Lijiang Shen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3619780 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lijiang Shen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lijiang |
| FAMILY NAME | Shen |
| SIGNATURE | SHEN L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pennsylvania State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4870-4878 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 265 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 38 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
On the Impact of Chronic Message Fatigue on Informational and Behavioral Outcomes
305). Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed a positive association between exposure and fatigue within Wave 2, whereas exposure at Wave 1 negatively predicted fatigue at Wave 2. Within each wave, fatigue was negatively associated with adaptive behavioral intentions. Information-induced emotions, including hope, anger, and fear, significantly correlated with fatigue. Unexpectedly, information-seeking intent at Wave 1 predicted lower message fatigue…
A Conceptual Framework of Smartwatch Usage in Outdoor Recreation Activities
Persistence of Misinformation
Misinformation can be broadly defined as information that is inaccurate or false according to the best available evidence, or information whose validity cannot be verified. It is created and spread with or without clear intent to cause harm. There is well-documented evidence that misinformation persists despite fact-checking and the presentation of corrective information, often traveling faster and deeper than facts in the online environment. Dra…
The Role of Subjective Norm in Persuasion Through the Restoration of Personal Freedom
Human behavior is largely influenced by social norms. While the social norm approach is frequently used in public health campaigns, their effectiveness is inconsistent. This study investigated the role of normative reactance - the amplification of subjective norms as a means of restoring threatened freedom - across two health behaviors: college drinking and STD testing. A 2 (message threat: low vs. high) × 2 (health topic: college drinking vs. ST…
Does Character–Audience Matching Increase the Persuasive Impact of Anti-Sugar-Sweetened-Beverage (SSB) Consumption Messages
It is widely believed that persuasion is enhanced by including characters in a message whose features correspond with those of the audience. Matching on gender, age, and ethnicity may be especially appealing because these features are immediately perceivable. We examined the persuasive impact of matching on these variables using a large sample of real-world messages (k = 91) drawn from a single topic/context (messages that advocate for reduced co…
Toward a More Powerful Experimental Communication Science
Low statistical power undermines a credible scientific discipline. This paper presents a statistical power assessment of experimental communication research based on a random sample of 416 studies published in five central communication journals over the last two decades (2001–2023). Our analyses showed that there was a lack of attention to power and power analysis, with the majority of studies not even mentioning statistical power. We also demon…
The Role of Fatigue in a Campus Covid-19 Safety Behaviors Campaign
Message fatigue is the aversive motivational state that results from excessive exposure to campaign messages or similar information over an extended period of time. When fatigued, individuals become less attentive, less responsive, and more resistant to campaign messages and related information. Thus, understanding the bases and functioning of fatigue in persuasive health campaigns has obvious value. Despite considerable interest in this importan…
Racial Influences, Social Media Usage, and Vaccine Hesitancy
Toward Multidimensional Message Tailoring to Address Covid-19 and Influenza Vaccine-Hesitancy
Vaccines remain the best strategy as the COVID-19 pandemic enters into later stages and governments begin to shed pandemic-control measures. Vaccine hesitancy continues to be a major obstacle in efforts to end the pandemic. This study reports formative evaluation research that adopted a multidimensional approach using latent profile analysis to audience segmentation and message targeting. Within the framework of the integrated behavioral model, d…
Taking communication science and research methodology seriously
Quantifying Emotional Flow
This paper presents a longitudinal, latent growth curve (LGC) modeling approach to refine the emotional flow measure and hypothesis testing. Emotional flow is operationalized as the marked within-individuals variations in one or more discrete emotions over time, which can be modeled as the amount and shape of change in emotions during message exposure. Emotional flow effects are tested in the LGC framework using data collected from a web-based ex…
Persuasive Messages, Social Norms, and Reactance
Efforts by universities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 include health campaigns intended to encourage students to wear masks. While well-intended, these efforts may produce counter-persuasion (e.g., decrease masking) if they are seen as threatening individuals’ freedom to choose. In a rolling cross-sectional study of one university campaign (n = 681), we found that the presence of the campaign did instigate a form of resistance known as reactan…
