Predictive Validity of an Empirical Approach for Selecting Promising Message Topics: A Randomized-Controlled Study

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• 作者：Stella Juhyun Lee ; Emily Brennan ; Laura Anne Gibson ; Andy S. L. Tan ; Ani Kybert-Momjian ; Jiaying Liu and Robert Hornik
• 刊名：Journal of Communication
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：June 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：66
• 期：3
• 页码：433-453
• 全文大小：428K
• ISSN：1460-2466

文摘

Several message topic selection approaches propose that messages based on beliefs pretested and found to be more strongly associated with intentions will be more effective in changing population intentions and behaviors when used in a campaign. This study aimed to validate the underlying causal assumption of these approaches which rely on cross-sectional belief–intention associations. We experimentally tested whether messages addressing promising themes as identified by the above criterion were more persuasive than messages addressing less promising themes. Contrary to expectations, all messages increased intentions. Interestingly, mediation analyses showed that while messages deemed promising affected intentions through changes in targeted promising beliefs, messages deemed less promising also achieved persuasion by influencing nontargeted promising beliefs. Implications for message topic selection are discussed.