Expectancy Violation and COVID-19 Misinformation: A Comment on Bogomoletc and Lee's “Frozen Meat Against COVID-19 Misinformation: An Analysis of Steak-umm and Positive Expectancy Violations”

The social media account for Steak-umm, a frozen food product, achieved notoriety in 2020 for its messages about how to evaluate the quality of information. Bogomoletc and Lee proposed that the positive reaction to these messages being posted by a brand account resulted from expectancy violations and verified their idea with an analysis of 1,000 randomly selected tweets responding to Steak-umm's tweets. This comment responds to their work from a public health perspective and asks whether the expectancies that were violated were also those of nonscientists in general, allowing the tweets to serve as relief amidst a cavalcade of misinformation about COVID-19.

Field Audit of Strength and Conditioning Coaches’ Instructional and Motivational Language Repertoire

Strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches must employ psychological skills to optimally motivate athletes and promote their well-being. Yet, S&C coaches feel uncomfortable in their ability to apply such skills, highlighting a need for the development of science-based, practical tools. The purpose of this study was to examine the verbal language used by S&C coaches in publicly available YouTube videos through the Psychological Capital Model (PCM) lens. Coaches’ statements (N = 178) were transcribed verbatim and coded into one of the eight dimensions of the PCM. Significant differences were found in S&C coaches’ use of the eight developmental dimensions of the PCM, x 2 (7, N = 173) = 139.52, p < .0001, C = .67. Three PCM developmental dimensions were overused (i.e., standard residuals ranging from +2.76 to +7.10; i.e., experiencing success/modeling others [n = 54, 31.2%], building efficacy/confidence [n = 48, 27.8%], and implementing obstacle planning [n = 34, 19.7%]), while five were underused (i.e., standard residuals ranging from -2.23 to -4.18; i.e., building assets/avoiding risk [n = 11, 6.4%], persuasion and arousal [n = 10, 5.8%], affecting the influence process [n = 9, 5.2%]), goals and pathway design [n = 5, 2.9%]), and developing positive expectancy [n = 2, 1.2%]). To facilitate the use of a more diverse set of psychological strategies, this study offers a collection of 40 practice- and science-based motivational statements – five for each of the eight PCM dimensions – that S&C coaches may use and build upon to improve their own coaching language and practices.

Explanatory Styles of Counsellors in Training

Explanatory style is based on how one explains good and bad events according to three dimensions: personalization, permanence, and pervasiveness. With an optimistic explanatory style, good events are explained as personal, permanent, and pervasive, whereas bad events are explained as external, temporary, and specific. For counsellors, an optimistic explanatory style creates positive expectancy judgments about the possibilities and opportunities for successful client outcomes. In this research study, we explored the explanatory styles expressed in 400 events (200 good events and 200 bad events) extracted from 38,013 writing samples of first year and final year graduate level counsellors in training. Across the three optimism dimensions and within good and bad events, there was one occurrence of a positive relationship between counsellor training time and the amount of expressed optimism. The implications of this study include the need to cultivate optimistic explanatory styles of counsellors in training and practicing counsellors.

Positive expectations predict improved mental-health outcomes linked to psychedelic microdosing

Psychedelic microdosing describes the ingestion of near-threshold perceptible doses of classic psychedelic substances. Anecdotal reports and observational studies suggest that microdosing may promote positive mood and well-being, but recent placebo-controlled studies failed to find compelling evidence for this. The present study collected web-based mental health and related data using a prospective (before, during and after) design. Individuals planning a weekly microdosing regimen completed surveys at strategic timepoints, spanning a core four-week test period. Eighty-one participants completed the primary study endpoint. Results revealed increased self-reported psychological well-being, emotional stability and reductions in state anxiety and depressive symptoms at the four-week primary endpoint, plus increases in psychological resilience, social connectedness, agreeableness, nature relatedness and aspects of psychological flexibility. However, positive expectancy scores at baseline predicted subsequent improvements in well-being, suggestive of a significant placebo response. This study highlights a role for positive expectancy in predicting positive outcomes following psychedelic microdosing and cautions against zealous inferences on its putative therapeutic value.

Frozen Meat Against COVID-19 Misinformation: An Analysis of Steak-Umm and Positive Expectancy Violations

COVID-19 has forced many businesses to adjust their communication strategies to fit a new reality. One surprising example of this strategy adjustment came from the company Steak-umm, maker of frozen sliced beef. Instead of finding new ways to promote its products, the company shifted its focus to the public’s urgent needs, breaking down possible approaches to navigating information flow during the pandemic. This resulted in overwhelming praise on social and news media, including almost 60,000 new Twitter followers within a week. Drawing on expectancy violation theory, this case study examines Steak-umm’s strategy, the content of social media responses, and why the approach was successful.