Re-visiting hope as a discrete emotion and its role in Persuasion
Revisiting hope as a discrete emotion, we investigated hope as a central concept in this study. Hope was explicated as a positive discrete emotion associated with a nonzero but uncertain prospect (with a probability between 0 and 1) of an unattained goal. Hope can be successfully induced with messages that highlight a discrepancy between the current state and an unattained goal in tandem with a positive but uncertain prospect of goal attainment. …
Fear of cancer, its antecedents, correlates, and disease risk estimates
Individuals and society as a whole seem to be particularly fearful of cancer. A web-based study with data collected from Qualtrics panels in the United States ( N = 810) was conducted to investigate the antecedents, consequences, and correlates of fear of cancer. Comparisons were made across four cancers (lung, thyroid, pancreas, and melanoma) that varied in prevalence and death rate, and three non-cancer diseases (heart attack, diabetes, and HIV…
Spillover effects of anti-sugar-sweetened beverage messages
The Impact of Behavioral Topic on Psychological Reactance
Psychological reactance theory (PRT) proposes that the importance of freedom, along with threat to freedom and receiver personality trait, impacts the arousal of psychological reactance and the subsequent freedom restoration. This paper presents a 2 (threat: low vs. high) × 3 (source: the CDC, victim of the health issue vs. AI) × 2 (health topic: college drinking vs. STD) between-subjects experiment (N = 765) to test the potential effects of topi…
Confirmation Bias and the Persistence of Misinformation on Climate Change
A web-based two (preexisting position: correct vs. incorrect) by two (message type: scientific information vs. misinformation) by three (messages) mixed design experimental study was conducted to test confirmation bias as a mechanism underlying the persistence of misinformation on climate change and to examine attitude certainty as a moderator of confirmation bias. Data collected with Qualtrics panels demonstrated robust confirmation bias in mess…
The Third-Person Effect 40 Years After Davison Penned It
Forty years ago in 1983, W. Phillips Davison coined the term "third-person effect," generating a robust outpouring of research. This paper places the third-person effect in the contemporary age, one vastly different from the era in which Davison conceptualized perceptions of media effects. The article first describes the historical, sociological climate in which Davison operated, noting how the concept congealed with the intellectual zeitgeist of…
Examining and extending the influence of presumed influence hypothesis in social media
The influence of presumed influence hypothesis (IPI) is a communication theory accounting for the process of persuasive media effects. The present study integrates theoretical perspectives in persuasion and new and traditional media effects research to investigate the assumptions and explanatory mechanisms of IPI in an experiment. View numbers in social media directly predicted presumed exposure by others and indirectly predicted presumed influen…
Epistemic Egocentrism and Processing of Vaccine Misinformation (Vis-à-vis Scientific Evidence)
A web-based 2 (preexisting position: vaccine-inclined vs. -hesitant) by 2 (message type: scientific evidence vs. misinformation) experimental study was conducted to investigate individuals’ processing of misinformation (vis-à-vis scientific evidence) on the vaccine-autism link within the framework of epistemic egocentrism. Data (N = 996) collected with Qualtrics panel demonstrated that preexisting position shaped individuals’ responses to vaccine…
Who Will Be a Bystander? An Exploratory Study of First-Person Perception Effects on Campus Bystander Behavioral Intentions
A scale for a-holism in relational communication
A-holes threaten the overall well-being of many social systems. This study explicates, constructs, and validates a measure for a-holism in relational communication. We identified and constructed items for four dimensions of the a-holism construct: verbal aggression, dominance, entitlement, and resistance to feedback. An online survey was distributed to 315 adults about their perceptions of a-holes they have met in their lives and how they communi…
The psychological mechanisms of persuasive impact from narrative communication
This paper develops and tests a comprehensive psychological model of how narrative messages persuade. In this model, perceived realism and perceived similarity are considered as the antecedents of narrative engagement variables. There are three forms of narrative engagement, transportation, identification, and parasocial interaction, which are conceptualized as the primary mediating mechanisms. Message elaboration and psychological reactance are …
Threat Appeals as Multi-Emotion Messages
Not All Perceptual Gaps Were Created Equal
Explicating the third-person perception (TPP) as a cognitive fallacy in the process of comparative social judgment of media effects, we propose that not all self–other perceptual gaps in media effects should be considered as TPP. When there is reasonably valid and accurate information regarding self vis-à-vis others on media consumption and vulnerability to media influence, the associated self–other gaps in media effects are not exaggerations, he…
