Digital Commons Network^™

Using Empathy To Shift Climate Change Attitudes., Carson Haller

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

It has shifted from a hunch to an existential threat, it is a harbinger of disaster and bankruptcy, backed by science, and yet a considerable portion of Americans still believe that climate change is a hoax. It is becoming increasingly imperative to convince this portion to join the fight. It has been found that empathy is an effective method of persuasion, prompting the question of whether empathy could be used shift climate change attitudes. The hypothesis of this study was that if a person feels empathy for somebody harmed by the effects of climate change, they will be more willing …

Amplifying Awareness: Narrative Rationality In The Discourse Of Childhood Cancer, Rosalinda L. Frick

Cal Poly Humboldt Capstone Honor Roll

This paper looks into the complex psychological and economic effects of pediatric cancer on families. The paper has devastating realism as it draws on personal experience, as illustrated by the author's brother, Dylan, dying of brain cancer. Dylan's shortened life serves as a harsh reminder of the need to address this serious problem. The paper delves into the power of Aristotle's persuasion model, specifically looking at the concepts of ethos, pathos, and logos. This persuasion model ties into narrative rationality in the paper and looks at how a story's coherence and fidelity can make a large impact on persuasion and …

Dietary Inflammatory Index During Pregnancy And Changes Over Time: Associations With Post-Partum Sleep Duration And Quality And Depressive Symptoms., Nowrin Tamanna

Theses and Dissertations

STUDY OBJECTIVES: Sleep and mental health are two important factors for a new mother, as adequate sleep and a healthy mind help her prioritize self-care, seek support when needed, and create a nurturing environment for both her and her baby. Among various plausible theories exploring the etiology of sleep disturbances and depression, the concept of inflammation is gaining attention. This study examined the hypothesis that more pro-inflammatory diets during pregnancy are associated with a decrease in sleep quality and duration, abnormal sleep timing and higher Edinburg Postnatal depression score (EPDS) scores 6 months and 12 months post-partum.

METHODS: A secondary …

Observers' Perceptions Of Rapport In Accusatorial Interrogations, Gabriela Rico

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rapport is widely regarded as a necessary precondition for interrogations and is thought to lay the foundation for the success of later interrogation techniques. In accusatorial contexts in which suspects are often resistant to disclose potentially self-incriminating information, rapport enables interrogators to gain the suspect’s trust, respect, and cooperation. Although the specific psychological mechanisms by which rapport achieves these effects are largely understudied, rapport-building techniques resemble principles of social influence (Goodman-Delahunty & Howes, 2014), specifically persuasion. Techniques such as establishing common ground, engaging in active listening, demonstrating empathy, and disclosing personal information may serve as impression management strategies, which allow …

Freedom, Abortion, And Hypocrisy: The Effect Of Hypocrisy On Pro-Life Abortion Attitudes, Emily M. Vance

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous research suggests that highlighting the gap between inconsistent values can result in long-term attitude change (Rokeach, 1971), that feeling hypocritical might prompt pro-attitudinal behavior (e.g., Dickerson et al., 1992), and that a reactance decoy makes participants more receptive to subsequent persuasive messages (Schumpe et al., 2020). Drawing from these findings, the purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the impact of induced hypocrisy on pro-life abortion attitudes, an attitude commonly grounded in the value of freedom, depended on a reactance decoy. Consistent with Aronson et al.’s paradigm (1991), participants first publicly advocated for the importance of personal …

Love, Austen, And Lewis: How The Successful And Unsuccessful Romances In Jane Austen's Novels Correspond To C.S. Lewis The Four Loves, Lauren Bridgeman

Honors Theses

As any Jane Austen lover can confirm, the romances in Austen's books feel closer to life than any romance in other novels, even if the relationships and some of the settings are fictional. Of all the books in which romance plays a key role, why do hers rise above the mocking that most receive? Though she never married, she grasps the concept of love in all its complexity through plot, how her characters relate to one another, as well as these characters' development. Another author who sets out to deal with the complexity of love, albeit in more of a …

