Lecture 7: Giles/Roozenbeek: Applied Social psychology: Media

Question 1

What is media?

Answer 1

Any method of communication, other than one to one interactions. It’s facilitated by some technology

E.g. newspapers, podcasts

Question 2

What is the medium?

Answer 2

The way a message is communicated. It has a large impact on the message

Question 3

What is the distinguishment we need to make when considering the concept ‘media’?

Answer 3

• Message
• Medium (the way it’s communicated)

Question 4

What are the 2 types of media? Give examples for each

Answer 4

Cold: receiver must heat up the message to bring it to life, requires more involvement
–> E.g. telephone call, working group

Hot: people have a more passive attitude
–> E.g. television

Question 5

What was McLuhan’s broader definition of medium? What were his 2 ideas?

Answer 5

1. Medium = message
2. Medium is not only a communication channel, but an extension of the body

Technology can search things for us when we need to find knowledge, so it takes over some parts that we used to perform ourselves (e.g. go to library)

Question 6

What was Plato’s belief on reading? According to him, what is the best way to understand and spread knowledge?

Answer 6

It’s not good for you, because you get the impression you understand something, but it’s not necessarily true

Speaking is the best way to understand/spread knowledge

Question 7

What would Plato’s view be on using laptops during lectures?

Answer 7

Don’t use laptops, use paper

Writers will create forgetfulness for learners, because they trust on external written characters and not remember themselves

Question 8

Give 2 reasons why taking notes with pen and paper might be more effective than using a laptop

Answer 8

1. Limited capacity
2. Differences in encoding

Question 8

What are benefits (1) and downsides (3) of Google as part of our cognitive system and external memory system?

Answer 8

+ : Have more capacity left for creative problem solving

• :
• Misattribution of knowledge & overconfidence: overestimate future performance
• Forgo remembering things ourselves
• Prioritize remembering where we can get info, instead of actually knowing the info yourself

Question 8

What are the 3 main reasons more extreme behavior is possible online?

Answer 8

1. Lack of visibility (non-verbal cues, eye-contact, effects negative behavior)
2. Anonimity
3. Opportunity

Question 9

How does medium influence the way we communicate and perceive the world? Give 2 examples

Answer 9

People can get news from far away (starting from the telegraph) so people become more focused on news from far away than closer news that might affect them more

Television made people better at processing visual information and got people more used to no real in-depth information

Question 9

What is the thin ideal?

Answer 9

Association of thin with good

Question 10

What discrepancy does the thin ideal activate? To what 3 processes does it lead and what does it drive?

Answer 10

Self/actual-ideal discrepancy –> self-discrepancy theory

Processes:
1. Internalization thin beauty ideal
2. Social comparison
3. Thinness schema

It drives self-regulatory behavior

Question 11

On which females does a female-objectifying video idealizing body weight have the biggest impact?

Answer 11

Women who score low on self-esteem

Question 12

How do we counteract effects such as the effects with the thin ideal?

Answer 12

• More knowledge about influencing leads to weaker impact of idealized images
• Look for self-confirmation so people boost their self-esteem if threatened/create a buffer
• Intervention on self-perception (role play, write a letter) leads to less impact of exposure to thin ideal

Question 13

What is the impact of warning messages on the actual-ideal discrepancy?

Answer 13

Don’t have an effect or even have an opposite effect

Question 14

Why does more knowledge about influencing our self-image relate to a weaker impact of idealized images?

Answer 14

Recognition of persuasion attempt, which increases self-esteem and less appreciation of the persuader

Question 15

How do people look for self-confirmation?

Answer 15

Focussing on important self-related info, such as important relationships and personal characteristics

Question 16

How are social media profiles able to have self-confirming influences?

Answer 16

Provide positive but reasonably accurate info about the self

Question 17

What is the relation between actual-ideal discrepancy and motivation to playing videogames with more idealized avatars?

Answer 17

Discrepancy linked to higher motivation to play videogames with idealized avatars

Question 17

What is the effect on people who spend more time on social media?

Answer 17

They tend to feel that others are happier, so they make an unfavorable social comparison

Question 18

What is the proteus effect?

Answer 18

Adjustments in online self-presentation cause changes in offline self-perception and behavior.

So online characters we build influence us in real life

Question 19

When is news more likely to be spread? Give 5 ways

Answer 19

• Personal
• Drama, conflict & action
• Novelty
• Connection with important theme
• Effective framing

Question 20

How is news influential through the way it’s framed?