The Buffering Effect of Health Care Provider Video Biographies When Viewed in Combination With Negative Reviews: “You Can’t Fake Nice”

Background Patients seek information from numerous sources before choosing a primary care provider; two of the most popular sources are providers’ own online biographies and patient rating websites. However, prior research has generally only examined how these sources influence patients’ decisions in isolation. Objective This study aimed to determine how primary care providers’ online biographies and online patient ratings interact to affect patients’ decision making, especially in the face of negative reviews. Methods An 8-condition online experiment (n=866) was conducted, manipulating patient ratings and the timing of viewing a provider’s online biographical video (pre- or postrating viewing). Results When participants were shown a short video introduction of a provider after reading predominantly negative reviews a positive expectancy violation occurred, which was also related to more positive perceptions of the provider. When exposed to all negative reviews, 43% of participants indicated they would still choose to make an appointment with the provider, with many indicating that the video provided the evidence needed to help make up their own minds. Conclusions These findings are especially relevant to health care organizations seeking to combat a recent rise in fake patient reviews. Providing patients with realistic expectations of the care that clinicians can offer via their own online biographical videos can help counteract negative patient comments online.

C-40 Effects of Treatment Expectancy on Self-Report and Neuropsychological Outcomes in Neurofeedback for Young Adults Seeking Treatment for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

Objective Though there is evidence that expectancy can impact outcomes of heath treatments, the role of expectancy in neurofeedback (NFB) for ADHD remains unclear. A pilot study found large expectancy effects on self-reported symptoms in NFB, but mixed evidence for sustained attention performance. We further investigate the effects of treatment expectancy on self-reported ADHD symptoms and neuropsychological performance in NFB. Method Young adults seeking treatment for ADHD expected to receive active NFB, but instead were randomly assigned to receive sham treatment with false feedback indicating above average (positive expectancy; n = 26), below average (negative expectancy; n = 23), or average (neutral expectancy; n = 24) attentive states. Primary outcomes were report of ADHD symptoms, and performance on a sustained attention test and working memory test. Results Mixed ANOVAs revealed a significant interaction for ADHD symptom report (p < .001). Groups did not differ in pre-NFB symptom report (p = .56). Symptom report by the positive expectancy group decreased over time (p < .001) but increased among negative (p = .02) and neutral (p = .02) groups. Post-NFB symptom report was higher for negative expectancy relative to positive (p < .001) and neutral (p = .002) groups. There was no significant difference between positive and neutral groups (p = .37).There were no significant interactions for sustained attention and working memory. Conclusion Results indicate that treatment expectancies impact self-report of ADHD symptoms and should therefore be considered in clinical trials of NFB that measure outcomes via symptom report. Future studies examining expectancy effects on measures of other neuropsychological domains are necessary.

Sexual Dysfunction in Persons With Substance Use Disorders

Sexual dysfunction is commonly associated with the use of substances, in both men and women. This area requires prominent attention, particularly as the use of substances is often with the expectancy of improving an underlying sexual dysfunction or with a positive expectancy of enhancing sexual function. The chronic use of substances has a negative impact on sexual function and causes various kinds of sexual dysfunction in both men and women. In this narrative review, we look at the effect of various substances of abuse on sexual functioning and discuss management strategies in such situations.

Well That Was Unexpected: Effect of Intimacy and Commitment on Responses to an Interpersonal Expectancy Violation

This investigation explored the effect an individual’s level of relational commitment and intimacy has on his or her perceptions of and responses to a positive or negative expectancy violation performed by their dating partner. One hundred-ninety undergraduates were randomly assigned to read 1 of 4 scenarios depicting a situation involving their dating partner committing either a positive/negative expectancy violation. Participants were asked to assess the situation in terms of the nature of the expectancy violation (positive/negative), violation severity, and level of unexpectedness. Moreover, they were asked the extent to which they were willing to talk about the situation with the other person. Results found that perceived intensity of violations varied depending on both the nature of the expectancy violation and commitment/intimacy level. Highly committed/intimate respondents reported greater willingness to discuss negative expectancy violations with the other person than less committed/intimate respondents, but reported lower likelihood in using negativity as their strategy. Less committed/intimate respondents reported greater willingness to discuss positive expectancy violations compared to their highly committed/intimate counterparts.