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Tobacco Control Dec 2003Epidemiological studies and reports on smoking and health published in the 1950s and 1960s threatened the tobacco industry worldwide, which acted to reassure smokers and... (Review)
Review
"Some convincing arguments to pass back to nervous customers": the role of the tobacco retailer in the Australian tobacco industry's smoker reassurance campaign 1950-1978.
BACKGROUND
Epidemiological studies and reports on smoking and health published in the 1950s and 1960s threatened the tobacco industry worldwide, which acted to reassure smokers and counteract mounting evidence that smoking posed a serious risk to smokers' health.
OBJECTIVE
To document the use of tobacco retailers (1) as a conduit to pass messages of reassurance onto smokers, and (2) to recruit youth and women into smoking.
METHODS
Review of an extensive collection of Australian tobacco retail trade journals (1950-1978) for articles consistent with the industry's efforts to counter messages about smoking and health, and how to attract non-smokers, particularly youth and women.
RESULTS
The main arguments advanced in the journals included the notion that air pollution and other substances cause cancer, that "statistics" did not constitute proof in the tobacco health scare, and that the industry was committed to research into the causes of cancer and into developing a "safer" cigarette.
CONCLUSIONS
Numerous articles designed to be reiterated to customers were published, arguing against the link between tobacco and ill health. Tobacco retailers, salesmen and retail trade organisations played a significant role in dissembling the tobacco health nexus. Tobacco retail journals may be an important component in tobacco industry misinformation strategies.
Topics: Anxiety; Attitude of Health Personnel; Biomedical Research; Expert Testimony; Humans; Marketing; Periodicals as Topic; Persuasive Communication; Public Opinion; Safety; Smoking; Tobacco Industry
PubMed: 14645943
DOI: 10.1136/tc.12.suppl_3.iii7 -
Progress in Transplantation (Aliso... Mar 2013Successful transplant medicine hinges on consent to deceased organ donation. Yet rates of consent remain suboptimal. To increase the availability of transplantable... (Review)
Review
Successful transplant medicine hinges on consent to deceased organ donation. Yet rates of consent remain suboptimal. To increase the availability of transplantable organs, several policy strategies along with a rich body of evidence aimed at identifying best practices for obtaining consent have accumulated. This review describes past and current policies and practices, presents evidence illustrating the impact of these policies and practices on consent, and summarizes future directions and recommendations for the field. Key findings include evidence that although past policies such as required request have been unsuccessful, the recent policy, first-person authorization, shows promise. Additionally, practices such as decoupling and detailed discussions of brain death are unwarranted. On the other hand, the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaboration was successful. We also underscore the impact of alternative procedures such as donation after cardiac death. Last, effective communication that is delivered by trained, caring requesters at the appropriate time, in a supportive environment, and allows sufficient time for families to make an informed decision, optimizes the request process. Organ procurement organizations' adoption of such request practices, implementation of evidence-based policies regarding donation after cardiac death, and further investigations of the medical basis for dual brain death examinations are recommended.
Topics: Brain Death; Death; Decision Making; Humans; Informed Consent; Persuasive Communication; Professional-Family Relations; Public Policy; Tissue and Organ Procurement; United States
PubMed: 23448829
DOI: 10.7182/pit2013801 -
CoDAS 2016To describe how public prosecutors self-assess their communication approaches and how listeners react to them; to analyze how this relates to gender, age, and work...
PURPOSE
To describe how public prosecutors self-assess their communication approaches and how listeners react to them; to analyze how this relates to gender, age, and work experience.
METHODS
Descriptive, transversal study. A questionnaire was developed and sent to 126 public prosecutors for completion. Thirty-three completed questionnaires were sent back. The independent variables were gender, age, and number of years of professional experience. The dependent variables were communication self-assessment throughout the years of work, communication parameters used, and listeners' reactions. A descriptive analyzis and Fisher's Exact Test was carried out.
