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De effecten van other-benefit appeals, self-benefit appeals en exemplars bij het werven van vrijwilligers

tvtIn onderzoek naar de effectiviteit van wervingsbrieven is het inspelen op de belangen voor een ander (other-benefit appeal) regelmatig vergeleken met het inspelen op de belangen voor de lezer zelf (self-benefit appeal). Omdat bij deze vergelijkingen de belangen inhoudelijk van elkaar verschilden, zijn in het huidige onderzoek de voordelen van gepropageerd gedrag in alle condities gelijkgehouden. Hiertoe werden exemplars ingezet. Wervingsbrieven met een exemplar werden tevens vergeleken met wervingsbrieven zonder exemplar om de effecten van exemplars na te gaan. Een experiment werd uitgevoerd met een 2 (type appeal) x 2 (met exemplar/zonder exemplar) tussen-proefpersoonontwerp (N = 120). De other-benefit appeal bleek overtuigender te zijn dan de self-benefit appeal. Brieven met een exemplar waren weliswaar niet overtuigender dan brieven zonder exemplar, maar werden wel beter gewaardeerd. Dit effect werd volledig gemedieerd door de levendigheid en de begrijpelijkheid van de brief.

  • Krieken, K. van, & Hornikx, J. (2013). De effecten van self-benefit appeals, other-benefit appeals en exemplars bij het werven van vrijwilligers voor charitatieve organisaties. Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing, 35 (1), 82-99. [link]
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Foreign language display in advertising for congruent versus incongruent products

jicmAdvertising often confronts consumers with foreign languages, such as German or French in the US, but little is known about the circumstances under which this is effective. The linguistic theory of foreign language display claims that the congruence with the product is the essential element in its effectiveness. This study investigates this premise by having Dutch participants (N = 150) evaluate ads for products that were (in)congruent with the language of the slogan (French, German, Spanish). Results show that foreign language display is indeed more effective for congruent (e.g., wine–French) than for incongruent products (e.g., beer–French).

  • Hornikx, J., Meurs, F. van, & Hof, R.-J. (2013). The effectiveness of foreign-language display in advertising for congruent versus incongruent products. Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 25 (3), 152-165. [pdf].
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Occupational safety in multicultural teams and organizations: A research agenda

Safety is an important issue in the workplace, in particular at the lower end of the labor market where the workforce often consists of people with different cultural backgrounds. Studies have underlined the potential threats to occupational safety of this workforce. Surprisingly, however, very little research has been conducted on national culture and occupational safety. In this paper, we examine how national culture may play a role in important antecedents of safety behavior that have identified in the meta-analysis of Christian et al. (2009). We discuss safety knowledge, safety motivation, and safety climate. Based on this analysis, we make a number of suggestions for future research.

  • Starren, A., Hornikx, J., & Luijters, K. (2013). Occupational safety in multicultural teams and organizations: A research agenda. Safety Science, 52 (2), 43-49. [link].
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Overtuigende teksten: Onderzoek en ontwerp (2e ed.)

Hoe komt het dat woorden gedrag kunnen beïnvloeden? En waarom mislukt dat vaak? Overtuigende teksten biedt een overzicht van theorieën over de invloed van taal, tekst en beeld binnen het overtuigingsproces en van het empirisch onderzoek hiernaar. De auteurs koppelen onderzoek naar de invloed van deze boodschapkenmerken aan verschillende verwerkingsprocessen. Ook besteden zij aandacht aan automatisch en beredeneerd gedrag en de rol van cultuurverschillen in het overtuigingsproces. Tot slot gaan zij in op het ontwerpen en pretesten van persuasieve teksten, waarbij zij een overzicht geven van methoden en instrumenten die je kunt inzetten om relevante informatie over de doelgroep te verzamelen. Elk hoofdstuk sluit af met praktische opgaven.

