Romantic comedies have long been understood to create unrealistic views of relationships. In the current study, we tested theory-driven corrective strategies for counteracting potentially harmful beliefs about romantic relationships. In an online experiment (N = 626), participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: to a no exposure control, to watch a romantic comedy scene without correction, to read a corrective article before viewing, or to read a corrective article before viewing and complete a counterarguing exercise after viewing. Results showed that both corrective treatments significantly reduced romantic belief endorsement. We also investigated narrative engagement factors as mediators of these effects. Media enjoyment, realism of specific scenes, and overall movie realism each mediated the effect of corrections on romantic belief endorsement. Our findings suggest theory-driven corrective strategies are effective for reducing idealistic beliefs associated with entertainment media and highlight key persuasive variables for future interventions.

Background Although a large body of research has identified challenges faced by women in STEM fields and strategies to improve the experience for women in STEM, little of this research has examined which strategies undergraduate women would recommend to their peers. In the current study, undergraduate women in STEM fields ( N = 89) wrote letters to younger women in STEM about their experiences. The participants were recruited from a small public liberal arts college and a large public research institution in the United States. Participants were juniors and seniors majoring in engineering, mathematics, computer science, physics, biological or biomedical sciences, and chemistry. Results Using thematic analysis, we identified seven types of advice. The participants shared advice about improving academically, forming communities, finding family support, and seeking out women role models. They also provided general words of encouragement and reassured women that everyone struggles, and failure is not indicative of their potential. In some cases, the letters were consistent with themes from prior research; however, other influences that have been studied by quantitative research were not prominent in women’s own advice to their fellow students. For example, although the letters focused on communal themes such as building community, they did not focus on the communal goal of helping others through their careers. Additionally, they highlighted the role of family, which has been relatively neglected in prior work. Conclusions The present research highlights which empirically supported theories about retention and success in STEM are reflected in students’ advice to others. These letters also provide insight into which obstacles and solutions were most salient for women students looking back on their undergraduate STEM careers. The women’s letters provide a rich understanding of how women navigate STEM fields and what they would tell future students about persisting in those fields.

The current research considers dual branding, where national brand manufacturers produce store brands against which they compete. Although agreements are confidential, rumors about the practice emerge. Thus, the authors examine the influence of dual branding rumor exposure on consumers’ respective national and store brand evaluations. The results support positive (negative) serial indirect effects of rumor exposure on participants’ store (national) brand evaluations through dual branding beliefs and comparative quality perceptions. In addition, smart shopper perceptions amplify the indirect effects of dual branding rumor exposure on store, but not national, brand outcomes.

Predicting film success has proven challenging, with prior research examining factors including budget, production studios, and stars, to varied degrees of accuracy. Missing was the impact of film scripts and latent linguistic features, examined here through textual analysis. Recent computational study identified the latent thematic content of nearly 200 romantic comedy films, revealing an increasing focus on romantic relationships and tumultuous courtship. We harness the same linguistic model to test whether changes in thematic content are associated with success in reviews, awards, and financial earnings. We find relationship-centered content is positively associated with earnings, mediated by the number of theaters.

Narratives can be effective tools for improving attitudes toward minority groups. The current study tested the potential for restorative narratives—stories of recovery that show the character strength and meaningful progression of an individual—to increase prosocial attitudes toward refugees. This experiment ( N = 597) compared narratives with and without restorative elements in a 2 (character strength: present vs. absent) × 2 (narrative ending: positive versus negative) design, including a no-message control group. Results suggested that narratives in general improved explicit attitudes toward refugees, as well as attitudes toward helping refugees, compared to the no-message control. Although the strength/positive ending restorative narrative was not more effective than other narratives, specific components of restorative narratives (e.g., strength-focus; positive ending) influenced the overall emotional experience.

Popular films within the romantic comedy genre set social expectations for romantic relationships, sexual activity, and gender roles, especially for young audiences. Nevertheless, academic research on the genre is scarce and mostly limited to manual content analyses conducted on relatively small samples of films. To systematically examine trends in thematic content and social messages in romantic comedy scripts over time, we harness a novel computational method, the ANalysis of Topic Model Network to analyze 188 scripts of top-grossing romantic comedies in the United States between 1980 and 2019. We estimate the dynamic prevalence of themes in the dialogue and demonstrate the increasing focus on romantic relationships at the expense of other life aspects in recent decades. We demonstrate how this trend systematically resulted in an increase in the prominence of misleading and detrimental messages about romantic relationships. The theoretical, social, and practical implications of our findings are discussed. Public Policy Relevance Statement This study uses a computational method for the analysis of big textual data to examine the scripts of almost 200 popular romantic comedies. An analysis over time of changes in discourse between 1980 and 2019 reveal an increasing focus on romantic relationships at the expense of other life aspects, such as work and religion. We complemented the bird's-eye view computational analysis with close reading and analysis of the specific topics that were prevalent in the films over time.

