Digital Commons Network^™

Tidying Up Attitudes, Queer Eye Style: Parasocial Contact With Asian Women And Gay Men, Shay Xuejing Yao, Morgan Ellithorpe, Liam Cuddy, Aysha Siddika, Hira Nadeem, Mackenzie Myer

Communication Faculty Publications

The Parasocial Contact Hypotheses (PCH) posits that mediated contact with social outgroups can result in more positive attitudes. The present study includes Asian women as a specific identity group that has yet to be studied in the context of PCH. It also includes gay men as a comparison group for the same processes. Participants (n=241) were exposed in a two-condition experiment to either Queer Eye (2018 version; gay men as target group) or Tidying Up with Marie Kondo (Asian women as target group). Only social attraction significantly mediated the relationship between exposure to Queer Eye and attitudes toward gay men. …

Feeling Inspired And Nostalgic: Associations Between Media Context-Induced Positive Emotions And Behavioral Change Among Vaccine-Hesitant Individuals In The Late Stages Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hue Trong Duong, Mor Yachin, Zachary Massey

Communication Faculty Publications

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 explores a way to leverage positive emotions induced from entertainment media consumption to promote vaccination messages to this audience group. 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. 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. Social marketers should consider …

Development And Validation Of The Female Gamer Stereotypes Scale (Fgss), Shay Xuejing Yao, Morgan Ellithorpe, David Ewoldsen, Franklin J. Boster

Communication Faculty Publications

Female gamers belong to a stereotyped social group. The stereotypes associated with female gamers may be associated with issues such as sexism and gender discrimination in the gaming community. However, few tools exist to properly assess the complex nature of the stereotypes held about this group. The present paper describes the development and validation of the Female Gamer Stereotypes Scale (FGSS), which offers a multifaceted measure of the stereotypical beliefs toward women who play video games. Five first-order FGSS factors have emerged and been consistent with data across three studies. The five dimensions target areas of stereotypes toward female gamers …

Engineering Emotion Sustainably: Affective Gendered Organizing Of Engineering Identities And Third Space, Patrice M. Buzzanell, Colleen Arendt, Rebecca L. Dohrman, Carla B. Zoltowski, Prashant Rajan

Communication Faculty Publications

The questions of why there are so few women in engineering and how to change engineering cultures to be more inclusive have garnered much social scientific research and considerable funding. Despite numerous findings and interventions, no studies to our knowledge have analyzed how difference is constituted discursively, materially, and affectively in ways that are deeply embedded in engineering occupational and societal cultures. This study takes an affective gendered organizing approach to analyze how affect is constituted through emotions/talk, interactions, and materialities. Using constructivist grounded theory, we explored our interview data of 69 engineers (45 women and 24 men) to find …

Predicting Black Parents’ Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: A Moderated-Mediation Model Of Frequency And Valence Of Childhood Experiences, Hue Trong Duong, Akansha Sirohi, Kathleen M. Baggett

Communication Faculty Publications

Child corporal punishment (CP) may lead to child physical abuse, which is a public health concern in the U.S. The present study examined major risk factors predicting attitudes toward CP among a sample of Black parents (N = 394), including frequency and valence of experiences of CP during childhood, outcome expectancies of CP, and perceptions of self-efficacy and response efficacy of non-physical discipline strategies. Structural equation modeling results revealed that the indirect associations between CP frequency and attitudes through self-efficacy and response efficacy were moderated by CP valence. Results extend the literature and point to the need for incorporating information …

Protecting A Positive View Of The Self: Strategic Self-Attribution Of Stereotypes Among Women Video Game Players, Shay Xuejing Yao, Nancy Rhodes

Communication Faculty Publications

In two survey studies, one with a college student sample (n = 249) and one with an adult sample (n = 319), we tested self-stereotyping strategies among women video game players to protect their self-image from prevalent negative stereotypes of women gamers. Our results revealed that one strategy is to weaken their commitment to the women gamer identity, and another is to strategically reject some aspects of the identity while continuing to endorse others. Specifically, we found that strongly committed women gamers believed that the stereotypes are as descriptive of the typical women players as of themselves, while weakly committed …

Prevalence And Correlates Of Invitation To Participate In Clinical Trials Among Us Adults, Aurora Occa, Allison Leip, Allison S. Merritt, Jerod L. Stapleton

Communication Faculty Publications

Clinical trials are essential to modern medicine, but several barriers, including poor communication, hamper their successful completion. We examined the prevalence and correlates of invitation to participate in clinical trials among a nationally-representative sample of US adults using survey responses from the 2020 HINTS (Cycle 5). Analyses were conducted in 2021.

