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Communication seeks internal coherence and external distinction as its research profile grows and diversifies. The present essay calls for the establishment of scientific principles to guide future communication research and solidify the field's unique scholarly identity within the marketplace of ideas. An argument is made that the field has achieved the necessary foundations to establish scientific principles but has yet to embrace this undertaking as a collective goal. This offering is intended as an initial foray into the process of identifying and evaluating scientific principles of communication by considering the value of these fundamental pillars for the field's maturation. It proposes evaluation criteria which are then applied in a rendering of two candidate principles. These observations aim to initiate a broader conversation and spark a collective effort toward elucidating scientific principles of communication that can help to guide and anchor the field in its next stage of knowledge generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has repeatedly demonstrated the ability of social networks, interpersonal discussion, and perceived social norms to shape health-related outcomes. There are still substantial gaps, however, in understanding the theoretical mechanism that holds these components together, as well as the boundary conditions of their effects. Employing ego-network analysis with a representative sample of Illinois residents (N = 711) and focusing on the context of COVID-19 vaccine adherence, this study constructs a comprehensive framework to examine the direct, indirect, and conditional relationships linking social capital within networks, factual knowledge, and vaccination. Overall, the results point to the ability of tight-knit networks to influence knowledge and behavior for better or worse, depending on the composition of the network and its conversational valence. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research identifies contradictory effects of anger in political communication, engendering heuristic processing of information that exacerbates partisan bias in some situations, but increasing attention and deepening information processing in others. This study addressed these contradictions by positing subjective hope as a moderator of anger's effects on message processing and persuasion. Employing an experimental design (N = 538) in the context of the U.S. immigration debate, the study assessed two long-standing mechanisms associated with the persuasive effects of anger—psychological reactance and message elaboration—with subjective hope as a moderator of those processes. Results confirmed that experienced anger increases reactance and superficial information processing. Critically, however, subjective hope emerged as a key moderator capable of reversing anger's negative effects. These findings offer an important clarification of the boundary conditions governing the effects of anger and highlight the need for further study of interacting emotional processes in political communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a context of globally networked social media, "viral" instances of collective affect and attention that coalesce around images of distant suffering merit consideration as significant moments of cosmopolitan expression. The case of Omran Daqneesh, the young Syrian "boy in the ambulance" whose photograph went viral in 2016, provides an instructive case study. Beginning with a quantitative assessment of the story's diffusion and then tracing the trajectory of its viral diffusion and the affective response it produced as the image peaked and then subsided in public attention, analysis of the case illustrates how virality can articulate rhetorical cosmopolitanism, but also demonstrates the limits for political cosmopolitanism in producing sustained action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While prior research has demonstrated the benefits of self-affirming individuals prior to exposing them to potentially threatening health messages, the current study assesses the feasibility of inducing self-affirmation vicariously through the success of a character in a narrative. In Study 1, college-age participants who regularly use e-cigarettes (N = 225) were randomly assigned to read one of two versions of a story depicting a college student of their own gender. The versions were identical except in the vicarious self-affirmation (VSA) condition, the main character achieves success (i.e., honored with a prestigious award) before being confronted by a friend about the dangers associated with their e-cigarette use; whereas in the vicarious control condition, the achievement is mentioned after the risk information. Results of the posttest and 10-day follow-up demonstrated that VSA reduced messages derogation, while increasing self-appraisal and perceived risk. The effect of VSA on e-cigarette outcomes was moderated by frequency of use, with heavier users benefiting the most. Study 2 (N = 152) confirmed that traditional value affirmation works with our stimuli on a comparable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-affirmation theory posits that thoughts and actions that affirm an important aspect of the self-concept can make people more susceptible to change by casting their self in a positive light. Whereas much of the current literature has been restricted to individual-level concerns, the current study provides longitudinal evidence for behavioral outcomes in the context of the California drought, advancing our theoretical knowledge regarding the underlying processes that lead self-affirmed individuals to address societal risks and collective concerns. The results of a three-wave experimental study (N = 91) indicated that relative to nonaffirmed counterparts, self-affirmed participants reported on higher levels of support for water conservation policies, as well as on reduction of water use that endured for 30 days following the self-affirming manipulation. In both cases, the effects were mediated by collective-efficacy but not by self-efficacy. Relevant explanations are considered and practical and theoretical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the effect of historical transgressions associated with individuals' in-group on attribution of responsibility for the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. While the capacity of media frames to induce emotional states is well documented, the current study expands the understanding of the underlying processes associated with the framing effect by highlighting the ability of frames to induce collective-level emotions. Through an online experiment, we suggest that framing the attack in reference to American transgressions (abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison) initiated collective guilt, resulting in less attribution of responsibility for the attack to Islam and less support for anti-immigration policy in the United States. Conversely, framing the event in terms of American victimization (9/11 attack) engendered high levels of collective victimization, subsequently heightening the perceived responsibility of Islam in the attack and harnessing support for anti-immigration policy. Relevant moderators are considered, and practical and theoretical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although veritable libraries have been written about anger, the practical and theoretical understanding of its effects has been somewhat hampered by the difficulty of experimentally manipulating this emotion. Thus, key questions related to methodological precision and theoretical clarity remain, specifically with regard to whether and how anger induction techniques may interact with various moderators and elicit other co-occurring emotions in the process. Addressing this gap, a meta-analysis of 31 experimental studies in persuasion offers insights regarding the effect of anger elicitation on felt anger and its sensitivity to a host of theoretically meaningful moderators, as well as the relationship between anger induction and the arousal of other incidental emotions. Findings broadly affirm the complexity of anger as a contested emotion and offer new insight into methodological considerations and theoretical nuances of anger elicitations to be taken into account in persuasion research. These results should be interpreted with the caveat of an exclusive focus on persuasion and a Western-centric corpus of studies, further accenting the need to diversify and expand research into emotions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).