This study examined the effects of antismoking ads on Korean adult male smokers. An experiment was conducted to explore how message framing and visual-fear appeals embedded in antismoking ads may influence ad-evoked fear, threat appraisals, and intention to quit smoking. Results showed that (a) antismoking ad exposure increased ad-evoked fear and cessation intention; (b) optimistic bias was stronger when the visual-fear appeal was absent in antismoking ads; and

Background/Aims: No studies have clearly demonstrated how sex hormones are involved in the observed gender difference in growth and plasma cholesterol levels in animals fed hypercholesterolemic diets. This study was conducted to determine the effects of gender, gonadectomy (GNX), and sex hormones on growth, plasma cholesterol and cortisol levels in Sprague-Dawley rats. Methods: In the first of two experiments, equal numbers of male and female 4-week-old rats were divided into three groups: sham-operated control, GNX, or GNX + 17α-methyltestosterone (MT). The rats were fed a hypercholesterolemic diet for 4 weeks. In a second experiment, 24 GNX females were equally divided into three groups: control, 17β-estradiol (E₂), or MT. These rats were fed a normocholesterolemic diet for 3 weeks. Results: The average total plasma cholesterol level in female rats was twice that in male rats. MT administration to GNX male and GNX female rats decreased plasma cholesterol levels by 23 and 45%, respectively. Weekly intramuscular injection of E₂ markedly suppressed growth while increasing plasma cortisol levels in GNX female rats. Conclusion: Testosterone decreases plasma cholesterol levels in rats fed a hypercholesterolemic diet and E₂ suppresses growth of rats, inducing the secretion of hormones that increase with stress.

The use of a celebrity endorser who is well recognized and favorably evaluated by the target viewers is a common strategy used by advertisers to increase the persuasiveness of an advertisement. Yet, at the same time, being skeptical of the claim being made by the celebrity endorser is the typical response of the viewers to such persuasion attempts. The present research examines how these effects potentially counterbalance each other as viewers evaluate the advertised brand in a low‐involvement setting. The results show that the degree of ad skepticism and the relative allocation of attentional resources to celebrity and brand elements in advertisements determine how preference for a celebrity endorser is transferred to the advertised brand. The findings provide a more complete understanding of the psychological mechanisms by which celebrity preference influences brand attitude change than has previously been available. They indicate that ad skepticism may be the missing link in understanding the effectiveness of celebrity‐endorsed advertising.

This study investigates age and cultural differences in the negative effects of senders’ wearing masks on receivers’ readabilities of senders’ facially expressed emotions in interpersonal interactions. An online experiment was thus conducted with Koreans and Americans aged over 20 years. Based on sampling quotas by nationality, age group and gender, Korean (n = 240) and American (n = 273) participants were recruited from panel members of a Korean research company and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk via email and the website, respectively. The participants played receiver roles to infer senders’ facially expressed emotions presented in photos in the experiment. They judged emotions facially expressed by the senders without masks and with masks are shown in photos. The results revealed that the senders’ wearing masks reduced the readabilities of the senders’ facially expressed anger among participants aged 30–49 years more than among participants aged 20–29 years. The senders’ wearing masks decreased the readabilities of the senders’ facially expressed fear for participants in their 50’s more than for participants in their 20’s. When the senders wore masks, the readabilities of the senders’ facially expressed happiness dropped among participants aged over 60 years more than among participants aged 20–49 years. When senders wore masks, American participants’ readabilities of disgust, fear, sadness and happiness expressed in the senders’ faces declined more than Korean participants’ readabilities of those emotions. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

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The first goal of this study is to develop a conceptual model of the causal relationship between psychological antecedents (internal attribution, anger, dangerousness, fear) of stigmatization, stigmatization (public stigma, anticipated stigma), and the behavioral consequences (compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines, COVID-19 testing intention) of stigmatization associated with COVID-19. The second goal of the study is to investigate the age differences in the conceptual model between younger and older adults unconfirmed with COVID-19 in Korea. After building the model based on previous studies, an online survey was conducted with Koreans in their 20s (n = 300, females: 50%) and 60s (n = 300, females: 50%) who had not been confirmed with COVID-19. The results revealed that for participants in their 20s and 60s, their internal attribution of COVID-19 infection to individuals confirmed with COVID-19 enhanced their anger at the individuals. Afterward, their anger increased their anticipated stigma of being confirmed with COVID-19 through enhancing the public stigma of the individuals confirmed with COVID-19. Unexpectedly, the fear of individuals confirmed with COVID-19 elicited by the dangerousness of the individuals had no effect on the public stigma of the individuals among participants in their 20s and 60s. The fear directly enhanced their compliance with the COVID-19 prevention guidelines. Next, for participants in their 20s, their anticipated stigma increased their compliance with COVID-19 prevention guidelines, but not their COVID-19 testing intention. However, the anticipated stigma did not affect both the compliance with the COVID-19 prevention guidelines and COVID-19 testing intention among participants in their 60s. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

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