Do People Actually “Listen to the Experts”? A Cautionary Note on Assuming Expert Credibility and Persuasiveness on Public Health Policy Advocacy

Geiger, Nathaniel

doi:10.1080/10410236.2020.1862449

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…As smart phone apps are often recommended for tracking and motivating physical exercise, it would be worthwhile to examine how wording of the text in smart phone apps influences usage of the app amongst men and women [ 104 ]. In addition, this study focused on featuring an expert (doctor), but the influence of the professional status of the endorser should also be examined [ 105 ]. The gender role identity of the endorser should also be manipulated and examined, in addition to the gender role identity of respondents, as well as the perceived fit/similarity of the endorser to the respondent.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Baxter

Czarnecka²,

Schivinski³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

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Following mixed-methods sequential design and drawing on the message-audience congruence concept and homophily theory, across three studies in the UK, we examined the effect of gendered wording and endorser’s gender on the effectiveness of leaflets promoting walking. In Study 1, a mall-intercept study achieved 247 completed questionnaires. Results demonstrated that men and women indicated the highest behavioural intentions for communal wording presented by a male endorser. However, pairwise comparisons revealed that when the wording of the advert was agentic and the endorser was male, males indicated significantly higher scores of behavioural intentions compared with females. Attitude towards the ad for women was highest for communal wording/female endorser; for men it was for agentic wording/male endorser. In Study 2, consumers’ views towards the gendered content were explored in 20 semi-structured interviews. In study 3 we examined the impact of the respondent’s gender role identity on gendered content effectiveness. Overall, when controlled for level of gender role identity, only masculine males evaluated leaflets featuring communal wording negatively which suggests that wording matters only for masculine males, but not for other men and women. Theoretically, we identified that gender-based message-respondent congruence is not a necessary aspect of communications to be effective, except for one group: masculine males. Our study identified dominant gender role identity as a factor that explained respondents’ preferences for presented stimuli. Specifically, males who display masculine gender role identity differ in evaluations of communal wording from all other groups. Social and commercial marketers who target men and women with exercise-related services should consider the use of agentic wording endorsed by a male endorser when targeting masculine men to increase the likelihood of eliciting positive attitudes towards the communication. However, such distinctions should not be associated with differences in women’s evaluations or men who do not report masculine gender role identity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Baxter

Czarnecka²,

Schivinski³

et al. 2022

PLoS ONE

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“…Theoretical perspectives suggest that source credibility is a two-dimensional construct, with expertise and trustworthiness being the core components (Choi and Stvilia, 2015). Whilst research has indicated that information from experts is typically more influential to the public (Wathen and Burkell, 2002), it may not always be the case, as non-expert sources have also been found to be considered more trustworthy (Geiger, 2022). The emergence of the iInternet has further complicated the assessment of trustworthiness based on source reputation, as the ability to share information is not exclusive to those with the necessary “worth” to distribute it (Taraborelli, 2008).…”

Section: Sorting Fact From Fiction: What Is Information Credibility?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining how credibility shapes public perception of police interventions in the media

Poirier,

Boivin

2024

PIJPSM

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PurposeThe proliferation of recording technologies has increased the prevalence of police intervention videos in news media. Although previous research has explored the influence of such coverage on public opinion, the mechanisms underlying this impact have received limited attention. This study investigates the role of information credibility in the assessment of police interventions portrayed in news media videos.Design/methodology/approachA total of 634 participants were shown a mock-up TV news report that included a description and a brief clip of a police use-of-force event. A survey was conducted before and after the presentation of the report.FindingsCamera perspective, anchor tone, viewer gender and pre-existing perceived TV news credibility were found to influence how credible the mock-up news report was perceived. Participants who judged the news report as complete and credible tended to have a more favourable opinion of the police intervention. Perceived credibility also acted as a moderator in the relationship between video and receiver characteristics and the assessment of the police intervention.Practical implicationsThese findings offer valuable insights for law enforcement agencies and their public affairs units to develop effective strategies for managing public opinion.Originality/valueThis research highlights how important perceived credibility is in influencing public opinion and how different factors such as video and receiver characteristics can impact credibility assessment.

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“…Advocates would benefit from assessing how to build trust with target populations. For example, when advocating for policy, neutral experts are trusted more than politicians (especially politicians of the opposite party; Flores et al., 2022), but not more than “the average Joe” (Geiger, 2022b). Overall, climate experts are more trusted and persuasive in policy advocacy when they show that they are adjusting their own behavior to reduce carbon emissions (Attari et al., 2019; Sparkman & Attari, 2020) and when they attempt to connect with their audiences' values (Geiger, Sarge, & Comfort, 2022).…”

Section: Trustingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Core social motives explain responses to collective action issues

Geiger

Brick

2023

Social & Personality Psych

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Managing collective action issues such as pandemics and climate change requires major social and behavioral change. Dominant approaches to addressing these issues center around information provision and financial incentives to shift behavior, yet, these approaches are rarely effective without integrating insights from psychological research on motivation. By accurately characterizing human motives, social scientists can identify when and why individuals engage, and facilitate behavior change and public engagement. Here, we use the core social motives model to sort social psychological theories into five fundamental social motives: to Belong, Understand, Control, self-Enhance, and Trust. We explain how each motive can improve or worsen collective action issues, and how this framework can be further developed towards a comprehensive social psychological perspective to collective action issues.

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Do People Actually “Listen to the Experts”? A Cautionary Note on Assuming Expert Credibility and Persuasiveness on Public Health Policy Advocacy

Cited by 17 publications

References 61 publications

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Examining how credibility shapes public perception of police interventions in the media

Core social motives explain responses to collective action issues

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