  • Hoeken, H., Hornikx, J., & Hustinx, L. (2012). Overtuigende teksten: Onderzoek en ontwerp (2e editie). Bussum: Coutinho. [buy]
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Reasoning and argumentation

Although argumentation plays an essential role in our lives, there is no integrated area of research on the psychology of argumentation. Instead research on argumentation is conducted in a number of separate research communities that are spread across disciplines and have only limited interaction. Cognitive psychological research on argumentation has focused mostly on argument as a reason, and argument as structured sequence of reasons and claims. A third meaning of argument has been neglected: argument as a social exchange. All meanings are integral to a complete understanding of human reasoning and cognition. In this special issue, we present work that is relevant to all these three meanings of argument. The papers by Heit and Rotello (on the effect of argument length on inductive reasoning), by Harris, Hsu and Madsen (on a Bayesian test of the ad Hominem fallacy), and by Thompson and Evans (on belief bias in informal reasoning tasks) focus on arguments as reasons. By contrast, the contributions by Van Eemeren, Garssen, and Meuffels (on the reasonableness of the disguised abusive ad hominem fallacy), by Hoeken, Timmers, and Schellens (on argument quality and convincing arguments), by Mercier and Strickland (on how arguments can be evaluated from audience reactions), and by Bonnefon (on generating consequential arguments) deal intrinsically with situations where there are multiple protagonists in a communicative exchange. By including these papers, by researchers from a range of theoretical backgrounds, this special issue underlines the breadth of argumentation research as well as stresses opportunities for mutual awareness and integration.

  • Hahn, U., & Hornikx, J. (2012). Reasoning and argumentation [A special issue of Thinking and Reasoning]. London: Psychology Press. [link]
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Reasoning and argumentation: Towards an integrated psychology of argumentation

Although argumentation plays an essential role in our lives, there is no integrated area of research on the psychology of argumentation. Instead research on argumentation is conducted in a number of separate research communities that are spread across disciplines and have only limited interaction. With a view to bridging these different strands, we first distinguish between three meanings of the word “argument”: argument as a reason, argument as a structured sequence of reasons and claims, and argument as a social exchange. All three meanings are integral to a complete understanding of human reasoning and cognition. Cognitive psychological research on argumentation has focused mostly on the first and second of these meanings, so we present perspectives on argumentation from outside of cognitive psychology, which focus on the second and third. Specifically, we give an overview of the methods, goals, and disciplinary backgrounds of research on the production, the analysis, and the evaluation of arguments. Finally, in introducing the experimental studies included in this special issue, which were conducted by researchers from a range of theoretical backgrounds, we underline the breadth of argumentation research as well as stress opportunities for mutual awareness and integration.

  • Hornikx, J., & Hahn, U. (2012). Reasoning and argumentation: Towards an integrated psychology of argumentation. Thinking and Reasoning, 18 (3), 225-243. [pdf upon request; publisher]
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The effect of communication modality on the persuasiveness of hedges and pledges

The claim that a product advertisement aims to put forward is usually related to the product benefits. In an abstract way, claims have formats such as ‘Product X has benefit Y’ or ‘Product X leads to benefit Y’. Advertisers do not necessarily express such product claims explicitly. Claims may be left implicit because readers can easily construct them personally. If product claims are expressed explicitly, advertisers sometimes use hedges or pledges, which mark the probability that the promised benefit will occur. A hedge marks a claim as moderately probable (e.g., In most cases), whereas a pledge marks a claim as highly probable (e.g., In all cases). Experimental research to date (see §2) has shown that these probability markers are equally persuasive, and that they are not more persuasive than claims without such markers. Berney-Reddish and Areni (2005) argue that research should examine hedges and pledges in different communication modalities because people have been shown to process information differently in various communication modalities, such as print, audio, and the Internet. The present study therefore compares the persuasiveness of hedges and pledges in advertising claims in print and audio, and examines how these markers are processed in the two communication modalities.