Two Essays On Using Data Manipulation To Justify Biased Reports, Cody Lu

Doctoral Dissertations

An important aspect of data-generated metrics is the degree to which they can be manipulated by users. Agents providing reports often (a) have incentive conflicts with principals and (b) have access to and an ability to manipulate data used in those reports. This study investigates how data manipulation affects advisors’ tendency to provide biased recommendations when incentives between advisors and advisees are misaligned and aligned. Drawing on theories in deception and persuasion, I posit that, when incentives are misaligned, advisors will provide a more biased recommendation when the evidence used to support their recommendation is more manipulable. I also predict …

Changing Vaccine Hesitant Attitudes Of Parents Using Moral Persuasion, Max Vitro

Master's Theses

In the fight against Covid-19, overt, science-based messaging is not enough to persuade everyone to get vaccinated no matter how encouraging the data. Recent studies on attitudes toward vaccines and other health-promoting measures have provided clues as to why so many are still opposed, suggesting many who were resistant had reasons that were rooted along moral grounds. This process of moralization occurs when a belief becomes a moral matter of ‘right and wrong’ rather than a means to an end. Because moral beliefs are more entrenched, they’ve proven much more difficult to change. There is one approach that could increase …

"We Give Them The Most Important Thing Possible. We Give Their Dreary Lives Excitement”: Toward A Theoretical Model Of Narrative Parasocial Engagement, Dominic Delbert Meyers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video game narratives and characters are some of the most enjoyable and persuasive components of the video game industry. While narratives and character relationships within video games have been examined separately, there is no working model and little research attempting to bridge the connection between narratives and character relationships. This research combines Narrative Paradigm Theory and Parasocial Relationships to understand how narratives and character relationships influence each other in video game environments. This was done through rhetorical field methods, utilizing a focus group and narrative rhetorical analysis on the transcript of the focus group. Results provide a working model coined …

Persuasion In Descriptions Of Medical Crowdfunding On Gofundme: When Children Fundraise For Their Mothers' Lung Cancer, Ziyu Zhao

All ETDs from UAB

Medical needs have become one of the top categories in online crowdfunding in the United States (Chandler, 2015). However, the level of donations falls short of what is needed to cover the high costs of healthcare (Norton, 2022; Young & Scheinberg, 2017). Therefore, more successful promotion of medical crowdfunding campaigns is crucial. This thesis research examined the influence of two persuasive factors, appeal type and cover images, in medical crowdfunding of lung cancer on backers’ donation behaviors on GoFundMe with manual coding and Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC). The study found no statistically reliable support for the hypotheses, perhaps …

The Psychology Behind The Marketing Of Alcohol And Tobacco: How We Convince People To Do Things That Are Bad For Them, Sophie Dvorkin

CMC Senior Theses

The marketing tactics of the alcohol and tobacco industry are inextricably linked through the psychological basis upon which these companies target their customers. Through the principles of reciprocity, social proof, scarcity, commitment and consistency, unity, and authority featured in Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (2021). The principle of reciprocity explains how companies get customers to buy in, social proof explains our dependence on our peers’ validation, and scarcity explains why we want what we can’t have. The principles of commitment and consistency explain how companies garner long-term customers that see themselves as an extension of a brand, …

War, Love, And Journeys: A Comparative Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphors In Political Speeches, Kelly N. Woods

Theses and Dissertations

In convention speeches and inaugural addresses, presidential candidates and newly-elected presidents attempt to persuade listeners to vote for and support them. One persuasive tool that they use in these speeches is metaphor, considered a fundamental form of reasoning (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). The present study focuses on three conceptual metaphors (POLITICS IS WAR, POLITICS IS A JOURNEY, and POLITICS IS LOVE) used in 40 speeches given by American presidents from 1944 to 2021 in order to see if there are differences in metaphor usage across political party (i.e., Democrat and Republican) and across speech type (i.e., nomination acceptance and inaugural …

