Department of Communication (CIS), General

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Browsing Department of Communication (CIS), General by Subject "Behavioral psychology"

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    Experimental tests of terror management and psychological responses to TV news of immigrant criminals: implications for hostility, risk vulnerability, and issue judgment
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) Pan, Po-Lin; Zhou, Shuhua; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The purpose of this study was to explore social and psychological effects of mortality salience in TV news and social group difference between news viewers and news protagonists. Using terror management theory and social identity theory as theoretical frameworks, the study assumed that news viewers would be significantly influenced by mortality primes in TV news as well as the social group to which the criminals belonged in TV news. The assumptions in this study were investigated by two experiments: One designed to examine the social influences of TV news on news viewers' mortality thought, hostility toward the criminals, risk vulnerability and judgment of the immigration issue, and the other one devised to explore viewer's moment-to-moment responses, namely emotional responses, news evaluations, and crime perceptions. Experiment 1 demonstrated that mortality primes in TV news activated (1) viewers' mortality thoughts, (2) increasingly hostile attitudes toward the criminals, and (3) more negative judgments on the immigration issue. There is evidence that terror management theory can be used to clarify the social influences of mortality salience on viewers. Additionally, Experiment 1 found the social influences of social group difference on viewers' judgment of the immigration issue, but not on their hostility and risk vulnerability. That is, viewers may hold negative attitudes toward the immigration issue because out-group criminals in the coverage were shaped as a negative prime in viewers, which activated viewers' negative perspectives on the immigration issue. Experiment 2 indicated that (1) mortality primes in TV news significantly led viewers to more negative emotional responses, more newsworthy evaluations of news stories, and more severe perceptions of the criminal acts in the coverage, (2) the coverage of in-group criminals significantly activated viewers to more severe perceptions of the criminal acts than that of out-group criminals, (3) the interactions between mortality salience and social group difference significantly affected viewers' emotional responses, news evaluations, and crime perceptions, and (4) the interactions between self-esteem and mortality primes partially generated influences on viewers' emotional responses. Therefore, mortality effects in TV news were more powerful than social group difference effects. News viewers may purposely process some news information closely related to themselves, but not react to the stories based upon the social group of the protagonists in TV news.
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    How can an organization lessen people's anger, blame, and negative behaviors in a crisis?: building the anger management model based on organizational crisis response strategies and news frames
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2009) An, Seonkyoung; Bryant, Jennings; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The main purpose of this study is to examine how to reduce people's anger, blame, and negative behavioral intentions in a crisis. By focusing on levels of responsibility and a morality news frame, this study attempted to (1) examine the effects of the two factors on blame and anger, (2) identify the role of anger mediating blame and negative behavioral intentions, and (3) test the anger management model. The total of 230 college students participated in this experiment. The experimental design was a 2 (individual vs. organizational responsibility) x 2 (immorality vs. non-immorality frame) between-subject factorial design. Each of four groups was exposed to different types of news scenarios regarding a laptop battery recall crisis caused by human-error. The main effects of the two factors on blame and anger indicated that: (1) participants who read a the individual responsibility exhibited higher levels of blame and anger than did participants who read the organizational responsibility, and (2) participants who were exposed to an immorality frame exhibited higher levels of blame and anger than did participants who did not, (3) significant interaction effects between the two on blame were found when participants were exposed to the immorality frame; no matter what a strategy the company uses, participants showed higher levels of blame in both the individual and the organizational responsibility, (4) the more people blamed the company, the angrier people got toward the company, (5) if people were more likely to be mad at the company, they were less likely to purchase the company's products, and (6) more likely to tell other people about the company negatively. Mediation analyses found that anger mediated (7) blame and negative purchase intention, and (8) blame and negative word-of-mouth communication intention. (9) The anger management model was revised. This study gives practitioners practical implications regarding effective crisis response strategies, the importance of media frame, and anger management in a crisis. Despite limitations regarding generalizability, this study contributes knowledge in the field of crisis communication to (1) better understand the people's emotion in a crisis, and (2) develop specific ways of managing their anger.