Overall, 9% of respondents reported being invited to a clinical trial, a prevalence that is nearly half of previously reported rates in convenience samples recruited from health care settings. Compared to non-Hispanic Whites, Black respondents reported the higher prevalence of invitation (16.0%) whereas Asian respondents reported the lowest (2%). …

Trust And Coping Beliefs Contribute To Racial Disparities In Covid-19 Vaccination Intention, Nikki Mcclaran, Nancy Rhodes, Shay Xuejing Yao

Communication Faculty Publications

Racial disparities in intention to obtain the COVID-19 vaccination have been noted in academic and popular press reports. The present study sought to identify cognitive and affective factors that contribute to the observed lack of acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination, even before a vaccine was made publicly available, among Black and White Americans through a national survey (N = 487; 50.6% female, 24.8% Black). Our findings are consistent with previous studies that Black respondents had lower intention to obtain the eventual COVID-19 vaccine than White respondents. Protection motivation theory's construct of coping efficacy and an additional COVID-19-relevant variable, trust in vaccination, …

When Vaccine Uncertainty Prevails: Association Between Online Social Influence And Covid-19 Vaccine Intentions, Hue Trong Duong, Tham Thi Nguyen, Le Thanh Trieu

Communication Faculty Publications

Guided by the integrative model of behavioral prediction and the social identity of deindividuation effects model, this study used an online experiment (N = 322) to test a moderated-mediation model that linked exposure to user comments posted to COVID-19 vaccine news stories and vaccine intentions. The study was conducted in Vietnam when the Delta variant of COVID-19 spread to the country and the efficacy and side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine were controversial in the news. Results showed that, compared with vaccine-hesitancy comments, vaccine-acceptance comments significantly increased vaccine intentions through injunctive norms, response efficacy, and attitudes. This indirect association …

Implementing Diversity Training Targeting Faculty Microaggressions And Inclusion: Practical Insights And Initial Findings, Ellen Ernst Kossek, Patrice M. Buzzanell, Brittany J. Wright, Cassondra Batz-Barbarich, Amy C. Moors, Charlene Sullivan, Klod Kokini, Andrew S. Hirsch, Kayla Maxey, Ankita Nikalje

Communication Faculty Publications

Despite the importance of faculty diversity training for advancing an inclusive society, little research examines whether participation improves inclusion perceptions and belongingness. Integrating training and diversity education literature concepts, this study examines the effectiveness of training targeting microaggressions in six STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) oriented departments at a research-intensive university. Reactions data collected at the end of face-to-face training suggested that participation generally increased inclusion understanding. Self-assessments on inclusion concepts collected from 45% of participants before and three weeks after training suggest participation increases perceptions of the importance of inclusion, microaggression allyship awareness, inclusive behaviors, and organizational identification. Compared …

Enacting Economic Resilience: A Synthesis Of Economic And Communication Frameworks, Timothy Betts, Patrice M. Buzzanell

Communication Faculty Publications

This work examines three frameworks for responding to economic disruption: risk mitigation, systemic recovery, and economic resilience. Specifically, by reviewing the metatheoretical commitments, analytic contexts, and implications of two economic perspectives, represented by risk mitigation and systemic recovery, we argue that current approaches to understanding resilience in academic economics have failed to address ongoing and emergent disruptions in the economic and social world. In response, this work also reviews a possible synthesis of economic and communication frameworks. This review places the economic resilience framework, inspired by the communication theory of resilience, in conversation with extant literature in economics, communication studies, …

Are Smokers Scared By Covid-19 Risk? How Fear And Comparative Optimism Influence Smokers’ Intentions To Take Measures To Quit Smoking, Hue Trong Duong, Zachary Massey, Victoria Churchill, Lucy Popova

Communication Faculty Publications

Research suggests that smoking may compound the risk of serious health problems to smokers who contract COVID-19. This study examines whether and how exposure to news stories reporting the severe COVID-19 risk to smokers may influence smokers’ emotional responses (fear, anxiety, and sadness) and intentions to take measures to quit smoking. Current smokers in the US participated in an online experiment (N = 495) and were randomized to read smoking risk news stories or news stories reporting the combined risk of smoking and COVID-19. We found that combined risk news stories lead to participants feeling more fearful and sadder than …

Applying The Integrative Model To Predict Intention To Use Corporal Punishment Among Low-Income Parents, Hue Trong Duong

Communication Faculty Publications

Child corporal punishment (CP) is associated with child physical abuse, which is a public health problem in the United States. Informed by the integrative model of behavioral prediction, this study surveyed low-income Black, Hispanic, and White parents who had children younger than 6 years old (N = 260) to identify major risk factors that determined intention to use CP to discipline children. Structural equation modeling revealed that attitudes, descriptive norms, and perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies were associated with intention to use CP. Additionally, parents’ childhood CP frequency and past use of CP with their own children were …

Risk Perception And Covid-19 Preventive Behaviors: Application Of The Integrative Model Of Behavioral Prediction, Hue Trong Duong, Hoa Thanh Nguyen, Soroya J. Mcfarlane, Long Nguyen

Communication Faculty Publications

Preventing the COVID-19 outbreak primarily depends on individuals’ willingness to adopt social distancing and mask wearing behaviors. However, little is known about what drives individuals to adopt these behaviors. Guided by the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction, this study surveyed 590 adults in the US during the early stages of the outbreak to identify factors influencing intentions to practice social distancing and wear masks. Structural equation modeling results show that while attitudes are positively associated with intentions to perform both behaviors, perceived norms are positively associated with intentions to wear masks, and self-efficacy is positively associated with intentions to practice …

Preventing The Covid-19 Outbreak In Vietnam: Social Media Campaign Exposure And The Role Of Interpersonal Communication, Hue Trong Duong, Long Nguyen, Soroya J. Mcfarlane, Hoa Thanh Nguyen, Khai The Nguyen

Communication Faculty Publications

The present study focused on the success story of Vietnam’s ability to control the COVID-19 outbreak in the early stages to examine the associations between exposure to the Vietnam Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 prevention social media campaign messages, interpersonal communication, attitudes, perceived norms, self-efficacy, and intentions to stay at home. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with residents in Ho Chi Minh City (N = 360). Results from mediation analyses indicated that interpersonal communication mediated the effect of social media campaign exposure on intentions to stay at home. Moreover, interpersonal communication shaped injunctive norms and self-efficacy that were conducive to …

The Impact Of Contact Tracing On The Spread Of Covid-19: An Egocentric Agent-Based Model, Andrew Pilny, Lin Xiang, Corey Huber, Will Silberman, Sean Goatley-Soan

Communication Faculty Publications

At its core, contact tracing is a form of egocentric network analysis (ENA). One of the biggest obstacles for ENA is informant accuracy (i.e., amount of true contacts identified), which is even more prominent for interaction-based network ties because they often represent episodic relational events, rather than enduring relational states. This research examines the effect of informant accuracy on the spread of COVID-19 through an egocentric, agent-based model. Overall when the average person transmits COVID-19 to 1.62 other people (i.e., the R₀), they must be, on average, 75% accurate with naming their contacts. In higher transmission contexts (i.e., …

No Spanish In Cinderella’S Kingdom: A Situated Ethnography Of Disney World’S Engagement With Elena Of Avalor, Diana Leon-Boys

Communication Faculty Publications

Research indicates that Disney theme parks function as sites of ideological negotiation. This study builds on the research by examining Disney World’s incorporation of its first avowed Latina princess, Elena of Avalor. Bringing together discourses of Latinidad, theme parks, and media, this essay focuses on how the park incorporates Elena into its landscape at the level of production, representation, and audiences. I argue that Disney’s inclusion of Elena, and by extension Latinidad, is malleable, situated within the geographic setting, and dependent on various factors seldom disclosed by the conglomerate. Ultimately, Elena exists as an outsider within the Disney park …

The Public’S Perceptions Of Government Officials’ Communication In The Wake Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Shaniece B. Bickham, Diane B. Francis