Answer 20

• Building associations with affectively charged concepts
• Attitudes are adressed

Question 21

What are four elements that determine the emergence of a mass medium according to McQuail?

Answer 21

1. Purpose/need for communication
2. Technology for public communication
3. Social organization for production and distribution
4. Governance in the public interest

Question 22

What did McLuhan mean with ‘the medium is the message’?

Answer 22

Media and their messages can’t be separated and studied separately. Medium is very important for how the message comes across

Question 23

What was an important advancement in the 17th century for mass media?

Answer 23

Invention printing press, emergence of book and start of first newspapers

Question 24

What was the evolution of media from 1920 onwards? (5 aspects)

Answer 24

1920: Radio, economic and technological development
1936: Television
1950: Households got TV’s
1980: Satellite/cable technology, emergence new media, walkman

Further evolution of web tech, mobile devices that interact with internet from 1980 til now

Question 25

What is new media?

Answer 25

Computer-based media, such as internet

Old= broadcast based

Question 26

What did Toffler mean with information overload?

Answer 26

Nowadays we encounter so much verbal and visual material that it leads to a state of disorientation

Question 27

What do we mean with media literacy?

Answer 27

Ability to sort out reliable or useful info from junk, marketing and lies

This isn’t always within our capabilities

Question 28

What is media blindness and what is the relation with advertising?

Answer 28

We are unable to locate the source of information we acquire and confuse our actual experiences with mediated experiences

Advertising works because we can’t always see it. We’re often media blind to advertising, e.g. when we wear a nike shirt or carry a store bag

Question 29

What type of distribution do popularity and longevity of a media item have?

Answer 29

Distributions with long tail.
Most memes die out very quickly and a few survive very long

Question 30

What is the phenomenon of cultivation in media?

Answer 30

Prolonged exposure to certain media content can shape or “cultivate” viewers’ perceptions of social reality

E.g. fewer women in entertainment media than men.
We are looking for entertainment and not for accurate info in this setting. However media is still a lens through which we see the world, often biased unconsciously

Question 31

What is McGuire’s inoculation theory?

Answer 31

Mental inoculation = exposure to weakened version of persuasion attempt strengthens resistance against subsequent persuasion attempt

Question 32

What are 3 important aspects why fake news is so easy to fall for?

Answer 32

1. Familiarity: single exposure to headline increases later belief in headline
2. Source: you don’t suspect fake news from someone you support (Trump)
3. Emotions: people who report experiencing more emotions are more likely to believe false news

Question 33

How did Roozenbeek et al. perform their study?

Answer 33

They created a multi-player game which required players to engage in the creation of fake news and actively think about how to do this

This made participants take an active role (active inoculation) to think about how people can be misled and persuaded

Question 34

What were the conclusions of Roozenbeek et al. research?

Answer 34

Gamified exposure to fake news roles and science denial lead to a reduction in preceived reliability of fake news

So active inoculation method is effective in reducing reliability and persuasiveness of news articles

Question 35

Innoculation is theorized to work because of two elements. Which 2?

Answer 35

• Threat: signals that one’s attitude is vulnerable to attack
• Refutational preemption = providing arguments to help with refutation

Question 36

What is umbrella protection and how can you reach that?

Answer 36

Umbrella protection = boosting resistance to different as well as the same messages

Reached by innoculation

Question 37

What are filter bubbles?

Answer 37

Result of biased information processing, resulting in exposure to a tailored selection of information that is in line with pre-existing attitudes

Question 38

On which 3 levels do filters operate?

Answer 38

1. Individual: motivational processes (e.g. self-view)
2. Social: preference similar individuals, form shared social ID
3. Technological: algorithms trained to maximize screentime, resulting in less varied info

Question 39

Give 3 examples of cultivation in media

Answer 39

• Fewer women in entertainment
• Overrepresentation women in beauty and household ads
• Women often portrayed as lust objects instead of full characters

Question 40

Influence of narrative in media may be stronger due to the degree of transportation. What does this mean?

Answer 40

When someone is fully engaged and mentally absorbed in a story, often referred to as “transportation,” the narrative can have a stronger impact on their emotions, beliefs, and behaviors.

In other words, the more immersed someone is in a story, the more influential it can be on them.

Question 41

Why does product placement matter? Give 2 examples

Answer 41

1. Explicit product placement activates persuasion knowledge –> Negative attitudes
2. Weaker positive impact PP via evaluative conditioning

Question 42

What is the dark forest theory?

Answer 42

It points to the increasingly life-like but life-less state of being onlne