Tell Me A Story: Exploring The Use Of Narratives To Reduce Backlash To Organizational Diversity Initiatives, Desmond W. Leung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Diversity initiatives represent key priorities for many organizations, but research and recent high-profile examples suggest that diversity initiatives can generate significant backlash, particularly among organizational members. The primary aim of this study is to investigate how narrative forms of diversity initiative messaging may attenuate backlash among organizational members compared to more traditional expository forms of diversity initiative messaging. Drawing on research related to narrative communication, persuasion, and diversity, I proposed a first-stage dual moderated mediation model where psychological reactance and perceptions of realistic threat mediate the negative effect of narrative (vs. expository) diversity messaging on backlash. Additionally, I examined whether …

Moral Matching: Strategic Messaging To Overcome Barriers To Persuasion, Tess M. Buckley

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Persuasive messages are often met with resistance. Message fatigue is a unique motivational state caused by excessive exposure to redundant messages, which leads to active and passive resistance towards persuasive messages. The consequences of active and passive resistance are particularly harmful when directed towards messages intended to assist individuals in making health decisions. This dissertation investigated a message framing strategy, moral matching, to combat message fatigue resistance in the context of COVID-19. Guided by message fatigue and moral foundation theory literature, there were three main purposes of this dissertation. The first purpose was to identify what features of COVID-19 health …

Improving Young Driver Perceptions Of Vulnerable Road Users Through A Persuasive Intervention, Shashank Mehrotra

Doctoral Dissertations

Vulnerable road users (VRUs), including bicyclists, pedestrians, and road users of other modalities, are at a higher risk of collision with young drivers when a complex traffic situation presents itself. Past research has established the importance of young drivers’ perceptions about VRUs that would encourage safe behavior. This research designed and evaluated a novel persuasive intervention that can help improve the perceptions of young drivers while they interact with VRUs. The study identified young drivers’ perceptions towards VRUs who have been licensed in the past 12 to 18 months through structured interviews. Based on these findings, an interactive intervention was …

Leveraging Moral Foundations To Increase Covid-19 Vaccination, Cara Elizabeth Ray

Dissertations

Despite the vast majority of the eligible U.S. adult population being vaccinated against COVID-19, geographical clusters of unvaccinated individuals pose a substantial risk of outbreak. It is important to encourage as many individuals as possible to vaccinate against COVID-19 to reduce its spread and severity. Past research has identified endorsement of the purity and liberty moral foundations – intuitive domains of moral concern – as predictors of vaccine hesitancy and political conservatism, while conservatism is itself associated with vaccine hesitancy. Across two online surveys, I examined the effects of a message invoking the purity and liberty foundations as well as …

Self-Distancing As A Persuasive Amplifier For Increasing Help-Seeking Among People With Depression, Sara M. Hollar

CGU Theses & Dissertations

People with high levels of depressive symptomatology report less favorable attitudes toward help-seeking and reduced help-seeking intentions than people with lower levels of depressive symptomatology. While some attempts to persuade people with depression to seek help have been successful, others have failed. Preliminary research using both perspective-taking and mental time-travel self-distancing writing tasks have shown potential. However, a video that asked people to think, rather than write, about help-seeking from a distanced perspective failed to increase help-seeking outcomes. This dissertation tests a new approach where participants are prompted to take a self-distanced approach while watching existing help-seeking video messages. In …

The Anatomy Of A Controlling Message And The Impact Of Reactance On Attitude Certainty, Thomas Vincent Staunton Jr.

