Browsing by Subject "defensive processing"

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    The impact of self-affirmation on defensive processing of health messages: A meta-analysis
    (2016-03) He, Xiaofei
    This meta-analysis studies the effects of self-affirmation on cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to threatening health messages. It analyzes how the effects vary as a function of three moderators: self-affirmation domains, health topics, and self-relevance levels. In addition, this analysis examines the role of emotions in the self-affirmation process. Effect sizes for 11 outcome variables were extracted from 55 studies and analyzed (N = 10,611). I performed fixed-effect and random-effects models to examine the main effect and moderating effects. Both models indicated small but statistically significant positive effects of self-affirmation in increased perceived message effectiveness, perceived susceptibility, response efficacy, and behavior. The results lend empirical support to self-affirmation as an effective intervention strategy. Moderator analyses with both fixed-effect and random-effects models revealed that self-affirmation was most effective (1) when we used the desirable traits self-affirmation domain; (2) when we exposed participants to messages of unhealthy behaviors cessation; and (3) among participants with low self-relevance. The two most commonly used self-affirmation domains (i.e., desirable traits and values), did not work equally well in reducing defensiveness. Moreover, these two domains were not effective in restoring self-integrity when applied to high-self-relevance populations, or to reducing defensive responses to messages of unhealthy behavior cessation. Meta-analytic review of the role that emotions play in the self-affirmation process shows that self-affirmation was effective in reducing negative emotions aroused by delivery of threatening health messages. However, the evidence of a mediating role of (positive) emotions in the self-affirmation process is scant.
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    Self-affirming values: Defensive processing of information about human embryonic stem-cell (hESC) research
    (2020-07) Jordan, Joshua
    Self-affirmation research suggests that affirming important values can reduce defensive responses to threatening information. However, whether this holds in the context of information about the life sciences is not clear. Integrating self-affirmation and values drawn from science communication research, the objective was to better understand core values associated with hESC research and to exclude these values from a subsequent self-affirmation intervention focusing on information about hESC research; and to test the hypothesis that self-affirming a value unrelated to hESC research would reduce defensive processing of information about it. Data were obtained from a pretest study survey and a main study experiment. In the pretest study (n = 315), several values were found to correlate with a favorable view of hESC research, but not opposition to it, since the sample was primarily individuals with a favorable view. A new list of values was thus adopted for the main study, which focused specifically on individuals opposed to hESC research. The main study (n = 113) showed that affirming a value unrelated to hESC research does not reduce defensive processing of information about it. The implications of these findings for science communication are discussed.