Communication Faculty Publications

Early news coverage in the US about the COVID-19 pandemic focused on information released from local, state and federal government officials. With an emphasis on US government at these levels, this study examined whether the public’s credibility perceptions and trust in government, along with message exposure, influenced their adherence to information from the government about (a) stay-at-home orders, (b) social distancing and (c) COVID-19 testing. Source credibility theory and situational crisis communication theory provided the theoretical framework for this study. Through the survey data analysis, we investigated communication preferences in the wake of the pandemic and whether credibility perceptions differed …

‘It Brings Light To What You Really Put Into Your Body’: A Focus Group Study Of Reactions To Messages About Nicotine Reduction In Cigarettes, Hue Trong Duong, Emily E. Loud, James F. Thrasher, Katherine C. Henderson, David L. Ashley, Lucy Popova

Communication Faculty Publications

Objective: In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a proposed regulation to lower nicotine in cigarettes to minimally addictive levels to help smokers quit. We sought to explore effective message strategies communicating about nicotine reduction in cigarettes across the different key audiences that the regulation is most likely to influence.

Methods: We designed four types of messages: efficacy messages, risk messages, a message about alternative sources of nicotine, and a compensation message. Sixteen virtual focus groups were conducted in Atlanta and San Francisco in April-May 2020. Data were analyzed in NVivo 12.0 using a thematic analysis approach. …

Identifying Knowledge, Self-Efficacy And Response Efficacy Of Alternative Discipline Strategies Among Low-Income Black, Latino And White Parents, Hue Trong Duong, Jennifer L. Monahan, Laura M. Mercer Kollar, Joanne Klevens

Communication Faculty Publications

Corporal punishment (CP) leads to detrimental mental and physical consequences for a child. One way to prevent CP is to encourage parents to apply alternative discipline strategies that do not involve violence. Based on the knowledge—behavior gap framework in public health education, this study analyzed the focus group data of 75 low-income Black, Latino and White parents to uncover commonalties and differences in their knowledge, self-efficacy and response efficacy of alternative discipline strategies. Findings revealed that parents knew several alternative discipline strategies and had confidence in their ability to conduct these strategies. However, parents reported that some strategies were hard …

Examining Sources Of Social Norms Supporting Child Corporal Punishment Among Low-Income Black, Latino, And White Parents, Hue Trong Duong, Jennifer L. Monahan, Laura M. Mercer Kollar, Joanne Klevens

Communication Faculty Publications

Child corporal punishment is a prevalent public health problem in the U.S. Although corporal punishment is sustained through parents’ perceptions of social norms supporting this discipline behavior, little research has investigated where these normative perceptions come from. To fill this gap, we conducted 13 focus groups including 75 low-income Black, Latino, and White parents across five states in the U.S. Results revealed that one influential source of Black and White parents’ perceived norms was their positive framing of corporal punishment experiences during childhood. Furthermore, Black parents formed normative perceptions based on identification with parents in their racial/ethnic group, while White …

Beyond Hours Of Video Gameplay: Connections Between Verbal Aggressiveness, Genre Preference, And Technology Used, William T. Howe, Ioana A. Cionea

Communication Faculty Publications

This research examined how multiple factors (i.e., hours of gameplay, types of gameplay, preferred genre of video games, technology used to play games, and biological sex) were associated with both trait and situational verbal aggressiveness. Cross-sectional data were collected from 435 undergraduate students via an online questionnaire. Results indicated similar patterns to previous literature in that video gameplay hours were positively related to verbal aggressiveness. However, we extended research by also showing that a preference for certain genres and technology used to play video games were also related with both situational and trait verbal aggressiveness. Based on these results, we …

An Egocentric Network Contact Tracing Experiment: Testing Different Procedures To Elicit Contacts And Places, Andrew Pilny, C. Joseph Huber

Communication Faculty Publications

Contact tracing is one of the oldest social network health interventions used to reduce the diffusion of various infectious diseases. However, some infectious diseases like COVID-19 amass at such a great scope that traditional methods of conducting contact tracing (e.g., face-to-face interviews) remain difficult to implement, pointing to the need to develop reliable and valid survey approaches. The purpose of this research is to test the effectiveness of three different egocentric survey methods for extracting contact tracing data: (1) a baseline approach, (2) a retrieval cue approach, and (3) a context-based approach. A sample of 397 college students were randomized …

Childhood Experiences And Attitudes Toward Corporal Punishment: The Mediating Role Of Perceived Efficacy Of Alternative Discipline Strategies Among Low-Income Black, Hispanic, And White Parents, Hue Trong Duong

