Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, MS 2051, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
Prev Sci. 2017 Nov;18(8):1006-1016. doi: 10.1007/s11121-017-0836-7.
For the current study, we developed and tested a biopsychological model to combine research on psychological tension, the Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Message Processing, and the endocrine system to predict and understand how people process anti-drug PSAs. We predicted that co-presentation of pleasant and unpleasant information, vs. solely pleasant or unpleasant, will trigger evaluative tension about the target behavior in persuasive messages and result in a biological response (increase in cortisol, alpha amylase, and heart rate). In experiment 1, we assessed the impact of co-presentation of pleasant and unpleasant information in persuasive messages on evaluative tension (conceptualized as attitude ambivalence), in experiment 2, we explored the impact of co-presentation on endocrine system responses (salivary cortisol and alpha amylase), and in experiment 3, we assessed the impact of co-presentation on heart rate. Across all experiments, we demonstrated that co-presentation of pleasant and unpleasant information, vs. solely pleasant or unpleasant, in persuasive communications leads to increases in attitude ambivalence, salivary cortisol, salivary alpha amylase, and heart rate. Taken together, the results support the initial paths of our biopsychological model of persuasive message processing and indicate that including both pleasant and unpleasant information in a message impacts the viewer. We predict that increases in evaluative tension and biological responses will aid in memory and cognitive processing of the message. However, future research is needed to test that hypothesis.
本研究旨在开发并验证一个整合心理学紧张度、动机中介信息加工的有限容量模型和内分泌系统的生物心理学模型，以预测和理解人们对反毒 PSA 的处理方式。我们预测，与仅呈现愉悦或不愉快信息相比，同时呈现愉悦和不愉快信息会在劝导信息中引发对目标行为的评价性紧张，并导致生物反应（皮质醇、唾液淀粉酶和心率增加）。在实验 1 中，我们评估了劝导信息中同时呈现愉悦和不愉快信息对评价性紧张（表现为态度矛盾）的影响；在实验 2 中，我们探讨了同时呈现对内分泌系统反应（唾液皮质醇和唾液淀粉酶）的影响；在实验 3 中，我们评估了同时呈现对心率的影响。在所有实验中，我们都证明了劝导信息中同时呈现愉悦和不愉快信息，与仅呈现愉悦或不愉快信息相比，会导致态度矛盾、唾液皮质醇、唾液淀粉酶和心率增加。总之，这些结果支持我们劝导信息处理的生物心理学模型的初始路径，并表明在信息中同时包含愉悦和不愉快信息会对观看者产生影响。我们预测，评价性紧张和生物反应的增加将有助于信息的记忆和认知处理。然而，需要进一步的研究来验证这一假设。
