occasionally, beliefs concerning uncertain events are expressed in numerical form as odds or subjective probabilities. In general, the heuristics are quite useful, but sometimes they lead to severe and systematic errors. The subjective assessment of probability resembles the subjective assessment of physical quantities such as distance or size. These judgments are all based on data of limited validity, which are processed according to heuristic rules. However, the reliance on this rule leads to systematic errors in the estimation of distance. This chapter describes three heuristics that are employed in making judgments under uncertainty. The first is representativeness, which is usually employed when people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event belongs to a class or event. The second is the availability of instances or scenarios, which is often employed when people are asked to assess the frequency of a class or the plausibility of a particular development, and the third is adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numerical prediction when a relevant value is available.
The goal of this article is to provide specific guidelines to help create effective proenvironmental public service announcements (PSAs). Campaign designers are encouraged to initially identify and investigate the optimal target audience and then draft and test reactions by samples of that audience using pilot messages. Designers are also advised to consider research on attitude persistence, memory, and social norms and apply this research to the message content and presentation style. The article concludes with an application of research from social psychology to a series of overall guidelines for effective PSAs. If environmental campaign developers follow these specifications, the chance of PSA success should be enhanced.
Noelle-Neumann's work on the spiral of silence (1974, 1977, 1984) has been one of the most significant theoretical developments in public opinion research of the past quarter-century. The theory is well known among public opinion researchers, and a number of research efforts have been directed toward examining specific parts of the theory. However, the theory is difficult to test, incorporating psychological, social-psychological and sociological variables, including psychological variables and sweeping changes in the social climate of opinion (cf. Noelle-Neumann 1984).
This study investigated the role of opinion thresholds, social groups and weighing of others' opinions in opinion expression. Using Krassa's (1988) computer simulation and modifications of Noelle-Neumann's (1974) spiral of silence as a base, we test several theoretical modifications to the spiral of silence model using data gathered from people living in or near six national parks in Canada. Primary interest is on the ability of opinion thresholds, social group and weighing of others' opinions to predict the expression of opinion for particular issues.
Using a secondary data analysis on adolescents’ evaluations of 60 antimarijuana public service announcements, this study examined the role of message sensation value (MSV) as an attention distractor. The results supported the prediction based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model that MSV might be a distractor of attention to reduce ad persuasiveness when the argument quality was high and to facilitate ad persuasiveness when the argument quality was low. Furthermore, this interaction was evident only for adolescents with greater risk for marijuana use, suggesting that high MSV messages were especially distracting for the high risk adolescents. Specific MSV subcomponents contributing to this interaction were explored. Possible explanations for the interaction effect as well as implications for antidrug ad design were discussed.
The experiment reported herein examined how depersonalization, operationalized as the lack of individuating information, affects conformity to a group norm in anonymous computer-mediated communication. Participants made a decision about choice dilemmas and exchanged their decisions and supporting arguments with three ostensible partners via computer, who unanimously endorsed the position opposite of the participant’s. As predicted, depersonalization led to a more extreme perception of the group norm, better recall of the interactants’ arguments, and more positive evaluations of the interactants’ arguments through group identification, albeit only for women. Moreover, depersonalization was more likely to facilitate conformity to group norms among those with higher need for public individuation and among women. A test of indirect effects showed that group identification and extremity of the perceived group norm mediated the effects of depersonalization on conformity.
This experiment investigated the effects of arbitrary visual representation on team identification and informational influence in anonymous computer-mediated communication (CMC). In a 2 (participant's gender: male vs. female) × 2 (partner's character: male vs. female) between-subjects experiment (N = 193), participants played a trivia game with an ostensible partner via computer. Results showed that the participants exhibited stronger team affiliation with the partner when their character and the partner's represented the same gender, even though their own character mismatched their physical sex. Furthermore, team identification enhanced perceived competence of the partner and increased the private acceptance of the partner's opinions. Implications for the Social Identity Model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE) and the referent informational influence theory are discussed.
Drawing on the social identity and deindividuation (SIDE) model, and adding insights from research on multiple targets of identification and physical/discursive anonymity, this research examined the relationship between identity and anonymity in the use of computer-based group decision support systems (GDSSs). Results suggested that identification with all targets was lower in GDSS meetings than it was in general. Additionally, discursively anonymous participants had less identification with their group (especially when also hidden), contributed more total comments, used more expressions with no identifications or disidentifications, and used fewer expressions of multiple identifications than did discursively identified participants. Visually hidden participants also expressed fewer comments indicating identification with their group. Overall, this research extends SIDE (as it relates to anonymity, group communication technologies, and identification with multiple targets) and offers several practical implications to users of GDSSs and similar communication technologies.
In light of past work regarding message processing, communication interventions intended to encourage attitude and behavior change may face their greatest obstacles in attempting to engage those for whom messages are actually most relevant. The present study assessed whether adolescents presented with anti‐drug public service announcements (PSAs) would differ in their evaluations of the PSAs as a function of message relevance, measured in this case by past drug experience, over and above the effects of their attitude toward drug use. Results of the study supported the main hypothesis, even after controlling for a host of possible confounding variables.
This paper outlines and tests a two‐stage activation model of information exposure. A fundamental postulate is that human beings have individual levels of need for activation or arousal. If activation falls below or exceeds this level, individuals will tend to experience a negative affective state and will turn away from a given source of information. If activation remains within some acceptable range, the affective state will be more pleasant and individuals will continue to expose themselves to the information. The findings offer support for two of three hypothesized interactions at the first stage of the model, which predicts affective state, and for a hypothesized main effect at the second stage, which predicts exposure.
