Pages: 54

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 20

Chapter 1 covers conceptual and methodological issues foundational to persuasive message design. It offers a working definition of the term message and presents a table listing and defining an initial working list of elements that constitute persuasive messages. It describes how message elements can be defined by their attribute versus variable status and their ontological status (intrinsic features versus perceived effects) and how message elements are organized into groups and subgroups. In addition, the chapter addresses several ongoing challenges in message design research (infinite instantiations, message variation reconstructability, perceived versus objective message characteristics, and relative versus absolute persuasive message effects), and it demonstrates those challenges by describing how they come into play in a published message design study.

Pages: 18

This chapter reviews multiple theories that can inform the content and structure of persuasive messages and reviews studies that applied the theories to guide the research. Four classes of theories are presented: behavior change theories (the health belief model, the reasoned action approach, social cognitive theory, the transtheoretical model), information processing theories (the activation model of information exposure, the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing, the extended parallel process model, the elaboration likelihood model, resource matching), message effects theories (narrative theory, exemplification theory, prospect theory, inoculation theory, functional theories of emotion), and visual communication theories (color-in-context theory, dual coding theory, visual persuasion). The chapter also highlights several important points about theory and theory application and distinguishes between theories for message design and theories of message design. Finally, it presents the authors' thoughts on steps to developing one or more theories of message design.

Pages: 14

This chapter considers components of persuasive communication that are beyond the message but still relevant to effective persuasive message design. Guided by McGuire's input–output persuasion matrix, the chapter covers the input components of audience, source, channel, and destination (the target behavior or behavioral context) in the persuasive communication context and reviews literature in these areas. Although the chapter presents these four input variables separately, it emphasizes how they, along with the input variable of message, must be considered parts of a whole.

Pages: 165

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 17

This chapter presents information on argument structure, reviewing the characteristics of inductive and deductive arguments and presenting examples of subtypes of these arguments. It also details the components of the jurisprudence model of argument (also known as Toulmin's model). Next, the chapter reviews literature on four characteristics of arguments that are particularly relevant message design research: argument order, message sidedness, justification explicitness, conclusion explicitness. Argument appeals commonly used in academic research and commercial advertising are discussed: arguments from consequences, identity-based appeals, moral appeals, sex-based appeals, and normative appeals. Finally, the chapter reviews approaches to conceptualizing and measuring argument quality.

Pages: 19

Evidence plays a central role in persuasive communication. In this chapter, we discuss conceptual and theoretical issues around the study of evidence, provide a definition of evidence, and list types of evidence. Then we discuss narrative, statistical, and causal evidence, presenting meta-analyses, reviews, and/or experimental studies of these evidence types. We also review research that compares and combines evidence types. The chapter concludes with limitations and directions for future research on evidence, calling for a greater focus on this element in a “post-truth” world.

Pages: 19

This chapter provides a review of approaches to message framing. It reviews conceptual issues in framing research and discusses the processes through which framing has persuasive effects. The chapter distinguishes two broad classes of frames: emphasis framing and equivalence framing. Within emphasis framing, it reviews research on episodic versus thematic frames and strategic versus issue frames, and within equivalence framing, it distinguishes risky choice, goal (gain–loss), and attribute framing. It not only reviews original empirical studies but also presents findings from several meta-analyses of framing research, including a summary table of nine meta-analyses of the most ubiquitous approach to framing in the health communication literature: the gain–loss instantiation of equivalence framing. The chapter ends by offering conclusions drawn from this broad literature and addressing limitations and future directions for framing research.

Pages: 20

Emotional appeals are concerned with message design elements that evoke an affective response to motivate or persuade audiences. This chapter begins by covering conceptual and theoretical issues surrounding emotions and emotional appeals. Next, it reviews research on five major categories of emotional appeals: fear appeals, guilt appeals, anger appeals, hope appeals, and humor appeals. It addresses some of the ethical concerns that come with using emotional appeals in persuasion. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of limitations and directions for future research on emotional appeals.

Pages: 19

This chapter addresses elements of grammar that have been studied for their persuasive effects. It reviews three classes of grammatical elements. First, it covers variations of nouns, including nouns (and verbs) as linguistic cues, noun forms as subjects of sentences, and pronouns conveying points of view. Second, it covers verb forms, including past versus present verb tense, active versus passive verb voice, effects of variations in interrogative mood, and declaratives versus interrogatives. And third, it covers syntactic complexity. Each section reviews research that has investigated the persuasive effects of these elements, including meta-analyses when available. The chapter concludes with a discussion of limitations and directions for future research on the role of grammar in persuasion.

Pages: 16

This chapter addresses language style, which the authors define as the purposeful and creative use of words and phrases to convey enriched meaning. It reviews research on five language style message elements: vividness, intensity, controlling language, creativity, and qualifying language. It reviews research studies testing the persuasive effects of the elements and raises conceptual challenges found in the research literature. When meta-analyses are available, the chapter also presents those findings. It concludes with a summary of the limitations surrounding language style research and offers directions for future research studies.

Pages: 15

Rhetorical strategies are ubiquitous in both written and verbal communication and play an important role in persuasion. This chapter defines rhetorical strategies and reviews an organizational structure for this group of message elements. It reviews key areas of research on rhetorical strategies, covering metaphors, personification, puns, rhyme, and alliteration. Finally, the chapter presents limitations of this body of research and offers future directions for exploring the role of rhetorical strategies in persuasion.

Pages: 20

This chapter addresses visual elements in persuasive messaging. It begins by presenting three approaches to conceptualizing visuals in message design. The first approach considers three primary roles for visuals in messaging, their semantic and syntactic characteristics, and their syntactical indeterminacy. The second approach presents a taxonomy of image attributes. The third approach presents a typology of visual rhetoric. The chapter goes on to review research on five classes of visual elements: still images, video, data visualization, use of color, and typography. Within each class, it presents original empirical research studies or meta-analyses of the message elements therein. The chapter concludes by noting limitations of research using visual elements and directions for future research.

Pages: 18

In today's media- and sound-rich environment, message designers can integrate audio elements into their messages to strive to enhance persuasive effects. In this chapter, the authors review the audio categories of voice, music, and mechanics of sound (e.g., sound effects). The section on vocal elements addresses speech rate; pitch, vocal tone, and intonation; accent; and voice quality. The section on music addresses presence versus absence of music, music tempo, moving music, and advertising jingles. The section on mechanics of sound addresses sound effects and sound shots, as well as silence. