A study explored the affective impact of interpersonal influence messages. Thirty-nine students enrolled in an undergraduate communication course listened to a tape-recording of 15 directives and rated each directive on explicitness or dominance. Results indicated that the set of stimuli tapped nearly the full range of both continua, and that the…

States that the widespread use of fear appeals in health communication campaigns reflects the existence of a folk theory that suggests messages are accepted due to induced fright. Discusses two studies to determine the effect of public service announcements on the topic of AIDS/HIV. Finds a variety of affects were induced, most of which predicted…

Presents a study where undergraduate students viewed eight public service announcements, providing data on their cognitive and emotional responses to each, as well as judgments of the perceived effectiveness of the messages. Finds that when predicting perceived message effectiveness, the positive affects showed variation in the sign and magnitude…