On the Nature of Reactance and its Role in Persuasive Health Communication
Reactance theory might be profitably applied to understanding failures in persuasive health communication but for one drawback: The developer of the theory contends that reactance cannot be measured. Rejecting this position, this paper develops four alternative conceptual perspectives on the nature of reactance (i.e., combinations of cognition and affect), then provides an empirical test of each. Two parallel studies were conducted, one advocatin…
Does Perceived Message Effectiveness Cause Persuasion or Vice Versa? 17 Consistent Answers
Can perceived message effectiveness (PE) be considered a cause of actual effectiveness (AE)? If so, PE judgments can be used as valid indicators of the persuasiveness of messages in the preimplementation phase of campaigns. In addition, manipulating PE may be a viable persuasive strategy. But, if the reverse causal sequence obtains (AE→PE), then the strategy would be ineffective and the utility of PE in formative campaign research meaningless. St…
Mitigating Psychological Reactance
Journal Article Mitigating Psychological Reactance: The Role of Message-Induced Empathy in Persuasion Get access Lijiang Shen Lijiang Shen 1Department of Speech Communication, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA 1Corresponding author: Lijiang Shen; Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Human Communication Research, Volume 36, Issue 3, 1 July 2010, Pages 397–422, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2…
Not All Perceptual Gaps Were Created Equal
Explicating the third-person perception (TPP) as a cognitive fallacy in the process of comparative social judgment of media effects, we propose that not all self–other perceptual gaps in media effects should be considered as TPP. When there is reasonably valid and accurate information regarding self vis-à-vis others on media consumption and vulnerability to media influence, the associated self–other gaps in media effects are not exaggerations, he…
Attitude Accessibility as an Alternative Explanation for How Inoculation Confers Resistance
Testing the Model of Influence of Presumed Influence in a Boundary Condition
We argue that evidence for and utility of the Influence of Presumed Influence (IPI) model lies in a robust causal chain in the form of self-exposure → other-exposure → perceived effects on others → behavior. A review of extant literature reveals competing theoretical explanations, as well as the possibility that a method factor (question order) could have driven the obtained models in structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses. The IPI model was…
Threat Appeals as Multi-Emotion Messages
The psychological mechanisms of persuasive impact from narrative communication
This paper develops and tests a comprehensive psychological model of how narrative messages persuade. In this model, perceived realism and perceived similarity are considered as the antecedents of narrative engagement variables. There are three forms of narrative engagement, transportation, identification, and parasocial interaction, which are conceptualized as the primary mediating mechanisms. Message elaboration and psychological reactance are …
Behavioral Activation/Inhibition Systems and Emotions
Using 16 television Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and with a 2 (valence)×2 (action tendency)×4 (sequence) mixed design, an experiment (N=245) examined the impact of behavioral inhibition/activation systems (BIS/BAS) on affect. Two hypotheses (valence vs. action tendency) derived from the nature of emotions and properties of BIS/BAS were tested against each other. Due to the censored distributions of emotion variables and the mixed design, t…
Spillover effects of anti-sugar-sweetened beverage messages
The Third-Person Effect 40 Years After Davison Penned It
Forty years ago in 1983, W. Phillips Davison coined the term "third-person effect," generating a robust outpouring of research. This paper places the third-person effect in the contemporary age, one vastly different from the era in which Davison conceptualized perceptions of media effects. The article first describes the historical, sociological climate in which Davison operated, noting how the concept congealed with the intellectual zeitgeist of…
Who Will Be a Bystander? An Exploratory Study of First-Person Perception Effects on Campus Bystander Behavioral Intentions
Threat appeals and persuasion
One of the earliest theories of threat appeals, the drive model, predicts that the fear–persuasion relationship is characterized by an inverted U-curve. Evidence of such a curve has proven elusive, probably because, in reality, there are two curvilinear hypotheses, not one. Existing primary studies and meta-analyses have tested the between-persons version of the inverted U-curve and found it wanting. In contrast, this study reports on a within-pe…
Attitude Accessibility as an Alternative Explanation for How Inoculation Confers Resistance
On the Nature of Reactance and its Role in Persuasive Health Communication
Reactance theory might be profitably applied to understanding failures in persuasive health communication but for one drawback: The developer of the theory contends that reactance cannot be measured. Rejecting this position, this paper develops four alternative conceptual perspectives on the nature of reactance (i.e., combinations of cognition and affect), then provides an empirical test of each. Two parallel studies were conducted, one advocatin…