Communication Faculty Publications

Corporal punishment (CP) is associated with harmful outcomes to child development. Favorable attitudes toward CP are a major predictor of CP use. Thus, identifying and changing factors influencing such attitudes help to prevent CP. Although research has confirmed the effect of childhood experiences of CP on attitudes toward CP, few studies have examined mechanisms underpinning this association. To fill this gap, this study investigated the role of perceived efficacy of alternative discipline strategies in mediating the association between childhood experiences of CP and attitudes toward CP among low-income Black, Hispanic, and White parents. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with …

Star Wars: Galaxy’S Edge As Postcolonial Fantasy: Disney, Labor, And The Renegotiation Of Border Discourses, Diana Leon-Boys, Christopher Chávez

Communication Faculty Publications

In the summer of 2019, Disneyland opened Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, an immersive experience where visitors imagine themselves as members of a resistance army fighting against a colonizing power. As Disney’s theme parks have increasingly become conduits of global flows, the company’s original brand of U.S. exceptionalism has become incompatible with the company’s strategic needs. In this article, we argue that Disney’s newest themed land, Galaxy’s Edge, functions as a reworking of Disney’s colonial discourse and borderland narrative, where postracial borderland fantasies coincide with the conglomerate’s evolution from a national project to a global enterprise. Within this intergalactic borderland, racialized …

Developing A Health Communication Campaign For Disposal Of Unused Opioid Medications, Kathleen L. Egan, Mark Wolfson, Kaylee M. Lukacena, Carina Mazariegos Zelaya, Monique S. Mcleary, Donald W. Helme

Communication Faculty Publications

Introduction

Communities throughout the United States have implemented medicine disposal programs to prevent diversion of unused opioid analgesics from homes but a general lack of awareness may contribute to low rates of utilization. The objective of this study was to develop and test community-based campaign messages promoting appropriate disposal of unused opioids at disposal programs.

Methods

In Fall 2019, 491 residents (79% female, 97% White, mean age: 40 years) of five rural, Appalachian counties (3 in Kentucky and 2 in North Carolina) completed a web-based, experimental survey. Participants were randomly exposed to two of four messages and rated each message …

Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Gamer Identity: A Comparison Of The United States And Poland, Małgorzata Ćwil, William T. Howe

Communication Faculty Publications

Who is a gamer? What kind of people are perceived to be gamers? And finally – who perceives themselves as a gamer? In this article the authors attempt to answer these three questions from a multinational perspective.

Background. Games are nowadays one of the most frequently encountered forms of entertainment and constitute an ever-increasing part of many people’s day-to-day lives. With the rising popularity of video games, there is a need to conduct a research concerning gamer identity and to find out who perceives themselves as a gamer. The aim of this study is to compare the results of …

Toward A Century Of Language Attitudes Research: Looking Back And Moving Forward, Marko Dragojevic, Fabio Fasoli, Jennifer Cramer, Tamara Rakić

Communication Faculty Publications

The study of language attitudes is concerned with the social meanings people assign to language and its users. With roots in social psychology nearly a century ago, language attitudes research spans several academic disciplines and draws on diverse methodological approaches. In an attempt to integrate this work and traverse disciplinary boundaries and methodological proclivities, we propose that language attitudes—as a unified field—can be organized into five distinct—yet interdependent and complementary—lines of research: documentation, explanation, development, consequences, and change. After highlighting some of the key findings that have emerged from each area, we discuss several opportunities and challenges for future research.

Common Ingroup Identity Model, Shay Xuejing Yao

Communication Faculty Publications

This entry introduces the Common Ingroup Identity Model. In intergroup interactions, it is possible for ingroup members to make biased judgments toward both ingroup and outgroup members. People tend to evaluate ingroup members positively and outgroup members negatively. The Common Ingroup Identity Model proposes that intergroup bias can be reduced by transforming the group boundaries from “us” versus “them” into a more general “we” that include all the original in- and outgroup members.

Self-Categorization Theory, Shay Xuejing Yao

Communication Faculty Publications

Self-categorization theory (SCT) argues that people can perceive themselves as unique individuals or as members of a group (Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). SCT is a theory that explains the situations in which people perceive themselves as individuals or group entities and the implications of such perceptions. The target research area of SCT lies in the personal and group aspects of individual’s psychological process.