The third-person effect hypothesis has generated a vibrant research area. The expansion of this literature poses need for a systematic synthesis of the empirical evidence and assessment of the viability of various theoretical accounts. For this purpose, a metaanalysis is conducted on all published empirical studies of the perceptual component. This analysis covers 60 papers, 106 studies, and 372 effect sizes. Results from a series of multilevel models show that the third-person perception is robust and not influenced by variations in research procedures. Desirability of presumed message influence, vulnerability of referent others, referent others depicted as being similar to self, and others being likely audience of the media content in question are significant moderators. A vote counting analysis is conducted on 124 self-other comparisons in 29 studies from 13 additional papers that do not have the necessary statistical information. Further analyses are conducted to detect and estimate potential publication bias. Based on the empirical synthesis, the paper evaluates several explanatory factors and offers suggestions for future research.

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Amid a dizzying array of social media, the ground of activism has fractured into decentered knots creating a cacophony of panmediated worlds. Our analysis of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) offers a preliminary charting of the fragmenting of the old media world into a proliferation of social media worlds. On old media, OWS was stillborn, first neglected, and then frivolously framed. On social media, OWS's emergence was vibrant, its manifestations much discussed, celebrated, and attacked. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube create new contexts for activism that do not exist in old media. Plus, social media foster an ethic of individual and collective participation, thus creating a norm of perpetual participation. In OWS, that norm creates new expectations of being in the world.

Although early work experiences during high school represent one of the most consistent predictors of postschool employment for young adults with disabilities, little is known about how these adolescents might access these valuable transition experiences. This study examined the summer employment and community activities of 136 high school students with severe disabilities. The majority of youth was either not working (61.7%) or reported sheltered employment (11.1%). The most prominent predictors of summer employment status were holding a job during the spring semester and teacher expectations for employment. Recommendations for research and practice focus on increasing the capacity of schools, families, and communities to support the involvement of youth with severe disabilities in meaningful summer activities.

To understand the mechanisms underlying narrative persuasion, a growing body of theoretical and empirical work suggests that narratives reduce audience resistance, possibly via narrative engagement. To synthesize this research, we performed a two-part meta-analysis using three-level random-effects models. Part I focused on experimental studies that directly compared narratives and non-narratives on resistance. Based on 15 effect sizes from nine experimental studies, the overall effect size was d = −.213 (equivalent r = −.107; p < .001), suggesting that narratives generated less resistance than non-narratives. Part II was a synthesis of studies of the relationship between narrative engagement and resistance, consisting of 63 effect sizes from 25 studies. Narrative engagement and resistance were negatively correlated (r = −.131; p < .001), and this relationship was moderated by narrative message characteristics, including genre, length, medium, and character unit. Implications of our findings and directions for future research are discussed.