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Psychological reactance theory (Brehm, 1966) has helped guide research on resistance to persuasion for over a half century. The theory holds that individuals value their freedom to make their own decisions, and when presented with a persuasive message, may perceive threat to their autonomy and react adversely to the message. Impersonal or mass disseminated messages, particularly those in pro-social or health related contexts, often must communicate in a manner that is direct and forceful to get a clear point across as efficiently as possible. Such messages can be characterized as high controlling (HC) and are generally constructed by using explicit …

The Influence Of Linguistic Style: A Matched-Guise Experiment Assessing The Effects Of Source Accent, Argument Quality, And Issue Involvement On Persuasion, Sean Goatley-Soan

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

For decades, persuasion researchers have demonstrated that under certain conditions, the success of a persuasive appeal depends, at least in part, on perceptions of a source (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986; Wilson & Sherrell, 1993). In the same way, a person’s linguistic style, such as their accent, has been shown to have a powerful impact on listeners’ judgments (Dragojevic et al., 2018). However, despite many real-world persuasive settings requiring an oral component, the impact of a source’s accent on persuasion outcomes has received comparatively little empirical attention (Hosman, 2002). Moreover, few of the existing investigations use well-established theories of persuasion to …

Reciprocity: An Antecedent To Fraud Compliance And Unethical Behavior, Charles E. Drehmer

College of Science and Health Theses and Dissertations

There is a constant stream of headlines in the news about fraud schemes swindling people out of their hard-earned money. When analyzing these schemes, it can be difficult to see why these scams work so well time after time. Often, the potential payoff to the victim is farfetched or even impossible to a third party looking at the situation after the fact. Why would someone comply with a fraudulent request with such an implausible benefit to themselves or maybe even seemingly no benefit? One of the tools utilized by unscrupulous scam artists is the social norm of reciprocity. Simply stated, …

What Is This Noise?: A Comparison Of Narrative And Statistical Program Notes' Ability To Affect Enjoyment, Luke Henderson

Theses

Program notes, brief written statements provided to attendees of classical music performances, have in some cases increased audiences’ enjoyment of what they hear, but results from such research are inconsistent. This study sought to explore the effects of program notes on enjoyment, eudaimonic appreciation, and intention to attend a concert, as well as whether narrative or statistical styles of notes would be more effective. Participants in an experiment were randomly assigned to one of three conditions--no program notes, narrative style program notes, and statistical program notes--then asked to listen to a piece of music. Those who received program notes reported …

Combating Conspiracy Theories: An Attitudes-Based Approach, Marie Altgilbers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of conspiracy theories is a topic of increasing concern among researchers. Much of the research in this area has been focused on why people endorse conspiracy theories, and relatively little attention has been paid to how they may be mitigated. What research has been done focused primarily on interventions with arguments based in cognitive, fact-based appeals, with mixed success. The present research draws on findings from the attitudes and persuasion literature to test the hypothesis that conspiracy theory endorsement is more effectively reduced by affectively-based arguments than by cognitively-based arguments. Two affectively-based interventions were tested against a cognitively-based …

Propaganda Or Persuasion: A Multisite Case Study Analysis Of The Impact Of Museum Communications On American Public Trust, Devon Anna Mancini

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

According to the Edelman Trust Barometer (2021), public trust in information sources has drastically decreased in America, except for museums. Since museums have historically spread propaganda through their communications, this multisite case study analysis of three American museums, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Creation Museum, investigated how museum propaganda impacts public trust. After examining Twitter posts and responses to the three cases, findings showed that even when museums did not intentionally spread propaganda, audience interpretations still led to a fracturing of trust. Recommendations for the field were …

Story And Sorority: How Sisters Shape The Novels Of Jane Austen, Morgan Elizabeth Reid

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact and use of sisters and sorority in the novels of Jane Austen, answering the question of how they are shaping the narratives of the stories. Focusing in particular on Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, and Sense and Sensibility, I highlight the ways that Austen’s writing crafts plots that rely upon sisters to function. Austen also uses sister figures to reveal the characteristics of her main protagonists and to express the themes she is most concerned about within each story. I also show Austen’s pattern of affirming the value and importance of …

Toward A Common Understanding Of Video Commercials And Narrative Advertisements, Raine Templeton Riley

