No abstract

This study used self-reports and physiological measures-heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL)-to examine the effects of novelty appeals, sexual appeals, narrative versus statistical evidence, and viewer's sex on cognitive and emotional processing of HIV/AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) among heterosexually active single college students. Novelty or sexual appeals differently affected self-reported attention and cognitive effort as measured by HR. High- rather than low-novelty HIV/AIDS PSAs, perceived as more attention-eliciting, did not lead to more cognitive effort. High- rather than low-sex HIV/AIDS PSAs, not perceived as more attention-eliciting, led to more cognitive effort as reflected by greater HR deceleration. Novelty or sexual appeals also affected self-reported emotional arousal and SCL differently. HIV/AIDS PSAs with high rather than low levels of novelty or sexual appeals led to greater self-reported arousal, but not greater SCL. Message evidence interacted with message appeals to affect cognitive effort. Participants exerted greater cognitive effort during high- rather than low-novelty narrative HIV/AIDS PSAs, and during low- rather than high-novelty statistical ones. The advantage of high over low sexual appeals was more obvious in statistical than in narrative HIV/AIDS PSAs. Males reported greater emotional arousal than females during high- rather than low-sex HIV/AIDS PSAs.

Young adults who think a news website is personalized to their interests are more likely to return to the site than are those who do not think the site has been personalized for them. Findings suggest that fostering a sense of group loyalty will make the site more attractive to young readers.

We conducted an experiment with a mixed factorial design to examine how HIV/AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) that varied in quality of argument, level of personal relevance, and form of evidence, affected attitude and behavioral intention toward condom use with main and nonmain partners. Participants were 85 heterosexually active young adults at a northeastern university in the United States. Results showed that argument quality influenced attitude toward condom use regardless of partner type, and level of personal relevance influenced attitude toward condom use with main partners but not with nonmain partners. There was no difference in attitude or behavioral intention according to whether the evidence was narrative or statistical. The attitudinal effect of personal relevance was more prominent in narrative than in statistical PSAs.

Younger readers were more likely to spend time on a local news website and report a greater likelihood to return to the site after social media features were added. The college-age students also perceived content on the site as more valuable and as having a greater influence on them.