Media coverage often construes stories of misfortune as inspirational accounts of individuals overcoming challenges. These reports fail to address the systemic issues that have predisposed these individuals to their current situation, and may have unintended consequences when it comes to the ability to collectively address these failings as a society. The current research examines how audiences are affected by inspirational narrative framings by comparing responses to a narrative that has inspirational coverage of a social challenge to one that includes direct acknowledgement of the larger systemic failings. Participants (N = 495) were randomly assigned to 1) read an inspirational story about a boy saving up to buy a wheelchair for his friend, 2) read a version of the story that emphasized the need for increased disability funding/services, or 3) a no-story control group. Both story conditions raised readers’ willingness to help people with disabilities. Importantly, emphasizing social responsibility shifted readers’ perceptions: readers of the social responsibility story were less likely to believe an individual with a disability was responsible for paying for their medical devices, believed that some collective measures would have higher efficacy, and viewed the situation as less fair. Even though individuals in the social responsibility condition found the story less enjoyable, they were equally transported into it compared to the inspirational version, and were equally likely to want to share the story with others. Our results offer clear guidelines for media practitioners covering individual struggles and systemic issues within society.

In a 2 (choice) X 2 (message format) study (N = 283), participants were randomly assigned to either have a choice or no choice in message format and to read either a narrative or a non-narrative. They then completed a quiz on the material. We examined whether dispositional tendency to become transported into a narrative (transportability) would increase learning from narrative material, and whether manipulations would affect quiz scores, satisfaction, or performance self-esteem. Choice led to higher quiz scores but did not improve satisfaction or performance self-esteem. Transportability did not predict participants' choice in material, but it was correlated with higher quiz scores for narrative readers. Findings suggest some educational benefit from choice and matching to narrative-relevant personality traits.

Informed by research on trait empathy and eco-guilt and their impacts on environmental behaviors, this paper explores whether the themes from a pro-environment video game spur environmental behavior and intention to engage in future environmental behavior. Hypotheses were tested through a lab experiment and an online experimental survey. Across both studies, eco-guilt was significantly related to environmental behavioral intention. Further, exposure to a trailer for the video game increased environmental behavioral intention among adult participants who reported less pro-environment attitude. Trait empathy was also a significant predictor of environmental behavioral intention. Results indicate that environmental communication needs to harness the power of guilt, as a moral emotion, to promote environmental behavior. Further, visual communication about environmental issues may be particularly effective among individuals who normally do not pay much attention to these topics.

Stories may provide a useful way of communicating about health and promoting engagement for health promotion campaigns. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of a particular type of narrative, restorative narratives (stories that highlight hope and resilience), relative to negative narratives (stories that focus on suffering or challenges). We also tested the effect of labeling the story as fact or fiction. The results suggested that restorative narratives may foster greater prosocial behavior than negative narratives and effectiveness does not differ depending on whether a story is labeled as "factual" or "fictional." Our findings offer encouraging implications for future promotional efforts by health organizations.

Becker and Neuberg (this issue) present a theory of archetypes as a consequence of evolutionary dynamics and personal experience. In particular, they suggest that archetypes are tendencies that hav...

Service provider absenteeism is defined as an instance in which a preferred service provider is not present at the expected time of service provision. Service provider absenteeism is a topic that has remained untouched in the relationship marketing literature, and yet instances of service provider absenteeism may represent possible transformational relationship events (Harmeling, Palmatier, Houston, Arnold, and Samaha, 2015). As such, this topic should be of concern to practitioners and academics alike. The purpose of the present research is to begin the process of understanding the effects of service provider absenteeism on business-to-consumer relationships. In order to understand absenteeism, we first conducted a review of teacher absenteeism and general workforce absenteeism. Next, we provide an overview of the research methodology and results. Due to the exploratory nature of this study, the authors utilize critical incident technique to examine themes among and categorize instances of service provider absenteeism. Using an internet-based platform, 178 incidents were collected. In these incidents, the authors find two emergent consequences of absenteeism (emotional consequences and resolutions). Based on these emergent themes, the authors identify three categories of service provider absenteeism effects. These are inconsequential, consequential-harbored, and consequential-settled. Inconsequential cases are cases in which the emotional response to the event was weak or nonexistent. Respondents sometimes made positive assumptions about why the provider was not present, but others demonstrated a jaded attitude toward service provision. In these cases, respondents were generally indifferent to future encounters. In consequential-settled cases, strong negative emotional responses were usually reported. Unique to these cases were that some form of settlement, understanding, or resolution seemed to be reached, or the respondent made assumptions about why the provider was not present so as to put negative feelings to rest. Often times, these respondents were not opposed to future interactions, but reservations or lowered expectations were often reported. In consequential-harbored cases, which are the largest group of cases, respondents harbor ill will toward the service provider. While it was not always clear whether or not service providers had made an attempt to provide an explanation or apology, it was frequently observed that respondents either did switch providers, wished that they could switch providers, or entertained the idea of switching service providers. The authors close with managerial implications and suggestions for future research. The authors specifically discuss working toward a model that explains the effects of service provider absenteeism on customer loyalty and switching behavior.