All Theses

Video commercials, or television advertisements, have gained a lot of attention in scholarship since the first television advertisement aired in 1941. In recent years, scholars have examined advertisements using the lens of narrative persuasion and as entertainment features on their own. This study builds on previous literature by identifying types of advertisements – non-narrative and narrative – and further describes narrative advertisements in terms of structural aspects and appeal types using exemplars. A set of nearly 200 unique award-winning and otherwise popular advertisements are categorized by Advertisement Type based on prior works in advertising as well as Primary and Secondary …

Increasing Personal And Product Influence Through Background Auditory And Visual Cues, Zhihao Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Effective persuasion is indispensable for success in business and in life. People may have the best idea, the best product, and the best policy, but without persuading their target audiences to take actions, none of those would matter. However, getting people to say “Yes” is becoming harder and harder. We are living in a complicated world that is busy and crowded with too much information. People are getting more used to processing information in an automatic way and not bothering to scrutinize every bit of information. As a result, companies and individuals have fewer chances to influence their audiences through …

Socialism's Specter: The Effect Of Persuasion On Implicit Attitudes Towards Socialism, Amber Yanez

MSU Graduate Theses

Anti-socialist propaganda and media have swayed individuals to skepticism and fear about socialism. The propaganda, however, does not reflect necessarily the truth about socialism, in its persuasion against it. Media often uses persuasion techniques to influence opinions and beliefs. The primary focus of this study was to assess whether persuasion could be used to persuade participants’ implicit attitudes towards socialism. Participants were persuaded with pro-socialism content, anti-socialism content, and neutral content; and then completed an Implicit Association Test. It was hypothesized that the participants in the pro-socialism condition would have an implicit bias towards socialism, the participants in the anti-socialism …

Conformity And Persuasion: The Moderating Roles Of Interpersonal Closeness And Interaction Partner Sex, Christianne Morrison

Undergraduate Honours Theses

Research suggests that males are more persuasive than females (Carli, 1989; Cross, Brown, Morgan, & Laland, 2016). Additionally, research supports that interpersonal closeness facilitates persuasiveness (Thomas & Weigert, 1971). This experiment examines the effect of both persuader’s sex and feelings of closeness on persuasiveness. Participants interacted with a confederate through an online chatroom and completed a modified version of the Relationship Closeness Induction Task (Aron, Melinat, Aron, Vallone, & Bator, 1997). After rating perceptions of closeness with the confederate, participants entered a group chat with two more confederates in addition to the interaction partner in which they discussed a mandatory …

The Roles Of Moral Anger, Empathy, And Self-Efficacy In Persuading Prosocial Activism, Erin Lurae Willder

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how nonprofits can use video narratives to elicit young individuals' emotions and persuade them to support a cause; in particular this study analyzed variables of elicited moral anger, sense of self-efficacy, empathic connection, and prosocial persuasion. Undergraduate participants (n = 160) viewed a two-minute PSA depicting scenes of domestic violence escalation in a young married couple's apartment. Participants completed scale responses that demonstrated a positive correlation between message-induced state empathy and moral anger as well as a positive relationship between state empathy and activist tendencies. As in other studies framed by the anger activism model (AAM), high …

Microlevel Movements Matter: Persuasion, Identity Performance, Performative Agency, And Resistance In Egypt On Twitter During The Egyptian Arab Spring, Audrey Cisneros

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Micro-Level Movements Matter is a transnational digital study which explores audience and persuasion, identity performances and performative agency through an examination of Big Data gathered from Twitter's comprehensive historical archives collected from during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. In Egypt, the demonstrator's use of social media was extraordinarily savvy and persuasive-richly saturated in rhetorical devices effectively employed to appeal to wide swath of audiences. Overtime participatory discourse on social media engaged new ideas and dissenting socio-political thoughts, crafted shifting identities, refashioned new possibilities and futures community wide, and resulted in a remarkably successful large scale mobilization campaign. To conduct my study …