This study examines the effectiveness of elevator TV advertising by investigating how visual complexity and information accessibility influence viewer responses. Drawing on processing fluency theory, it compares one- and two-layer advertisement formats with and without QR codes. An experimental design was employed to assess the main and interaction effects of advertisement format and QR code accessibility. Electroencephalogram data were also collected to measure viewers’ concentration across different advertisement designs. The results indicate that QR code presence significantly improves viewer responses, whereas visual complexity alone has no significant effect. However, a significant interaction between visual complexity and QR code accessibility suggests that QR codes are more effective in simpler formats in spatially constrained environments, enhancing advertising effectiveness overall.
While temple bell sounds and children’s voices add atmosphere and vitality to cities, complaints about these sounds are increasing. This study examines the psychological mechanisms underlying complaints about noise pollution near parks and temples. Two randomised control trials, each with a unique sample of 2,000 Japanese participants, were conducted. The results demonstrate that the spread of social media has upended the spiral of silence theory, resulting in disregard for the silent majority’s opinions. Utilizing cognitive dissonance theory insights, the negative impact of women’s trade-off between careers and pregnancy is extended to complaints about children’s voices. The study finds that women who gave up pregnancy for their careers have difficulty accepting children’s voices.
This paper examines the impacts of between the depictions of destinations on Instagram and tourists' real experiences. Based on on design, the study considers online survey of 816 travellers, interviews with 23 participants, and analysis of 240 Instagram posts from 12 locations. testing of model connects media use, inflation, authenticity dissonance, and travel outcomes, including and post-trip disappointment. Findings indicate that increased Instagram use predicts inflation and authenticity dissonance, especially among younger consumers and those in collectivist societies, yet disappointment is minimised by rising media literacy and normalisation practices. Systematic visual manipulation is identified, along with content that blends criticism and curated aesthetics. The study conceptualises an emergent hybrid traveller who engages critically with media and reports lower disappointment.
This article examines how digital transnationalism shapes the intersectional identities and multi-local belongings of second-generation Ghanaian students in Leicester’s higher education institutions. Drawing on Anthias’ concept of translocational intersectionality, the study explores how digital technologies influence identity construction and belonging within ethnically diverse academic environments. Using qualitative data from focus groups, interviews, and participant observation, the findings show that students negotiate selfhood through overlapping dimensions of race, gender, generation, and cultural heritage. Digital platforms enable the maintenance of transnational ties while facilitating new forms of self-representation and community engagement. The study argues that second-generation Ghanaian identities are fluid, relational, and digitally mediated, contributing to broader debates on digital transnationalism, diaspora, youth cultures, and belonging in multicultural societies.
This study examines global terrorism and extremism discourses among social media users using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework. The purpose is to investigate how terrorism is framed and discussed across different cultural and geopolitical contexts by social media users. The research analyzes social media content from multiple platforms and regions. The focus is on how individuals propagate, resist, or contest extremist ideologies. Findings reveal that while extremist narratives are prevalent, counter-narratives by users offer significant resistance, with discourses varying based on regional and cultural factors. This study is original in its focus on user-driven content and its comparative, global approach. It thereby fills a gap in the literature that has predominantly focused on Western contexts.
This study investigates the role of injunctive and descriptive social norms and their interplay with conservation values on adolescents' evaluation and sharing of misleading news. The research, conducted with 353 Italian adolescents (mean age = 14.4, SD = 0.75), utilized a novel conversational web app to measure responses to fabricated misleading news. Results indicate that both descriptive and injunctive norms significantly predict the intention to share, with descriptive norms also influencing news evaluation. Conservation values moderate these effects: security enhances the link between descriptive norms and sharing intentions, while conformity strengthens the connection between descriptive and injunctive norms. These findings highlight the roles of social norms and conservation values and their interaction on misleading news evaluation and sharing in this age group, suggesting that research on misinformation should also consider the social context in which adolescents live and develop. By integrating social norms and value orientations, this study advances current research by highlighting how adolescents’ social context and motivational values jointly shape misleading news evaluation and sharing. Implications include designing interventions aimed at promoting social skills useful for recognizing and resisting social influence, raising awareness regarding social cues influence and interventions that promote social norms against misinformation.