RESULTS
the sample contained both male and female participants with a median age of 43 years and an average of 20 years of professional experience. Most of the respondents claimed they had experienced demotivation, insecurity, tension, and difficulty when trying to convince listeners. More women than men reported they felt that their communication had worsened throughout their careers. All the women reported they experienced insecurity when speaking in public. One third of the public prosecutors stated they suffered from disorders on their voice. Those respondents aged over 43, experienced greater proportion on voice change than younger ones. In contrast to their younger colleagues, the majority of public prosecutors with more than 20 years of professional experience revealed that they felt insecure when speaking in public.
CONCLUSION
the public prosecutors identified their strong and weak communication parameters. Gender, age, and work experience affect communicative performance.
Topics: Adult; Age Factors; Brazil; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Lawyers; Male; Persuasive Communication; Self-Assessment; Sex Factors; Speech Perception
PubMed: 27849215
DOI: 10.1590/2317-1782/20162015238 -
Journal of Medical Internet Research Aug 2017The combination of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in automated interventions is a new and promising approach for healthy lifestyle management. (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
The combination of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in automated interventions is a new and promising approach for healthy lifestyle management.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to identify key components of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching in automated healthy lifestyle interventions that contribute to their effectiveness on health outcomes, usability, and adherence. A secondary aim was to identify the way in which these key components should be designed to contribute to improved health outcomes, usability, and adherence.
METHODS
The scoping review methodology proposed by Arskey and O'Malley was applied. Scopus, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and PubMed were searched for publications dated from January 1, 2013 to January 31, 2016 that included (1) self-tracking, (2) persuasive eCoaching, and (3) healthy lifestyle intervention.
RESULTS
The search resulted in 32 publications, 17 of which provided results regarding the effect on health outcomes, 27 of which provided results regarding usability, and 13 of which provided results regarding adherence. Among the 32 publications, 27 described an intervention. The most commonly applied persuasive eCoaching components in the described interventions were personalization (n=24), suggestion (n=19), goal-setting (n=17), simulation (n=17), and reminders (n=15). As for self-tracking components, most interventions utilized an accelerometer to measure steps (n=11). Furthermore, the medium through which the user could access the intervention was usually a mobile phone (n=10). The following key components and their specific design seem to influence both health outcomes and usability in a positive way: reduction by setting short-term goals to eventually reach long-term goals, personalization of goals, praise messages, reminders to input self-tracking data into the technology, use of validity-tested devices, integration of self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching, and provision of face-to-face instructions during implementation. In addition, health outcomes or usability were not negatively affected when more effort was requested from participants to input data into the technology. The data extracted from the included publications provided limited ability to identify key components for adherence. However, one key component was identified for both usability and adherence, namely the provision of personalized content.
CONCLUSIONS
This scoping review provides a first overview of the key components in automated healthy lifestyle interventions combining self-tracking and persuasive eCoaching that can be utilized during the development of such interventions. Future studies should focus on the identification of key components for effects on adherence, as adherence is a prerequisite for an intervention to be effective.
Topics: Health Promotion; Humans; Life Style; Persuasive Communication; Telemedicine
PubMed: 28765103
DOI: 10.2196/jmir.7288 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jun 2024Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have raised the prospect of scalable, automated, and fine-grained political microtargeting on a scale previously...
Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have raised the prospect of scalable, automated, and fine-grained political microtargeting on a scale previously unseen; however, the persuasive influence of microtargeting with LLMs remains unclear. Here, we build a custom web application capable of integrating self-reported demographic and political data into GPT-4 prompts in real-time, facilitating the live creation of unique messages tailored to persuade individual users on four political issues. We then deploy this application in a preregistered randomized control experiment ( = 8,587) to investigate the extent to which access to individual-level data increases the persuasive influence of GPT-4. Our approach yields two key findings. First, messages generated by GPT-4 were broadly persuasive, in some cases increasing support for an issue stance by up to 12 percentage points. Second, in aggregate, the persuasive impact of microtargeted messages was not statistically different from that of non-microtargeted messages (4.83 vs. 6.20 percentage points, respectively, = 0.226). These trends hold even when manipulating the type and number of attributes used to tailor the message. These findings suggest-contrary to widespread speculation-that the influence of current LLMs may reside not in their ability to tailor messages to individuals but rather in the persuasiveness of their generic, nontargeted messages. We release our experimental dataset, , as an empirical baseline for future research.
