Suchergebnisse

In response to the recent sea star wasting disease event and the growing concern over the negative consequences of eco-depression regarding environmental crises, this study investigated the effects of two emotional appeals (sadness and hope) and their interaction with gain versus loss framing on information seeking, policy support, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Overall, the results suggest that the sadness appeal was an effective approach in promoting information seeking and policy support, whereas the impacts of the hope appeal were limited in this context. In addition, this study provides initial evidence that a sadness appeal will be more effective when it is accompanied by gain framing and that a hope appeal tends to have greater impacts when it is juxtaposed with loss framing. Future implications and limitations are also discussed.

Abstract
Rapid innovations in media technologies have ushered in diverse entertainment avenues, including politically oriented content, presenting both novel opportunities and societal challenges. This study delves into the implications of the burgeoning deepfake phenomenon, particularly focusing on audience interpretation and engagement with deepfake parodies, a quintessential example of "misinfotainment." Additionally, it examines the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) disclaimers on audience understanding and related consequences. To probe this, two experiments (N = 2,808) were executed featuring parodied politicians adopting opposing viewpoints on the issue of climate change. U.S. participants were either exposed to deepfake videos prefaced with AI disclaimers or without. Results indicate that the inclusion of an AI disclaimer significantly influenced audience comprehension and their ability to recognize the parody. These factors were subsequently associated with enjoyment, discounting, and counterarguing, which in turn showed different relationships with policy support and sharing intentions. This article culminates with insights into the theoretical underpinnings and practical ramifications of these findings.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to inflict damage throughout the world, some minority groups are bearing a disproportionate share of its impacts. We concentrated on one such group, U.S.-dwelling Chinese, who have had to cope with challenges related to acculturation, health, safety, and racism. Recognizing that health information seeking was an essential step in helping maintain and improve health behaviors, we conducted a two-wave longitudinal study ( N = 1,284) to examine the various factors predicting U.S.-dwelling Chinese's use of U.S. and Chinese media for COVID-19 information as well as the consequences of their information seeking. Overall, we found that acculturation, accuracy (i.e., information insufficiency) and defense (i.e., conspiratorial beliefs) motivations, trust in media, and perceived information gathering capacity played a key role in explaining information seeking from an intercultural viewpoint, and that the use of U.S. and Chinese media was associated with different health behaviors. These findings contribute to theory and practice in a variety of ways.

The current study examined the effects of aggressive communication styles on individuals' pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Two underlying mechanisms—psychological reactance and expectancy violation—as well as the moderating role played by political ideology were investigated. An online experiment ( N = 423) was conducted and the results showed that more aggressive style was more likely to trigger psychological reactance and violation of expectation, liberals responded more negatively to the aggressive message than conservatives, and expectancy violation was an important mediator. The findings provide explanations for how communication styles affect individuals' information processing and offer implications regarding selecting communication styles wisely.

Social media platforms like Twitter offer scientists the opportunity to share professional, personal, and scientific information with the public. This study explores the effects of these self-disclosure types. In an online between-subjects experiment ( N = 1458), participants rated scientists who disclosed personal information as more likable but less competent, and scientists who disclosed professional information as more competent and engaging. Subsequently, these perceptions influenced tweet engagement and certain scientific attitudes. Social presence served as a mediator between self-disclosure and perceptions. These findings broaden our understanding of science communication on Twitter as situated within a social media platform.

AbstractEffectively communicating the risks associated with emerging zoonotic diseases remains an important challenge. Drawing on research into the psychological effects of metaphoric framing, we explore the conditions under which exposure to the "nation as a body" metaphor influences perceived risk susceptibility, behavioral intentions, and policy support in the context of Zika virus. In a between‐subjects experiment, 354 U.S. adults were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions as part of a 2 (severity message: high vs. low) × 2 (U.S. framing: metaphoric vs. literal) design. Results revealed an interaction effect such that metaphoric (vs. literal) framing increased perceived risk susceptibility in the high‐severity condition only. Further analyses revealed that perceived risk susceptibility and negative affect mediated the path between the two‐way interaction and policy support and behavioral intentions regarding Zika prevention. Overall, these findings complement prior work on the influence of metaphoric framing on risk perceptions, while offering practical insights for risk communicators seeking to communicate about Zika and other zoonotic diseases.

AbstractPrevious research suggests that when individuals have limited knowledge to make sense of new or emerging technologies, they may rely more on available cues, such as the fairness of those managing the risks, when developing their attitudinal and behavioral responses to the technology. To examine this further, we designed an online experiment (N = 1,042) to test the effects of risk managers' nonoutcome fairness on individuals' selective exposure to additional information and perceived risk. As the study context, we used the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), which uses drilling to tap deep underground sources of heat for district heating and electricity and remains low in familiarity among the U.S. public. The results suggest that participants who read about the fair risk manager were subsequently more likely to have positive attitudes toward EGS development. In turn, those with more positive attitudes were more likely to select and read positively valenced articles about EGS, resulting in an indirect effect of the fairness condition. Although this study also explored whether uncertainty moderated this fairness effect on information seeking, it found no evidence. Additionally, when participants were exposed to information featuring fair risk managers, perceived risk decreased, an effect that was mediated by beliefs that EGS was controllable and not dreadful. These results underscore the importance of using practices that will increase nonoutcome fairness in the introduction of new technologies.