The primary purpose of this study was to develop a perceived message cognition value (PMCV) scale and provide preliminary evidence concerning its reliability and validity. The manuscript presents PMCV as a theoretical construct consisting of three distinct dimensions: cognitive challenge, credibility, and clarity. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a significant three-factor solution, and SEM confirmed a significant second-order model that accounted for variations in the three dimensions. Composite scale and subscale reliabilities are presented, and composite scale/subscale stability across psychographic and message variables is demonstrated. The manuscript concludes with an argument that a reliable and valid PMCV scale can aid persuasion researchers in designing more effective health behavior change messages.
A moderation–elasticity theory to explain the choice shift is proposed and tested. The theory predicts that group members engage in moderation of initial decision choices in anticipation of future interaction. These moderate choices are strategic in nature, and thus are posited to disappear when anticipated interaction is eliminated. Moderation–elasticity is proposed as a form of predeliberation normative influence. A test of the theory finds support for both moderation and elasticity processes on choice dilemma item decisions.
The principal objective of this article is to offer an extended theoretical framework for further development of persuasive message design for media-based health campaigns. Drawing upon considerable convergent evidence that attention to and processing of persuasive messages is a function of both cognitive and biologically based processes, we consider implications for attention and processing from an extension of the activation model of information exposure through the addition of a cognitive variable associated with the elaboration likelihood model, need for cognition. The overall goal is to determine how target audiences are optimally influenced with persuasive health information that attracts and holds attention, triggers information processing, and eventually brings about behavior change.
This book presents a new theory of the social group which seeks to explain how individuals become unified into a group and capable of collective behaviour.
The book summarizes classic psychological theories of the group, describes and explains the important effects of group membership on social behaviour, outlines self-categorization theory in full and shows how the general perspective has been applied in research on group formation and cohesion, social influence, the polarization of social attitudes, crowd psychology and social stereotyping. The theory emerges as a fundamental new contribution to social psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The research reported here investigated sensation seeking as a moderating variable of 368 adolescents' reactions to antimarijuana public service announcements. Participants rated the perceived message sensation value of 3 antimarijuana TV ads, their processing of the consequences of marijuana use, their affective responses to the ads, and antimarijuana attitudes. Two structural equation models—1 for high sensation seekers and the other for low sensation seekers—revealed 2 very different styles of processing the ads. Specifically, antimarijuana attitudes for high sensation seekers were influenced directly and indirectly by sympathetic distress and directly by argument-based processing. In contrast, antimarijuana attitudes for low sensation seekers were influenced solely by argument-based processing.
The goal of this article is to provide specific guidelines to help create effective proenvironmental public service announcements (PSAs). Campaigndesigners are encouraged to initially identify and investigate the optimal target audience and then draft and test reactions by samples of that audience using pilot messages. Designers are also advised to consider research on attitude persistence, memory, and social norms and apply this research to the message content and presentation style. The article concludes with an application of research from social psychology to a series of overallguidelines for effective PSAs. If environmental campaign developers follow these specifications, the chance of PSA success should be enhanced.
Social consequences of communication technology are based on widespread assumptions regarding effects of restricted capacity of mediated communication. Consequences are examined mostly in studies comparing face-to-face communication with various forms of mediated communication, confounding the availability of cues with other characteristics of media. Present research examines effects of restricted capacity to convey social cues independent of other differences between media. Assumptions are that limited capacity to convey social cues has negative consequences for the reduction of ambiguity and positivity of impressions, and limited capacity has particular social consequences. The first part of this assumption is confirmed in 3 studies. However, consequences of this limitation to convey social cues are less straightforward. The effect of limited capacity on the selecting of collaboration partners depends on the social identity of the parties involved.
Based on accumulated knowledge concerning the effects of language intensity on attitude change, a set of propositions were advanced that provide a skeletal theoretical framework. Based on the propositions, three separate studies were done to extend the predictive power of the formulation. Predicted interactions between sex of the source, situational anxiety, source credibility, and language intensity were obtained. There were also significant person perception changes as a result of the level of language intensity employed in the persuasive message. Discussion centered on the import of the new findings in formulating a message-centered theory of persuasion.
This article examines nicknames of IRC users. On IRC, a person's physical existence and identity must be condensed textually into a single line which states his or her nickname, the electronic address, and a slogan or the person's real name. IRC users attempt to make these representational elements as prominent as possible, by choosing an original nick which will tempt other participants to strike up a conversation. In this paper I demonstrate that although people play many kinds of games with their nicknames, the nicks they choose are very important to them. They are an inherent part of their Net- identity, and even of their “real-life” identity. Two hundred sixty nicknames were collected from IRC logs, and were analyzed and classified. Only rarely did the IRCers in this study use their real names. The largest category was that of nicks related to the self in some way, referring to character traits, physical appearance, the physiological or psychological state of the self, or the person's profession or hobbies. The list of nicknames and the relative frequency of the different categories illustrate prominent features of electronic culture, a culture in which the individual is placed at the center. Participants in this culture have a high awareness of technology and technological change. They value linguistic virtuosity, yet they show contempt for the rules of the language. Although there is freedom to engage in constantly changing identity games through the manipulation of nicks, most people tend to keep to one nick for a long period of time.