Topics: Politics; Humans; Persuasive Communication; Language
PubMed: 38848300
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2403116121 -
JMIR MHealth and UHealth Nov 2023Informal caregivers are vital in caring for their family and friends at home who may have illnesses or disabilities. In particular, the demands for caregiving can be...
BACKGROUND
Informal caregivers are vital in caring for their family and friends at home who may have illnesses or disabilities. In particular, the demands for caregiving can be even more challenging for those with limited resources, support systems, and language barriers, such as immigrant informal caregivers. They face complex challenges in providing care for their relatives. These challenges can be related to sociocultural diversity, language barriers, and health care system navigation. Acknowledging the global context of the increasing number of immigrants is essential in designing inclusive mobile health apps.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to investigate the needs of immigrant informal caregivers in Sweden and discuss the application of the Persuasive System Design Model (PSDM) to develop an e-coaching prototype. By addressing the unique challenges faced by immigrant informal caregivers, this study will contribute to the development of more effective and inclusive mobile health apps.
METHODS
The participants were considered immigrants and included in the study if they and their parents were born outside of Sweden. Through various channels, such as the National Association of Relatives, rehabilitation departments at municipalities, and immigrant groups, we recruited 13 immigrant informal caregivers. These immigrant informal caregivers were primarily women aged 18 to 40 years. Most participants belonged to the Middle Eastern region whereas some were from North Africa. However, all of them spoke Arabic. We used semistructured interviews to gather data from the participants in Arabic, which were translated into English. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis and discussed in relation to the extended PSDM. The needs of the caregivers were compared with the description of persuasive design principles, and a design principle was chosen based on the match. The PSDM was extended if the need description did not match any principles. Several brainstorming and prototyping sessions were conducted to design the mobile e-coaching app.
RESULTS
Immigrant informal caregivers have various needs in their caregiving role. They reported a need for training on the illness and future caregiving needs, assistance with understanding the Swedish language and culture, and help with accessing internet-based information and services. They also required recognition and appreciation for their efforts, additional informal support, and easy access to health care services, which can be important for their mental health. The PSDM was adapted to the informal caregiving context by adding "facilitating conditions" and "verbal encouragement" as additional persuasive design principles. This study also presents the subsequent mobile e-coaching app for immigrant informal caregivers in Sweden.
CONCLUSIONS
This study revealed important immigrant informal caregivers' needs based on which design suggestions for a mobile e-coaching app were presented. We also proposed an adapted PSDM, for the informal caregiving context. The adapted PSDM can be further used to design digital interventions for caregiving.
Topics: Female; Humans; Caregivers; Emigrants and Immigrants; Mentoring; Mobile Applications; Persuasive Communication; Male; Adolescent; Young Adult; Adult
PubMed: 37943598
DOI: 10.2196/50038 -
BMC Research Notes Jun 2017Health materials to promote health behaviors should be readable and generate favorable evaluations of the message. Processing fluency (the subjective experience of ease... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Health materials to promote health behaviors should be readable and generate favorable evaluations of the message. Processing fluency (the subjective experience of ease with which people process information) has been increasingly studied over the past decade. In this review, we explore effects and instantiations of processing fluency and discuss the implications for designing effective health materials. We searched seven online databases using "processing fluency" as the key word. In addition, we gathered relevant publications using reference snowballing. We included published records that were written in English and applicable to the design of health materials.
RESULTS
We found 40 articles that were appropriate for inclusion. Various instantiations of fluency have a uniform effect on human judgment: fluently processed stimuli generate positive judgments (e.g., liking, confidence). Processing fluency is used to predict the effort needed for a given task; accordingly, it has an impact on willingness to undertake the task. Physical perceptual, lexical, syntactic, phonological, retrieval, and imagery fluency were found to be particularly relevant to the design of health materials.
CONCLUSIONS
Health-care professionals should consider the use of a perceptually fluent design, plain language, numeracy with an appropriate degree of precision, a limited number of key points, and concrete descriptions that make recipients imagine healthy behavior. Such fluently processed materials that are easy to read and understand have enhanced perspicuity and persuasiveness.