Retailers increasingly utilize private label branding strategy in an effort to simultaneously increase store loyalty and compete with national brands (Ailawadi and Keller 2004; Nies and Natter 2012). Previous research suggests consumers are not only receptive to the notion of private label consumption but in many cases prefer retailer brands over their premium brand competitors (Neilsen 2011; Thomassen et al. 2006). From a supply perspective, many national brand manufacturers, or “dual branders” (ter Braak et al. 2013: 87), produce private label brands to optimize outcomes from the channel relationship (Chen et al. 2010; Kumar et al. 2010). Dual branders do not volunteer this information to prevent loss of the national brand market share due to narrowing gaps between quality perceptions of premiums and private labels (Sethuraman and Raju 2012; Steenkamp et al. 2010). Consequently, consumers are often only able to rely on superficial signals (e.g., packaging or price) to evaluate the origins and quality of private-label products. However, consumers can be inadvertently exposed to dual branding knowledge through other communications such as a manufacturer’s announced product recall or word-of-mouth from others. Thus it is important for marketing researchers to understand how consumers react to the knowledge that two differently priced, competing brands are sourced by the same manufacturer. In response, this research examines the influence of dual branding on customers’ respective brand evaluations through the mechanism of their comparative quality perceptions. Results of the analyses suggest that exposure to dual branding does influence consumers’ comparative quality perceptions between competing private and premium brands, which in turn significantly impacts respective brand evaluations. Specifically, comparative quality perceptions facilitate the indirect effects of dual branding information, which positively (negatively) influences private (national) label evaluations.

Since the publication of Dwyer, Schurr and Oh's (1987) paper, understanding and managing on-going relationships with exchange partners is an important issue in the marketing literature. However, most of the empirical research to date focuses on dyadic relationships within a business-to-business context (see, e.g., Anderson and Weitz 1992; Morgan and Hunt 1994). The issue of relationships in the context of consumer marketing receives relative neglect in academic research (see Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995). Some notable exceptions include Bendapudi and Berry's (1997) theoretical framework for understanding consumer motivation for maintaining a relationship with a service firm and Gwinner, Gremler and Bitner's (1998) empirical examination of the benefits received by consumers as a result of engaging in long-term relational exchanges with service firms. The present research investigated the impact of a select set of firm-level and situational variables on a customer's psychological attachment to a firm.

This research focuses on how an individual's self-construal (interdependent and independent) together with advertising format influences the evaluation of advertisements as well as the advertised brand. In the context of comparative versus noncomparative ad formats we examine the influence of self-construal in two distinct product categories: a high cognitively involving product and a low cognitively involving product. We suggest that ads that are presented in a format (comparative versus noncomparative) that are aligned to be congruent with the individual's self construals will generate more positive attitudes when promoting low cognitively involving product. Results of an experiment designed to assess the effects of congruity of formats provide reasonable support for the hypotheses. Implications for managers and academicians are discussed.

Public managers who are the gatekeepers regarding the informational content of communication systems have to be especially cognizant of which resources to provide on public owned systems. At times, online solutions provided by the government may involve referring citizens to for-profit firms through hyperlinks on governmentowned Web sites (Sellitto & Burgess, 2005). The inclusion of one firm over another on government Government Web Sites as Public Forums Web sites has been noted to be a real concern for public managers (Menzel, 1998). In this article, we employ a legal perspective to examine the ramifications of public information strategies that allow firms to have hyperlinks embedded within the content of public information systems. This perspective allows the public information manager to make informed decisions when developing government portal strategies.

This paper investigates Willingness to Accept (WTA) Genetic Modification (GM) foods based on experimental auctions carried out in the USA, UK and France. It explores perceptions of risk and benefits, moral concerns and their antecedents, attitudes to the environment and technology and trust in various sources using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Trust in information provided by industry proved to be the most important determinant of risk/benefit perceptions and WTA followed by general attitudes to the environment and technology. Education and age are also enhance perceived benefits and lower perceived risks of GM. Perception of risk/benefit and moral concerns all have significant effects on consumers' WTA but the perceived benefits are most important. The research suggests that trust-building by industry would be the most effective in enhancing GM acceptance.