The sense of authority reflects the confidence others have in a speaker. Although some studies have found that volume and tone affect the sense of dominance, which is closely related to the sense of authority, there has been a lack of research on the direct effect of sound on the sense of authority. This study aims to systematically investigate the influence of sound on the sense of authority from the aspects of loudness and tone. The results showed that volume had a significant effect on the speaker's sense of authority and reading aloud could effectively improve the sense of authority. But No significant effect of tone on authority was found either in the Stroop paradigm or in the embodied paradigm.
Amid persistent xenophobic and racist attitudes and even denial of immigrant students’ presence, this study examines social media discourse targeting them in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Using a qualitative netnographic approach, it analyzes posts, likes, shares, and comments on Facebook and Instagram. A dataset of 876 posts reveals dominant narratives portraying immigrant students as economic, cultural, or security threats. The findings show that such rhetoric harms students’ social and educational experiences, fostering isolation and marginalization. The study underscores the powerful role of media framing in shaping public perceptions and highlights the need for more balanced, inclusive representations. It also offers insights that inform pedagogical considerations and responses to discrimination in educational contexts.
This study examines Chinese consumers’ responses to manipulative digital advertising by integrating survey data and a controlled experiment. A mixed-methods design was employed, combining survey data and a between-subjects experiment (N = 180), with participants randomly assigned to one of four advertising conditions (control, fear, scarcity, or social proof). The results showed that although 96.7% of respondents acknowledged the influence of digital advertising on their purchasing decisions, manipulative strategies significantly increased purchase intention compared to neutral advertising. Fear and scarcity appeals significantly reduced perceived ethicality and trust, whereas social proof produced weaker reputational costs. The study identifies a persuasion paradox: manipulative tactics undermine trust and ethical perceptions while maintaining strong direct effects on purchase intention.
This study examines how socially constructed gender norms shape individuals' consumption preferences and how exposure to counter-stereotypes can challenge these patterns. We found that when making decisions for themselves, men prefer products related to intelligence, whereas women prefer products that enhance physical attractiveness (Study 1). Furthermore, we reveal that this relationship between gender and product preferences also emerges when individuals make purchase decisions for the other gender. In addition, exposure to counter-stereotypes moderates this effect (Study 2). This research is one of the first to examine how socially constructed gender norms shape consumption preferences and suggests that gender-stereotyped engagement with societal expectations can be mitigated by exposure to counter-stereotypes (e.g. reading a text in contrast to a stereotype).
Past research has found a lack of stereotype threat effects with various explanations. Across four studies, we investigated participant skepticism toward blatant stereotype threat (vs. control) materials by measuring women’s personal beliefs and perceptions of the experimenter’s beliefs about gender differences existing on an upcoming math test. The results supported personal skepticism: participants perceived the experimenter as holding stereotyped beliefs on the task to a greater degree than the participants did themselves, regardless of stereotype threat materials. Although participants’ beliefs and their perceptions of the experimenter’s beliefs did not explain performance, anticipation of their data being used to test for gender differences did. Findings are discussed in relation to why blatant threat materials may fail to produce stereotype threat effects.
This study investigates the impact of natural elements in shopping mall design on environmentally friendly consumption, focusing on the roles of natural elements, product pricing, and price differences. The results show that the presence of natural elements in the retail environment significantly increases consumers' willingness to engage in eco-friendly purchasing behavior. Overall, as the price of environmentally friendly products increases and the price gap between eco-friendly products and conventional products widens, consumers' purchase intentions tend to decrease. However, when the price difference is moderate, natural elements can effectively increase consumers' acceptance of higher-priced eco-friendly products. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how retail environmental design influences sustainable consumption and offers practical, design-based interventions to promote environmentally responsible consumer behavior.
Decades of research show that social touch enhances interpersonal connection, from increasing relationship satisfaction to fostering prosociality among strangers. We tested whether a simple hug could increase Social Interest between strangers. Experimenters approached people on campus and invited them to join a study on touch. If they agreed, they were randomly assigned to either receive a hug or not. Afterward, the experimenter invited them to view vacation photos, with viewing time and number of photos serving as measures of Social Interest. Among 330 participants, those who received a hug showed greater Social Interest, and the more they liked the hug, the stronger the effect. Hugs between new acquaintances may promote connection.