  • Neessen, G., & Hornikx, J. (2012). The effect of communication modality on the persuasiveness of hedges and pledges in advertising claims. In Heynderickx, P., Dieltjens, S., Jacobs, G., Gillaerts, P., & Groot, E. de (red.), The language factor in international business: New perspectives on research, teaching and practice (pp. 199-214). Bern: Peter Lang. [pdf upon request]
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The effects of hedges and pledges in advertisements for high and low reputation brands

Claims in advertising may vary in their use of probability markers that signal the degree to which the claim is true. Experimental research has compared hedges (which mark a claim as moderately probable) and pledges (which mark a claim as very probable). This research has generally neglected the proponent of the claims: the brand. There are reasons to believe that the brand behind the advertising affects to what extent people are persuaded by advertising claims. In two studies it was therefore investigated whether the reputation of the brand affects the persuasiveness of hedges and pledges. It was expected that hedges would be more persuasive for low-reputation brands, whereas pledges would be more persuasive for high-reputation brands. This expectation was tested in two experiments. In Study 1, hedges and pledges were compared in an ad that was provided after information about a brand’s reputation. In Study 2, hedges, plegdes and no markers were compared in an ad in which the brand’s reputation was incorporated. Both studies did not find empirical support for the hypothesis. In Study 1, hedges and pledges were found to be equally persuasive; in Study 2, pledges were found to be more persuasive than hedges.

  • Hornikx, J. (2012). The effects of hedges and pledges in advertisements for high and low reputation brands. In F. H. van Eemeren & B. Garssen (Red.), Exploring argumentative contexts (pp. 307-319). Amsterdam: Benjamins. [pdf upon request]
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The influence of scientese on ad credibility and ad liking

Current advertising for beauty products makes abundant use of scientese, scientific jargon in statistical and/or verbal form. As of yet, no study has examined the impact of scientese in an advertising context. Therefore, an experiment investigates the credibility and liking of ads for different beauty products with and without scientese. The study assesses effects in a culture likely to be susceptible to scientese because of its large power distance and high uncertainty avoidance (Wallonia), and in a culture less likely to be susceptible to scientese (the Netherlands). Dutch (n = 72) and Walloon (n = 60) judged different ads for beauty products with or without different forms of scientese. In both cultures, ads with scientese were found to be more credible but less liked than ads without scientese.

  • Mulken, M. van, & Hornikx, J. (2011). The influence of scientese on ad credibility and ad liking: A cross-cultural investigation of ads for beauty products. Information Design Journal, 19 (2), 92-102. [pdf]
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De rol van begrijpelijke taal in een digitale context

Burgers krijgen in toenemende mate de verantwoordelijkheid voor hun eigen welvaren toebedeeld. Voor het nemen van die verantwoordelijkheid moeten ze over accurate, relevante en begrijpelijke informatie kunnen beschikken. Door digitalisering en de opkomst van het Internet zijn er grote veranderingen opgetreden in de omvang en de vorm van informatie. In dit onderzoek werden interviews gehouden met ruim 30 experts op het gebied van Leven Lang Leren, complexe financiële producten, bestuur en politiek, en gezondheid over hun visie op de ontwikkelingen in deze domeinen en de rol die begrijpelijke taal daarbij zal spelen. In alle domeinen wordt gesproken over een enorme toename van het informatie­aanbod wat enerzijds de kans op een bron met relevante informatie vergroot maar anderzijds de kans om die bron te vinden verkleint. Daarnaast blijkt een gebrek aan motivatie bij de burger om informatie aandachtig te verwerken minstens zo problematisch als de begrijpelijkheid van die informatie. Ook verwacht die burger een professionele presentatie waarbij tekst, beeld en geluid worden gecombineerd. Er blijkt echter nog maar weinig bekend over de optimale combinatie van tekst, beeld en geluid en de mate waarin die optimale combinatie afhangt van publiekskenmerken. De informanten vrezen enerzijds dat als gevolg van verschillen in digitale geletterdheid de kloof tussen arm en rijk, en tussen ziek en gezond alleen maar zal groeien. Anderzijds hopen ze dat die kloof wordt verkleind door optimaal gebruik te maken van de mogelijkheden die digitalisering biedt om communicatie qua inhoud en qua vorm toe te snijden op de behoeften en vaardigheden van de doelgroep.

  • Hoeken, H., Geest, T. van der, Goot, M. van der, Hornikx, J., Jongenelen, M., & Kruikemeier, S. (2011). De rol van begrijpelijke taal in digitale context: Ontwikkelingen op de domeinen Leven Lang Leren, complexe financiële producten, bestuur en politiek, en gezondheid. Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing, 33 (3), 266-286. [pdf upon request]