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Courses: Mass Communication, Persuasion, Media Literacy, Political Communication, and Communication Theory. Objectives: This activity introduces students to priming theory through atmospheric peripheral cues. Students learn about media priming and understand how priming effects may occur in real-world situations.

Objective: Mental health concerns of college students are on the rise, prompting a need for communication campaigns to address ways to assist students. The current campaign utilized weekly bathroom stall messaging to address five key themes developed by a university's mental wellness task force. Participants: Undergraduate students at a large Midwestern university. Methods: A survey at pre and post-campaign implementation. Results: No significant shifts in attitudes, and only one significant behavioral increase (i.e., reaching out to academic advisers), were revealed. One silver lining was that college students were found to express gratitude to someone new a median of 5 times per month. Gratitude tended to be displayed most recently to those in their social circles, and primarily for receiving instrumental support. Conclusions: Narrowing the focus of future mental wellness campaigns is recommended. Additional recommendations for developing future mental wellness campaigns are also addressed.

Ageism is highly prevalent, especially among college students. However, efforts to reduce ageism largely take place in helping professions. This activity seeks to promote positive perceptions toward older adults and aging among communication undergraduate students through gerontological education, a positive intergeneration contact experience, a reflective writing assignment, and class discussion. Courses: Interpersonal, intergroup, health communication, communication and aging. Objectives: This activity seeks to (1) increase student knowledge of older adults and aging, (2) improve student attitudes toward the aging process, and (3) enhance relationships between students and older adults.

Earning digital badges to showcase a person's expertise or knowledge are becoming increasingly popular. A healthcare provider's displaying of a Safe Zone badge within their online profile may offer prospective patients a cue as to the kind of care they might receive if they selected that particular provider. Prior research indicates LGBTQ+ individuals are looking for these types of cues within providers' biographies to make their selections. A between subjects, 2 (Safe Zone badge present/absent) x 2 (male/female doctor) online experiment was conducted (n = 658). Results revealed a main effect for the presence of the Safe Zone badge. Participants had greater anticipated satisfaction, liking, were more likely to view the provider as approachable, and were more willing to schedule an appointment with the provider displaying a Safe Zone badge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Loss chasing is considered a defining marker, and potential risk factor, for problematic gambling. However, there have been few efforts to identify loss chasing behaviors among actual gamblers. Loss chasing also is not well defined, and often measured along a single behavioral dimension. In this study, we propose a novel multidimensional concept of loss chasing grounded in three betting domains (bet size, betting odds, time between bets). Using actual sports gambling records from a major European operator, we calculated bettors' (N = 12,992) loss chasing during their first month of activity. We created binary high/low groups for each loss chasing dimension. Membership in various combinations of 'high' groups was diverse, and none of the raw loss chasing metrics were highly correlated with one another. We assessed each high group's (and sum of high group's) ability to predict mounting losses over the following months of activity. Only one of these groups (bet size), was positively predictive of mounting losses in bivariate analysis, and none of the loss chasing groups were significant in multivariate analysis. Results suggest that loss chasing is a multidimensional concept, but the potential value of a multidimensional loss chasing concept in terms of predicting gambling harm is unclear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swearing in everyday conversation has become more normalized in recent years; but less certain, however, is how accepting Americans are when a doctor swears in their presence. Two online experiments (Study 1: n = 497; Study 2: n = 1,224) were conducted with US participants to investigate the impact of a doctor swearing in the course of examining a patient's infected wound (i.e., "You've got a lot of nasty [shit/stuff] in there that we're going to want to flush out"), or swearing when dropping papers in a patient's presence while varying the intensity of a swear (i.e., "[Shit!/Damn!/Whoops!]"), with or without an apology (i.e., "I'm sorry"). Overall findings reveal a main effect for swearing, with a swearing doctor generally seen as less likable, and in Study 1, less trustworthy, approachable, and less of an expert. However, the majority of participants exposed to a swearing doctor still said they would visit that physician again. Open-ended responses from these participants revealed that they perceived a swearing doctor as more human. Results from Study 2 also found that if a doctor swore, the negative impact was lessened if the doctor apologized immediately after cursing. While results from these studies indicate it is wise for doctors to refrain from swearing, most participants were still willing to make a future appointment with a cursing doctor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black or White is a modern-day film that presents an unconventional family dynamic between a biracial elementary-aged girl and her Black and White grandparents. The film portrays social and relational issues such as racial inequality, discrimination, and disparities while introducing interracial grandparenting roles and their associated challenges. This film review serves to first summarize major highlights of the film's plot, followed by exploring the film's cinematographic quality, its relevance to Social Work and social welfare, and ways in which the film can be used as a teaching tool for Social Work students. This review also includes discussion of Black or White's strengths and weaknesses as they pertain to considerations instructors should have before utilizing the film in a college classroom setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roughly half of all new sexually transmitted infections (STI) occur in adolescent and college-aged populations. College students tend to underestimate their personal risks of contracting STIs. Consequently, many college students do not engage in protective behaviors that would reduce STI transmission rates. This study examined the effect of source credibility (high vs. low) and message framing (positive vs. negative) on college students' behavioral intentions to get screened for STIs via a 2 × 2 experiment (n = 207). Further, drawing on both Prospect Theory and Protection Motivation Theory, the study tested whether coping and threat appraisals mediated the effects of source credibility and message framing on behavioral intentions. Results reveal that both highly credible sources and negatively framed messages influenced behavioral intentions to screen for STIs. However, the interaction term of source credibility by message frame was not significant. Mediation models suggested that efficacy perceptions partially explained the effect of source credibility on behavioral intentions, but not for the effect of message framing. Perceptions of severity and susceptibility did not mediate the effect of either source credibility or message framing. Practical and theoretical implications of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reported study investigated the effects of normative factors and metacognitions on opinion expression behavior. It sought to add to the knowledge base by probing the extent to which they operate additively or non-additively. Participants were placed in an online opinion environment and given the choice about whether and how to express something. Perceived minority opinion status, trait-like fear of social isolation, situationally-dependent beliefs about the sanctions one would receive for expressing something, attitude strength, and attitude certainty were measured. The results failed to support a non-additive effect. Rather, three normative factors independently predicted whether participants commented, and attitude certainty solely predicted the directness of participants' expressions. We speculate that normative beliefs may contribute to participants' decisions about whether to express something, and metacognitions may contribute to the form of those expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To better understand patients' levels of health literacy regarding what constitutes no-cost preventive visits versus possibly costly office visits and their ease of obtaining information about coverage and costs from providers and health insurance companies., Study Design: A cross-sectional online survey of 866 participants aged 18 to 82 years from 49 states., Methods: Participants' knowledge of preventive versus office visits was assessed through a series of true/false questions. Participants rated their ease of obtaining information from health insurance providers and doctors about costs and coverage. They also described phone calls with their health insurance companies via an open-ended question. Logistic regression was used to predict how the ease of obtaining information is related to being erroneously charged for a medical visit., Results: About two-thirds of participants were unable to answer all knowledge questions correctly regarding the differences between preventive and office visits. Participants reporting a greater ease of obtaining information from health insurance providers were less likely to indicate being erroneously charged for medical visits. About 15% rated their calls with insurance companies as negative., Conclusions: Many Americans have limited health literacy regarding what constitutes a preventive care visit. Support must continue to educate the population about preventive care visits and improve the ease of obtaining information from health insurance companies about preventive coverage.