Does Perceived Message Effectiveness Cause Persuasion or Vice Versa? 17 Consistent Answers
Can perceived message effectiveness (PE) be considered a cause of actual effectiveness (AE)? If so, PE judgments can be used as valid indicators of the persuasiveness of messages in the preimplementation phase of campaigns. In addition, manipulating PE may be a viable persuasive strategy. But, if the reverse causal sequence obtains (AE→PE), then the strategy would be ineffective and the utility of PE in formative campaign research meaningless. St…
On the Behavioral Component of the Third-Person Effect
This article examines the behavioral hypothesis of the third-person effect. It argues that self-other disparities in perceived message effects lead to specific rectifying behaviors due to, presumably, a recognition of the problematic situation defined by perceived effects. Such behaviors would be aimed at restricting messages with negative influence, correcting messages with ambiguous influence, and amplifying messages with positive influence. Th…
Understanding the Third-Person Perception
The third-person effect hypothesis has generated a vibrant research area. The expansion of this literature poses need for a systematic synthesis of the empirical evidence and assessment of the viability of various theoretical accounts. For this purpose, a metaanalysis is conducted on all published empirical studies of the perceptual component. This analysis covers 60 papers, 106 studies, and 372 effect sizes. Results from a series of multilevel m…
Believing in both genetic determinism and behavioral action
A disparity exists between studies reporting that genetics discourse produces deterministic or fatalistic responses and studies reporting that the majority of laypeople do not hold or adopt genetically deterministic views. This article reports data from an interview study ( n = 50), and an interpretation of those data grounded in materialist understandings of discourse, that explains at least part of the disparity. The article employs a detailed …
Behavioral Activation/Inhibition Systems and Emotions
Using 16 television Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and with a 2 (valence)×2 (action tendency)×4 (sequence) mixed design, an experiment (N=245) examined the impact of behavioral inhibition/activation systems (BIS/BAS) on affect. Two hypotheses (valence vs. action tendency) derived from the nature of emotions and properties of BIS/BAS were tested against each other. Due to the censored distributions of emotion variables and the mixed design, t…
Mitigating Psychological Reactance
Journal Article Mitigating Psychological Reactance: The Role of Message-Induced Empathy in Persuasion Get access Lijiang Shen Lijiang Shen 1Department of Speech Communication, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA 1Corresponding author: Lijiang Shen; Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Human Communication Research, Volume 36, Issue 3, 1 July 2010, Pages 397–422, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2…
The Sage Handbook of Persuasion
Testing the Model of Influence of Presumed Influence in a Boundary Condition
We argue that evidence for and utility of the Influence of Presumed Influence (IPI) model lies in a robust causal chain in the form of self-exposure → other-exposure → perceived effects on others → behavior. A review of extant literature reveals competing theoretical explanations, as well as the possibility that a method factor (question order) could have driven the obtained models in structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses. The IPI model was…
Perceived Realism
Perceived realism may be a crucial message characteristic facilitating narrative-based persuasion. This study examined dimensions of perceived realism and their roles in narrative persuasion. Data based on responses to messages on three topics showed that perceived realism was multidimensional. Its dimensions included plausibility, typicality, factuality, narrative consistency, and perceptual quality. Plausibility predicted emotional involvement,…
Antecedents to Psychological Reactance
A 2 (Threat: high vs. low) × 2 (Frame: gain vs. loss) × 2 (Choice: yes vs. no) × 2 (Behavior: prevention vs. detection) factorial design Web-based experiment (N = 814) was conducted to investigate the impact of threat to freedom, message frame, and behavioral choice as antecedents to psychological reactance. The intertwined model for reactance measure was replicated. Results showed that threat to freedom and the loss frame increased, and the gain…
Threat appeals and persuasion
One of the earliest theories of threat appeals, the drive model, predicts that the fear–persuasion relationship is characterized by an inverted U-curve. Evidence of such a curve has proven elusive, probably because, in reality, there are two curvilinear hypotheses, not one. Existing primary studies and meta-analyses have tested the between-persons version of the inverted U-curve and found it wanting. In contrast, this study reports on a within-pe…
Not All Perceptual Gaps Were Created Equal
