Social Influence and Persuasion in Media Messaging

Despite strident calls for the use of persuasion theories to guide the development and implementation of prevention campaigns, in far too many cases communication professionals have seemingly ignored this advice. Alternatively, the commendable campaigns based on solid theories of behavior change often draw on macro level approaches lacking specific guidance for message construction. That is to say, while persuasive advantage certainly can be gained by following general principles responsible for behavioral change (e.g. addressing social norms and improving self-efficacy perceptions), more specific guidance regarding the use of message features (e.g. sources, emotional tone, etc.) to achieve theoretical objectives would certainly enhance campaign impact. The programmatic research carried out by our lab has sought to isolate factors related to campaign target features and specific message characteristics responsible for persuasive success. Using both primary and secondary analyses of experiments and quasi-experiments, we are making incremental progress towards the development of an explanatory framework addressing key components of the communication process that make for campaign success. Results from a variety of federally-funded research projects will be presented with the goal of shedding light on possible mechanisms implicated in campaign success and failure.