Affective disposition and cognitive processing in dysphoria: a time-frequency EEG study

To date, affective disposition and cognitive processing of emotional stimuli in individuals with depressive symptoms have not been fully explored within the same framework. Time-frequency analysis of electroencephalographic activity allows to disentangle the brain's parallel processing of information. The present study employed a time-frequency approach to simultaneously examine affective disposition and cognitive processing during the viewing of emotional stimuli in dysphoria. Time-frequency event-related changes were examined during the viewing of pleasant, neutral and unpleasant pictures in 24 individuals with dysphoria and 24 controls. Affective disposition was indexed by delta and alpha power, while theta power was employed as a correlate of cognitive elaboration of the stimuli. Cluster-based statistics revealed a centro-parietal reduction in delta power for pleasant stimuli in individuals with dysphoria than controls. Also, dysphoria was characterized by an early fronto-central increase in theta power for unpleasant stimuli relative to neutral and pleasant. Instead, controls were characterized by a late fronto-central and occipital reduction in theta power for unpleasant stimuli relative to neutral and pleasant. The present study granted novel insights on the interrelated facets of affective elaboration in dysphoria, mainly characterized by an hypoactivation of the approach-related motivational system and a sustained facilitated cognitive processing of unpleasant stimuli.

Just a Glance, or More? Pathways from Counter-Attitudinal Incidental Exposure to Attitude (De)Polarization Through Response Behaviors and Cognitive Elaboration

Using two-wave U.S. panel survey data, this study proposes a moderated serial mediation model to examine through what paths and under what conditions incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal information on social media would enhance or mitigate polarization. The findings suggest that such exposure can indirectly polarize attitude by eliciting passive scanning behaviors, but it can also indirectly attenuate attitude polarization first through active engagement with the counter-attitudinal information, then through cognitively elaborating on the information. However, the indirect depolarizing effect of incidental exposure to counter-attitudinal information on citizens’ attitude depends on the extent to which they are instrumentally motivated. The indirect effect occurs when an individual’s perceived utility of counter-attitudinal information is at a high and a middle level, but not at a low level. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Music Lessons for the Study of Affect

Some accounts of the evolution of music suggest that it emerged from emotionally expressive vocalizations and serves as a necessary counterweight to the cognitive elaboration of language. Thus, emotional expression appears to be intrinsic to the creation and perception of music, and music ought to serve as a model for affect itself. Because music exists as patterns of changes in sound over time, affect should also be seen in patterns of changing feelings. Psychologists have given relatively little attention to these patterns. Results from statistical approaches to the analysis of affect dynamics have so far been modest. Two of the most significant treatments of temporal patterns in affect—sentics and vitality affects have remained outside mainstream emotion research. Analysis of musical structure suggests three phenomena relevant to the temporal form of emotion: affect contours, volitional affects, and affect transitions. I discuss some implications for research on affect and for exploring the evolutionary origins of music and emotions.

Thinking, checking and learning: testing a moderated-mediation model of social media news use conditional upon elaboration on political knowledge via fact-checking

PurposeEmploying the cognitive mediation model, the study aims to examine a moderated-mediation mechanism of social media news use contingent upon elaboration on political knowledge through fact-checking – specifically, the interaction effect of social media news with elaboration on fact-checking.Design/methodology/approachThe moderated-mediation model is tested using panel survey data collected during the 2016 USA presidential election (N = 1,624 at Wave 1; N = 637 at Wave 2).FindingsThe findings reveal that social media news users are frequent visitors of fact-checking websites. Results also suggest that those with increased social media news use and cognitive elaboration on news content are more likely to visit fact-checking sites, which contributes to increased political knowledge.Originality/valueThe results of the current study, especially in the era of social media environment where various information is overflowing, suggest an important role of individuals' responsibility as democratic citizens given that people's cognitive elaboration and surveillance efforts, which tries to think about important public issues they consume through media, could strengthen a positive pathway toward informed citizens.

Responses to pictorial versus text-only cigarillo warnings among a nationally representative sample of US young adults

BackgroundThe US Food and Drug Administration requires six text-only warnings for cigar products, including cigarillos. Research has demonstrated the superiority of pictorial over text-only cigarette warnings, yet the relative effectiveness of pictorial warnings for cigarillos has not been examined. We examined the impact of pictorial cigarillo warnings compared with text-only warnings.MethodsData were collected from a nationally representative sample of US young adult (18–29) cigarillo users and susceptible non-users. Participants were randomised to one of three experimental conditions: text-only or one of two pictorial conditions (combined for analyses). For each warning, we assessed negative emotional reactions, cognitive elaboration (ie, thinking about cigarillo risks) and perceived message effectiveness (PME).ResultsParticipants (N=661) were 46.5% female, 64.7% white and 21.9% Hispanic; 34.1% reported past 30-day cigarillo use; 41.4% were lifetime users (excluding past 30-day use); and 24.4% were susceptible non-users. Pictorial warnings elicited more negative emotional reactions and higher PME than text-only warnings (p values<0.01), with interactions showing the largest effects for past 30-day users (emotional reactions: d=0.99, PME: d=0.63). For cognitive elaboration, there was no main effect of warning type, but an interaction revealed effects for past 30-day users (p<0.05, d=0.46).ConclusionsPictorial cigarillo warnings elicited greater negative emotional reactions and PME compared with text-only warnings. These effects and the effects on cognitive elaboration were strongest for past 30-day users. Our findings extend research on cigarette warnings to cigarillos, demonstrating that pictorial warnings are superior to text-only warnings for cigarillos in eliciting beneficial responses.