According to Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory, the interaction between micro- and macro-factors improves human development. Previous studies suggest that community social capital, which refers to the interaction between residents and communities, promotes the subjective well-being of residents in residential communities. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this relationship. This study explored the link between community social capital and life satisfaction among urban residents and examined the mediating role of psychological flourishing and moderating effect of educational level. Data were obtained from a cross-community survey of 816 urban residents in China aged 20–60 years. The results indicated that psychological flourishing mediated the link between community social capital and life satisfaction among urban residents after controlling for gender, age, marital status, dwelling time, and monthly income. Furthermore, educational attainment moderated the association between community social capital and psychological flourishing. The mediating effect of psychological flourishing was stronger among residents with low educational attainment than those with high educational attainment, indicating that the benefits of community social capital were greater among the former group. This study extends our knowledge of the effect of community social capital on urban residents' subjective well-being, including its role in reducing educational inequality in human well-being.

AbstractSimultaneous partial nitrification, anammox and denitrification (SNAD) process for treating anaerobic digester liquor of swine wastewater (ADLSW) was achieved successfully in a continuous ‐flow biofilm reactor by gradually increasing the influent ammonium (

) concentration whilst controlling the low dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration. After 180 days of operation, the average removal efficiencies of

, total nitrogen (TN) and COD were 61.59, 55.76 and 75.21% respectively. Also, the average conversion efficiency

of total effluent nitrite and nitrate production to ammonia consumption was kept at about 0.053 at the last stage (days 181‐218). Anaerolineaceae (26.92%), Candidatus Brocadia (3.96%), Candidatus‐Kuenenia (4.69%), Armatimonadetes‐norank (4.25%), Limnobacter (4.15%), Xanthomonadaceae (3.07%) and Ignavibacterium (2.87%) were the dominant genera in the SNAD system for treating ADLSW. The quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) results further confirmed that the co‐existence and enrichment of anammox bacteria, ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB) and denitrifying bacteria (HB) in the bioreactor.

AbstractInstructional feedback has the power to enhance learning. However, learners do not always feel satisfied with their feedback experience. Simultaneously, little attention has been paid on investigating how feedback is implemented in online competency-based learning (CBL). CBL is an approach under which learning activities are organized in a non-linear manner to help learners achieve pre-defined competencies. This study applied a multiple case study method, and 17,266 pieces of the coded feedback text, given by instructors for three learning tasks from a blended undergraduate course, were analyzed. The results showed that instructors implemented 11 types of feedback. Feedback that was used to give praise was less effective, but was frequently used. Regulative feedback and emotional feedback can be very effective, but they were actually rarely used. Feedback for diagnosis, suggesting improvements, and praise was frequently and consistently used across tasks with different complexity. In contrast, feedback used for complementary teaching and time management, as well as emotional feedback were rarely used. Based on the obtained findings, the potential causes and suggestions for improving feedback implementation were discussed.

AbstractWhen deciding whether to vaccinate, people often seek information through consequential processes that are not currently well understood. A survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 2,091) explored the factors associated with intentions to seek influenza vaccine information in the 2018–2019 influenza season. This survey shed light on what motivates intentions to seek information about the influenza vaccine through the lens of the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model. The model explained information‐seeking intentions well among both unvaccinated and vaccinated respondents. Key findings show that informational subjective norms, information insufficiency, and different types of affect are strong predictors of information‐seeking intentions. Theoretical insights on extending the RISP model and practical guidance on designing interventions are provided.

Context
Improving awareness to prevent exposure to rabies from bats is a public health priority. However, messages about bats and rabies often sensationalise this issue and represent bats in a negative way, which can negatively affect support for bat conservation.

Aims
The conflicts between public health goals and conservation needs seem unavoidable but are not irreconcilable. Natural resource managers and public health officials can work together to ensure that the importance of preventing exposure to rabies from bats is effectively communicated while at the same time promoting public appreciation of bat species. One efficacious way of achieving this communication goal may be through careful design of message content. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of message design strategies in promoting rabies prevention and bat conservation.

Methods
This study tested messages in two USA National Park Service sites. Participants (n=480) were randomly assigned to one of four message conditions as part of a 2 (risk–benefit vs risk-only of bats)×2 (human blame vs bat blame for disease) between-subjects factorial design, or to a control (no message) condition.

Key results
The results show that all four messages were persuasive in promoting the rabies exposure prevention behaviour compared with the control condition. In addition, when participants were exposed to the bat-blame messages, more positive beliefs about bats were elicited if the messages included risk–benefit information rather than risk-only information.

Conclusions
Our study suggests that public health and wildlife conservation goals can be obtained simultaneously through careful message design.

Implications
For messages that focus on just the risk information about bats, we suggest at least mentioning anthropogenic factors contributing to the spread of diseases to avoid unintended negative consequences for bat conservation. If messages emphasise bats as the source for spreading diseases, mentioning the benefits of bats may generate more positive beliefs about bats. Both strategies require some modification of the mainstream messages about bats and rabies to meet both public health and conservation goals.