Research explains why some television editorials are effective in altering attitudes and behavior while others are not. (RB)

This study sought to show that motivated biases can be shown for positive, as well as negative, behaviors. In the first study college students (N=151) estimated how often they and their fellow students engaged in various positive and negative health-related behaviors. Results indicated all negative behaviors yielded the predicted pattern: subjects…

Newspaper action line columns which stress problem solving get more inquiries than those which merely provide information. (RB)

Notes that short-term exposure to nonviolent sexual media stimuli can produce cognitive changes in men which can affect their behavior toward women. Explores differences among these behavioral effects in a group of male and female undergraduate students based upon sexual degradation in film content and male viewers' gender schematicity. Discusses…

This paper describes and reports research on a model of the determination of behavioral intention by belief structures, derived from a theory proposed by Don Dulany in 1968. The new model construes "belief structures," and defines message variables, in ways suggestive for communication research. Findings reported support several…

Only about 9% of the eligible American population actually donates blood, and the rate of donors who fail to give a second time is very high. Since many people who view blood-giving as a humanitarian act also see it as an unpleasant experience, persuasive appeals that promote a sense of moral obligation may be ineffectual in prompting donations. A…

Compared alcohol consumption patterns of Oklahoma students (N=534) with students from Texas and New England. Regional differences were found, with a high incidence reported by all samples. The most abstainers, particularly females, were from Oklahoma. Oklahomans resembled New Englanders more than Texans in greater quantity and frequency of…

Argues that maintaining a distinction between public and private spheres of behavior can obscure the inequities experienced by lesbian and gay persons in the public sphere of academia. How distorted logic supports the public/private dichotomy is demonstrated through interviews of a lesbian faculty member. (SLD)

Cohabitating college couples (N=89) responded to a questionnaire pertaining to their current sexual relationships and individual sexual behavior patterns, historical and present. Results indicate that those individuals, especially the males, had been unusually precocious in their sexual development. (Author)

Many people hold negative attitudes toward older adults, and these attitudes often are associated with negative behavior toward the old. To explore the behavioral correlates of attitudes toward the elderly, 105 male and female college students, with a mean age of 24.5 years, participated in a two-phase experiment. During phase one, all subjects…

Empirical studies that demonstrate probable gender biased perceptions resulting from the use of man-linked words and third-person, singular masculine pronouns are reviewed in this paper. Among the findings revealed by the review are: (1) there is a tendency for people to perceive man-linked words as more likely to refer to men than to women; (2)…

This paper offers the hypothesis that in times of low collective excitement rumors in a complex society whose content is beyond normal social discourse (a spectral rumor, for instance) will increasingly exhibit one or the other, or both, of two legitimizing agents--authority and mass media--as a means of gaining greater plausibility and…

Investigated the implicational relations between dispositional levels and relevant categories of behavior. Findings were consistent with the idea that dispositional labels are used to represent a central tendency in a person's behavior. (Author)

Examines the persuasive message behaviors of truthful and deceptive communicators. Finds significant differences in the types of persuasive messages generated: truthful persuaders compose messages involving positive and negative sanctions; deceptive persuaders compose messages based on rationale or explanation. (KEH)

The reward-cost model of helping behavior in emergency situations suggests that the probability that an observer will help a victim depends, in part, on the relative strength of the rewards and costs of providing help. Factors that influence willingness to help in non-emergency situations were examined using descriptions of situations in which a…