Designing Social Media Fundraising Messages: An Experimental Approach to Understanding How Message Concreteness and Framing Influence Donation Intentions

This experiment examined the effects of fundraising message characteristics on donation intentions through a simulated social media campaign. A 2 (abstract vs. concrete message) × 2 (gain vs. loss framing) between-subjects experiment ( n = 213) revealed that a message with detailed fundraising outcomes elicited a greater intention to donate through heightened perceived message credibility, perceived transparency, cognitive elaboration, and empathy. Gain and loss framing, however, did not result in significant differences in donation intentions. Theoretically, this study uncovered the psychological mechanisms through which message concreteness increases donation intentions. Practically, results of this study provided implications for drafting effective fundraising messages that can be disseminated on social media.

Influence of Psychological Distance on People’s Willingness to Help Accident Victims: Discrepancies Between Implicit and Explicit Inferences

Drawing on construal-level theory, this study explored how a sense of psychological distance from an accident influences people’s willingness to help victims. We conducted a scenario experiment with a sample of 81 Japanese undergraduates. Participants were presented with a short scenario describing an accident that happened on either a distant or a nearby mountain. The results show that the greater the distance perceived by participants from the accident, the more likely they were to infer negative traits about the victim at an implicit level. However, the more they inferred negative traits at an implicit level, the more likely they were to attribute the cause of the accident to external situational factors, at an explicit level. Finally, explicit external causal attribution aroused greater sympathy for the victim, resulting in an increased willingness to help. This discrepancy between implicit and explicit inferences was discussed in terms of cognitive elaboration, in which people engage in helping behaviors when they feel responsible for the fate of the victim.

A galaxy of apps: Mobile app reliance and the indirect influence on political participation through political discussion and trust

The power of app-driven mobile phones was first unleashed in 2011 when they were used to mobilize protesters and gain support for political movements in the United States and abroad. Mobile devices have since become the bedrock of political activism. To examine the influence of app reliance on offline and online political participation, this study builds on the Orientation-Stimulus-Reasoning-Orientation-Response (O-S-R-O-R) model by (a) applying the model to mobile apps, (b) testing whether trust in, and reliance on political discussion are mediators between reliance on apps and political participation, and (c) using trust in both offline and online discussion as measures of cognitive elaboration. This study’s path model suggests that app reliance is related to online political discussion, which, in turn, is related to online political participation, but not offline participation. Although both offline and online discussion are linked to offline and online trust in political discussion, trust in political discussion does not influence either offline or online political participation.

Closing the Knowledge Gap: How Issue Priming Before Presidential Debate Viewing Encourages Learning and Opinion Articulation

One mechanism by which citizens learn about candidates and issues is through watching presidential debates. Some scholars have raised concerns that these events, however, disproportionately benefit those already high in political knowledge more so than others with lesser knowledge levels. We hypothesize that knowledge begets knowledge because it prompts a constructive cognitive process that results from elaboration and reflection. We test this hypothesis in an experiment that also considers whether issue priming could help mitigate the deficit that those lower in political sophistication have when viewing campaign events. Participants ( N = 543) watched a 9-minute segment focusing on economic issues drawn from the first 2020 presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joseph Biden. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to an issue priming condition and viewed the debate segment after reading a narrative text on economic policy, and the other half read an unrelated text. The study presents a model that reveals the following: (a) cognitive elaboration mediates the relationship between prior political knowledge and learning from a campaign event, (b) providing citizens with background issue–related knowledge produces a similar elaborative effect as did preexisting political knowledge, and (c) participants demonstrate greater political opinion articulation following this enhanced elaboration leading to more learning. The implications for cultivating a knowledgeable democratic electorate are discussed.

Do Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies Increase Consumers’ Purchase Intentions? The Role of Cognitive Elaboration and Shopping Goals

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the “virtual try-on” technology (AR) and the “3D virtual store” (VR) incorporated in an apparel retail website on purchase intentions. This study highlights the mediating role of cognitive elaboration in the process through which these technologies influence purchase intentions, and examines the way consumers’ shopping goals (searching vs. browsing) interact with the website technology and influence their responses. The two experiments demonstrated that, for browsers, the website with VR was more effective in increasing purchase intentions than were the website with AR or a regular website with no technology, while for searchers, both the website with AR and the website with VR were more effective than was a regular website. In addition, cognitive elaboration mediated the interaction between a technology and a shopping goal on purchase intentions for browsers, while such a mediating effect was not found in searchers.