Topics: Cognition; Health Education; Humans; Information Dissemination; Pamphlets; Persuasive Communication; Reading; Teaching Materials; Visual Perception
PubMed: 28595599
DOI: 10.1186/s13104-017-2524-x -
Medical Hypotheses Jun 2020Since tobacco remains a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, emphasis needs to be given to preventive approaches to tobacco consumption. Environmental and...
Since tobacco remains a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, emphasis needs to be given to preventive approaches to tobacco consumption. Environmental and policy strategies with fear appeals are important contributors to reductions in smoking prevalence. Fear appeals are persuasive messages-often using graphic and emotionally evocative imagery and language-that attempt to scare their audiences into tobacco cessation. While the intentions of fear appeals are benign, their effects are not necessarily so; here, we argue that some fear appeals carry a significant risk of backfiring by eliciting nocebo effects among its viewers. In this context, it is important to recognize that there is currently no justification for disregarding potential nocebo effects. Therefore, we should improve our understanding of nocebo effects in the field of preventive medicine, as well as the impact of strategies aimed at mitigating their negative health effects.
Topics: Humans; Nocebo Effect; Persuasive Communication; Nicotiana; Tobacco Products; Tobacco Use
PubMed: 32078961
DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2020.109615 -
Journal of Health Organization and... Jun 2019The purpose of this paper is to describe persuasive speech and discourses in multi-professional organizational change facilitation meetings at a hospital through...
PURPOSE
The purpose of this paper is to describe persuasive speech and discourses in multi-professional organizational change facilitation meetings at a hospital through rhetorical discourse analysis. Previous research has often considered organizational change to be a managerial issue, with other employees given the rather passive role of implementators. This study takes an alternative approach in assuming that organizational change could benefit by involving those who are most familiar with the tasks to be changed.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
The study employed a qualitative, case study approach and focused on the construction of a hospitalist model within multi-professional change facilitation meetings. Eight videos of these multi-professional change facilitation meetings - which occurred between January and September 2017 - were observed and the material was analyzed by rhetorical discourse analysis. An average of 10-20 actors from different professional groups participated in the meetings. The change actors comprised physicians, nursing staff and nursing managers, along with a secretary and hospitalist. The meetings were conducted by a change facilitator.
FINDINGS
The persuasive speech in the analyzed organizational change meetings occurred within five distinct discourses: constructing the change together, positive feedback, strategic change in speech, patient perspective and driving change. The content of these discourses revealed topics that are relevant to persuading members of healthcare organizations to adopt a planned change.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE
The presented research provides new knowledge about how persuasive speech is used in organizational change and describes the discourses in which persuasive speech is used in a healthcare context.
Topics: Group Processes; Hospital Administration; Humans; Organizational Innovation; Personnel, Hospital; Persuasive Communication; Speech
PubMed: 31282810
DOI: 10.1108/JHOM-12-2018-0366 -
Risk Analysis : An Official Publication... Oct 2022Psychological reactance theory posits individuals seek to restore freedom when threatened. Communication scholars have hypothesized persuasive messages can constitute...
Psychological reactance theory posits individuals seek to restore freedom when threatened. Communication scholars have hypothesized persuasive messages can constitute threats to freedom. The current study engages questions about the potential for different forms of narratives in public service announcements (PSAs) to trigger freedom threats by examining responses to a PSA campaign that utilized three forms of narrative (celebrity testimonials, peer testimonials, and accident stories) to decrease adolescent texting and driving intentions. Participants (N = 214) watched anti-texting and driving narratives, and completed measures of threat to freedom, anger, negative cognition, and attitudes/intentions toward texting/driving. Compared to celebrity/peer testimonial PSAs, accident stories triggered increased anger and, indirectly, decreased intentions to drive safely. The results also suggest the need for continued examination of the best way to model psychological reactance theory, and the value of further research explicating anger as a mechanism of message effects.
Topics: Humans; Adolescent; Intention; Persuasive Communication; Psychological Theory; Narration; Freedom
PubMed: 35104924
DOI: 10.1111/risa.13878