Browsing by Subject "Message design"

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An integrated approach to metadiscourse in text-based masspersonal advice
(2023-04-21) Jia, Mian; McGlone, Matthew S., 1966-; Vangelisti, Anita L; Donovan, Erin E; Feng, Bo
In everyday interactions, people seek advice from others about personal relationships, self-development, or career development. How to communicate clear, polite, and effective advice is a question receiving increasing attention in communication research. Previous studies on message style have focused on linguistic politeness strategies such as conventional politeness markers and face-redressive expressions. Theories of interpersonal metadiscourse suggest that communicators regulate their message style by employing a wide range of linguistic devices such as frame markers (e.g., first, second, my point is) and hedges (e.g., probably, could, might). These devices, however, have not been fully explored in the advice-giving context. I argue that metadiscourse constitutes an essential collection of stylistic features that enable advisors to communicate their messages clearly, respectfully, and effectively. These markers are important in text-based masspersonal advice which features asynchronicity, interactivity, anonymity, accessibility and personalization. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, I designed two studies to examine the distribution and effects of metadiscourse markers in communicating text-based masspersonal advice. Study 1 was a corpus analysis of 120 “masspersonal” advice exchanges (i.e., advice that is tailored to individuals but is accessible to online groups). The results indicate that advisors strategically used interactive and interactional metadiscourse to fulfill different communicative purposes. Using a 2 (Hedges: present vs. absent) × 2 (Frame Markers: present vs. absent) × 2 (Scenarios: No Passion for Work vs. Ask for A Raise) between-subject factorial experiment, Study 2 tested the effects of metadiscourse on people's evaluations of advice quality and implementation intention. The results showed that using frame markers significantly improved participants' evaluation of advice quality and their intentions to take the advice. These main effects are mediated by advice clarity and advice quality. Using hedges also significantly elevated participants' evaluation of advice quality and this effect is mediated by advice quality. The two reported studies represent an interdisciplinary approach to exploring metadiscourse use in masspersonal advice-giving. The integration of metadiscourse extends the message style construct in advice research by moving beyond a focus on linguistic politeness and facework. This research aims to celebrate the very best human altruism of passing wisdom from one individual to another.
Don't tell me who to blame : persuasive effects of implicit arguments in obesity messages on attributions of responsibility and policy support
(2014-12) McGlynn, Joseph III; McGlone, Matthew S., 1966-; Bell, Robert A; Donovan, Erin E; Pennebaker, James W; Vangelisti, Anita L
Obesity is an epidemic that causes physical, emotional, and financial tolls for both individuals and communities. The United States experienced a dramatic increase in obesity rate from 1990-2010 (Flegal, Carroll, Ogden, & Curtin, 2010), with more than one-third of adults and 17% of children in the United States now considered obese (Ogden, Carroll, Kit, & Flegal, 2012). Although most people agree obesity is a problem (Oliver & Lee, 2005), it is a disease with multiple causes (Wake & Reeves, 2012) and no straightforward solution (Phil & Heuer, 2009). Informed by theory and research on agency and attributions, the current study examined effects of explicit arguments and linguistic agency assignment on attributions of responsibility for obesity and support for public obesity policies. Participants (N = 211) were randomly assigned to read one of six versions of a health flyer defined by a 3 x 2 (Explicit Argument x Agency Assignment) factorial design and thereafter completed a questionnaire derived from previous research. Respondents across conditions agreed that obesity is a serious health threat, but differed in how they attributed responsibility for the illness. Those who read a message that consistently assigned agency to the disease (e.g., Obesity causes health problems) endorsed genetics as the cause to a greater degree than others who read a different version assigning agency to humans (e.g., Obese people develop health problems). In contrast, the human agency version prompted higher attributions of individual responsibility and greater support for upstream public policies aimed at reducing obesity (e.g., a snack tax on junk food, eliminating soft drinks from public schools, adding warning labels to foods with high sugar content). Results suggest explicit arguments are less effective in shifting perceptions of a stigmatized health threat than the implicit arguments created by linguistic agency assignment. The findings demonstrate specific message features that affect social attributions of illness (Heider, 1958; Weiner, 2006) and perceptions of responsibility for the onset and solution of health problems (Barry, Brescoll, Brownell, & Schlesigner, 2009; Niederdeppe, Shapiro, & Porticella, 2011). Theoretical implications, practical applications, and future research directions are discussed.
Hate the sin, blame the sinner : the effects of language on attitudes toward substance use disorders
(2020-06-23) Tinlin, Charles Ryan; McGlone, Matthew S., 1966-
The reported study aims to explain the role syntactic choices, such as noun form, can have on the perceived persuasiveness of arguments related to opioid use disorders. In addition to these syntactical choices, the author was also interested in how semantic differences, such as argument frames, can influence persuasiveness. Participants (N=764) were exposed to one of eight op-ed style essays using different argument frames (health crisis vs. moral crisis), different noun forms referred to as actor nouns (addicts) and activity nouns (addiction), and different diagnostic labels (addiction vs. abuse). This study found that argument frames and nominal form can influence audience perceptions of agency and responsibility in people living with opioid use disorders. These differing perceptions of agency appeared to influence the persuasiveness of essays prescribing differing degrees of punishments for individuals’ living with substance use disorders.
Two essays on mobile marketing
(2023-04-22) Lan, Xing (Ph. D. in marketing); Duan, Jason; Mahajan, Vijay, 1948-; Sun, Tianshu; Rao, Raghunath
Consumers’ dependence on mobile technology for their daily personal and business dealings has created many new business touchpoints, which in turn bring about novel opportunities for marketers to understand consumers’ behavior and identify ways in which more effective marketing strategies can be utilized. In two essays, this dissertation explores two domains in mobile marketing where new insights can be gained. In the first essay, we leverage data collected from IoT sensors and combine with scanner transaction data to construct and estimate the entire offline conversion funnel for brick-and-mortar retail stores. We uncover the multi-stage effect of the marketing mix, and demonstrate the value of IoT data in enabling customized marketing strategies. In the second essay, we examine what makes mobile marketing communications effective by studying the design elements of app push notifications. We construct a theory-based framework and separate out the treatment effects of proposed design elements using a causal inference machine learning method. Our findings provide guidance for marketing managers on design choice that improves the effectiveness of future push messages.