We propose a taxonomy of seven social influence strategies and 42 techniques for interpersonal dialogue across diverse settings. Perceptions of these techniques, gathered from 164 UK participants, show persuasive techniques as low-harm and covert, while manipulative-coercive techniques are high-harm and overt. Ambiguities exist where some techniques fit both categories, highlighting significant variability in individual perceptions. We highlight that even benign techniques like humour or friendliness can covertly bypass defences, hiding the speaker's true intentions. This work underscores the importance of understanding receiver perceptions of social influence techniques across a range of settings, including interactions with large language models (LLMs), which may employ such techniques. By offering a universal taxonomy of social influence techniques and associated public perceptions, we aim to enhance understanding of social influence in varied conversational contexts.
Far-right parties are often stigmatized in societies with strong anti-discrimination norms, yet their exclusionary nativist policies can attract broad public support. Drawing on minority influence theory, this research examined whether such support increases when nativist policies are dissociated from far-right parties and presented in a media context shaped by negative immigration news. Across five experiments in Switzerland (N = 1,423), participants evaluated a nativist policy either associated or not with a far-right party, following exposure to positive or neutral/negative immigration news. Results showed that dissociating the policy from the far right reduced emotional discomfort and increased support—particularly under neutral or negative news conditions, but not under positive news. These findings suggest that negative immigration news helps normalize nativist policies.
Assimilation and integration into the dominant culture are key motives for minorities. In Poland, LGBT+ individuals use the Rainbow Madonna (Virgin Mary with a rainbow halo) to show their Christian identity and be accepted by the heteronormative majority. However, literature suggests that not all assimilative strategies may be effective, although evidence remains limited. In an experiment (n = 780) conducted in Poland, we examined the Christian majority's reactions to the use of the Rainbow Madonna symbol during a Pride March event. We found that the use of the Rainbow Madonna symbol (vs. a regular rainbow symbol) led to lower endorsement of the Pride March and increased negative affective reactions towards the event. The use of the symbol also led to lower acceptance of LGBT+ individuals and more dehumanization of the minority. Describing the symbol as representing the Christian identity of LGBT+ individuals reduced negative reactions but did not eliminate them. Our study reveals challenges to the emancipation strategies of LGBT+ individuals.
This paper proposes that environmental pioneers can drive norm change by adopting an ideological minority position that accentuates the group's distinct sustainable identity. We studied 107 Dutch-speaking participants in three online group discussions with a vegan confederate, using a longitudinal design with 4 timepoints. Contrary to prior work suggesting that vegans evoke resistance, our findings demonstrate shifts towards veg*nism in participants' attitudes, behaviors, and biospheric values. Two change trajectories emerged depending on (experimentally manipulated) group value orientation: diversity-valuing groups demonstrated a gradual norm shift through elaboration on the vegan perspective, while similarity-valuing groups shifted faster to a prototypical vegan pioneer. Group dynamics revealed that consensualisation predicted norm perceptions across conditions, while conformity pressure mattered only in similarity-valuing groups.
Second-person reference frequently appears in advertisement translation. This research explores a poeticized form in English-Chinese translation, namely the 'adjective + second-person pronoun' ('adj. + SP') structure, and aims to investigate Chinese readers' reception of this structure. We first conducted an online questionnaire survey to study Chinese readers' subjective impression of various SP structures. Then, we implemented an eye-tracking experiment to investigate participants' pupil response. The questionnaire survey shows that the texts with the 'adj. + SP' structure are rated higher. The eye-tracking experiment reveals that participants demonstrated higher pupil dilation when reading texts with the 'adj. + SP' structure. The results suggest that the poetic use of SPs as in the 'adj. + SP' structure can be an effective method of engaging Chinese readers.
Perceptions of inequality are highly consequential and ethno-racial minority members often face unequal treatment, but we know little about minority influence on perceptions of inequality. Therefore, we ask whether ethno-racial minority youth’s inequality perceptions are shared in diverse friend groups. Using Belgian CILS data among stratified random samples of 1800 ethno-racial minority & 1700 majority youth nested in 433 classes across 69 schools (2 waves), we combined social network data with longitudinal multilevel modeling. Ethno-racial minority and majority youth alike shared perceptions from minority friends; mainly majority youth also shared perceptions from majority friends. Only minority friendship effects are replicated longitudinally. The findings suggest minority influence so that youngsters perceived inequality from their minority friends’ perspective.
