Persuasive Effects of Linguistic Agency Assignment and Linguistic Markers of Argumentation in Health Messages about an Emerging Sexually Transmitted Disease.

Answering the call by some health communication researchers to give greater attention to message strategies at the level of word choices and sentence structures, this study examined how the linguistic marking of argumentative orientation and linguistic agency assignment affects young adults' reactions to an informational message about a sexually transmitted infection presented as a new emerging health threat. Participants were randomly assigned to read one of the four versions of a fact sheet defined by a 2 × 2 (agency assignment x marking of argumentation orientation) factorial design and thereafter completed a questionnaire. Results indicated that the assignment of agency to the virus (vs. human) increased the perceived severity of the health threat, perceived susceptibility to it, persuasiveness of the message, and safer sex intentions. The same outcomes occurred when the message was phrased with a high marking of the argumentative orientation rather than a low marking. These findings suggest that a better understanding of language variable effects can boost the efficacy of promotional health messages.

HIV/AIDS prevention and media campaigns: limited information?

This piece begins with a brief literature review that focuses upon how media attempt to make sense of news events and construct meaning about HIV/AIDS. We then focus specifically on a linguistic process identified in French dailies in articles about the prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS, namely, the presence of certain adverbs. The impact of this linguistic process is also investigated in an experimental study. The results indicated that participants who were exposed to a message within which epidemiological data were marked by such adverbs compared to those who processed a message without such an adverbial marking expressed a higher level of perceived risk and declared a stronger intention to use a condom and to practice a screening test. They also judged the epidemiological situation as more serious and were more supportive of a coercive management of the epidemic. These effects also appeared when the message referred to a sexually transmitted infection with which the subjects were not familiar.

Investigation of effects of face rotation on race processing: an ERPs study.

Recent ERP research has indicated that the processing of faces of other races (OR) and same race (SR) as the perceiver differs at the perceptual level, more precisely for the N170 component. The purpose of the present study was to continue the investigation of the race-of-face processing across multiple orientations. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) and performance were recorded when Caucasian participants were required to categorize by race Caucasian and African faces presented in eight different angles of orientation. Three main observations were made: (1) the face-sensitive N170 is modulated by the race of faces, being larger in response to OR compared to SR faces; (2) face rotation affected this component in the same pattern for both racial groups; (3) the N170-ORE progressively disappeared as the faces moved away from their canonical orientation at the right hemisphere only. Thus, the current findings suggest that configural/holisitic information is extracted from faces of both racial groups, but that upright OR faces require increased demands.

Preventing without stigmatizing: the complex stakes of information on AIDS.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact that the marking of the argumentative orientation and the temporal framing of the HIV incidence can have on the intent to adopt preventive behavior and the attitude towards the fight against AIDS. METHODS: We elaborated a text presented as an epidemiological information message about HIV/AIDS in which we varied the marking of the argumentative orientation (high marking versus low marking) and the framing of the HIV infection (yearly estimates versus daily estimates). Subjects were asked to read it carefully and to answer some questions about their preventive intentions and opinions as regards the fight against AIDS. RESULTS: The high marking of the argumentative orientation and the daily estimates increase the subject's preventive intentions but also reinforce their support for a coercive management of the epidemiological situation. CONCLUSION: These results are discussed within the framework of critical studies on mass media and studies discussing the links between experienced stigmata, stress and psychological distress. Some limitations of our study are also considered. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This study could be useful for the designers of prevention campaigns aimed at the general public.