How Conversational Goals Predict Sexual Self-Disclosure Decisions.

Communicating verbally about sexual topics is one aspect of sexual communication, and romantic partners have to choose whether to disclose sexual information. The present study used conversational goals - what one hopes to accomplish in the conversation - to examine how people decide whether or not to engage in sexual self-disclosure. In an online survey, romantically involved participants (n = 428) provided data on four conversational goals (instrumental, impression management, identity, and relational), disclosure efficacy, disclosure anxiety, and likelihood to sexually self-disclose. Mediation model results indicated that the instrumental goal was directly associated with greater likelihood to disclose while the impression management goal was directly associated with less likelihood to disclose. The instrumental, impression management, and relational goals were indirectly connected with the likelihood to sexually self-disclose as mediated by disclosure efficacy and anxiety. The results highlight the importance of considering conversational goals perspectives when studying communication about taboo topics. Implications for future research are discussed.

Tobacco-prevention messages online: social marketing via the Web.

Antitobacco groups have joined millions of other commercial or noncommercial entities in developing a presence on the Web. These groups primarily represent the following different sponsorship categories: grassroots, medical, government, and corporate. To obtain a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the message design of antitobacco Web sites, this project analyzed 100 antitobacco Web sites ranging across these four sponsorship categories. The results show that the tobacco industry sites posted just enough antismoking information to appease the antismoking publics. Medical organizations designed their Web sites as specialty sites and offered mostly scientific information. While the government sites resembled a clearinghouse for antitobacco related information, the grassroots sites represented the true advocacy outlets. In general, the industry sites provided the weakest persuasive messages and medical sites fared only slightly better. Government and grassroots sites rated most highly in presenting their antitobacco campaign messages on the Web.