Explicating the third-person perception (TPP) as a cognitive fallacy in the process of comparative social judgment of media effects, we propose that not all self–other perceptual gaps in media effects should be considered as TPP. When there is reasonably valid and accurate information regarding self vis-à-vis others on media consumption and vulnerability to media influence, the associated self–other gaps in media effects are not exaggerations, he…
A scale for a-holism in relational communication
A-holes threaten the overall well-being of many social systems. This study explicates, constructs, and validates a measure for a-holism in relational communication. We identified and constructed items for four dimensions of the a-holism construct: verbal aggression, dominance, entitlement, and resistance to feedback. An online survey was distributed to 315 adults about their perceptions of a-holes they have met in their lives and how they communi…
The psychological mechanisms of persuasive impact from narrative communication
This paper develops and tests a comprehensive psychological model of how narrative messages persuade. In this model, perceived realism and perceived similarity are considered as the antecedents of narrative engagement variables. There are three forms of narrative engagement, transportation, identification, and parasocial interaction, which are conceptualized as the primary mediating mechanisms. Message elaboration and psychological reactance are …
Threat Appeals as Multi-Emotion Messages
Who Will Be a Bystander? An Exploratory Study of First-Person Perception Effects on Campus Bystander Behavioral Intentions
Examining and extending the influence of presumed influence hypothesis in social media
The influence of presumed influence hypothesis (IPI) is a communication theory accounting for the process of persuasive media effects. The present study integrates theoretical perspectives in persuasion and new and traditional media effects research to investigate the assumptions and explanatory mechanisms of IPI in an experiment. View numbers in social media directly predicted presumed exposure by others and indirectly predicted presumed influen…
Epistemic Egocentrism and Processing of Vaccine Misinformation (Vis-à-vis Scientific Evidence)
A web-based 2 (preexisting position: vaccine-inclined vs. -hesitant) by 2 (message type: scientific evidence vs. misinformation) experimental study was conducted to investigate individuals’ processing of misinformation (vis-à-vis scientific evidence) on the vaccine-autism link within the framework of epistemic egocentrism. Data (N = 996) collected with Qualtrics panel demonstrated that preexisting position shaped individuals’ responses to vaccine…
The Impact of Behavioral Topic on Psychological Reactance
Psychological reactance theory (PRT) proposes that the importance of freedom, along with threat to freedom and receiver personality trait, impacts the arousal of psychological reactance and the subsequent freedom restoration. This paper presents a 2 (threat: low vs. high) × 3 (source: the CDC, victim of the health issue vs. AI) × 2 (health topic: college drinking vs. STD) between-subjects experiment (N = 765) to test the potential effects of topi…
Confirmation Bias and the Persistence of Misinformation on Climate Change
A web-based two (preexisting position: correct vs. incorrect) by two (message type: scientific information vs. misinformation) by three (messages) mixed design experimental study was conducted to test confirmation bias as a mechanism underlying the persistence of misinformation on climate change and to examine attitude certainty as a moderator of confirmation bias. Data collected with Qualtrics panels demonstrated robust confirmation bias in mess…
The Third-Person Effect 40 Years After Davison Penned It
Forty years ago in 1983, W. Phillips Davison coined the term "third-person effect," generating a robust outpouring of research. This paper places the third-person effect in the contemporary age, one vastly different from the era in which Davison conceptualized perceptions of media effects. The article first describes the historical, sociological climate in which Davison operated, noting how the concept congealed with the intellectual zeitgeist of…
Quantifying Emotional Flow
This paper presents a longitudinal, latent growth curve (LGC) modeling approach to refine the emotional flow measure and hypothesis testing. Emotional flow is operationalized as the marked within-individuals variations in one or more discrete emotions over time, which can be modeled as the amount and shape of change in emotions during message exposure. Emotional flow effects are tested in the LGC framework using data collected from a web-based ex…
Persuasive Messages, Social Norms, and Reactance
Efforts by universities to reduce the spread of COVID-19 include health campaigns intended to encourage students to wear masks. While well-intended, these efforts may produce counter-persuasion (e.g., decrease masking) if they are seen as threatening individuals’ freedom to choose. In a rolling cross-sectional study of one university campaign (n = 681), we found that the presence of the campaign did instigate a form of resistance known as reactan…
Psychology (35 works) · Social Psychology (29 works) · Media Influence and Health (20 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (17 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (17 works) · Computer Science (14 works) · Social Psychology (14 works) · Persuasion (13 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Cognitive psychology (10 works)