Two experimental studies explored the interactive effects of mood, framing, and health behavioral advocacy on persuasion. In Study 1, happy and sad moods were found to activate the behavioral approach system (BAS) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS), respectively. Assuming similar relationships with action-oriented BAS and restraintoriented BIS, gain and loss framing and prescriptive and proscriptive health advocacies were predicted to interact with happy and sad moods in Study 2. Mood congruency effects were found in a mood by both framing interaction and behavioral advocacy interaction. Gain framing was most effective when coupled with positive moods and prescriptive behavioral advocacy. Loss framing produced the most potent persuasive effects when coupled with sad moods and restraint advocacy.

This study explored the effects of premessage emotions (happiness, anger, and fear) and chronic levels of motivational system activation (behavioral approach system: BAS, and behavioral inhibition system: BIS) on the processing of gain‐ and loss‐framed persuasive messages. The data showed that emotion functions (approach and avoidance), not valences (positive and negative), predicted emotions' interactions with motivational systems and framed messages. While fear was associated with BIS, happiness and anger were linked to BAS. Also, while a loss frame was more persuasive among fearful individuals, a gain frame produced more persuasion for happy and angry participants. BAS mediated persuasion when angry and happy participants read a gain frame; BIS mediated persuasion among fearful individuals who attended to a loss frame.

The perception of feeling lonely is an influential factor in determining quality of life among aging adults. As the US Census Bureau projects that the number of Americans ages 65 and older will double by 2060, reducing loneliness is imperative. Personal voice assistants (PVAs) such as Amazon's Echo offer the ease-of-use of voice control with a friendly, helpful artificial intelligence. This study aimed to understand the influence of a PVA on loneliness reduction among adults of advanced ages, i.e., 75+, and explore anthropomorphism as a potential underlying mechanism. Participants (N = 16) ages 75 or older used an Amazon Echo PVA for 8 weeks in an independent living facility in the Midwest. Surveys were used to collect information about perceived loneliness, and PVA interaction data was recorded and analyzed. Participants consistently exceeded the required daily interactions. As hypothesized, after the first 4 weeks of the intervention, aging adults reported significantly lower loneliness (baseline mean = 2.22, SD = 0.42; week 4 mean = 1.99, SD = 0.45, Z = −2.45, and p = 0.01). Four dominant anthropomorphic themes emerged after thematic analysis of the entire 8 weeks' PVA interaction data (Cohen's Kappa = 0.92): (1) greetings (user-initiated, friendly phrases); (2) comments/questions (user-initiated, second-person pronoun), (3) polite interactions (user-initiated, direct-name friendly requests), (4) reaction (user response to Alexa). Relational greetings predicted loneliness reductions in the first 4 weeks and baseline loneliness predicted relational greetings with the PVA during the entire 8 weeks, suggesting that anthropomorphization of PVAs may play a role in mitigating loneliness in aging adults.

This study investigated the interactive effects of attitudinal ambivalence and health message framing on persuading people to eat less junk food. Within the heuristic-systematic model of information processing, an attitudinal ambivalence (ambivalent or univalent toward eating junk food) by health message framing (advantage- or disadvantage-framed appeals) between-subjects experiment was conducted to explore a cognitive resource-matching effect and the underlying mediation processes. Ambivalent individuals reported a higher level of cognitive elaboration than univalent individuals did. The disadvantage frame engendered more extensive cognitive elaboration than the advantage frame did. Ambivalent individuals were more persuaded by the disadvantage frame and, for them, cognitive elaboration mediated the persuasion process via the systematic route. Univalent individuals were equally persuaded by the advantage frame and the disadvantage frame and, for them, neither the perceived frame valence nor cognitive elaboration mediated persuasion. Discussion of the null results among the univalent group leads to a response-reinforcement explanation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.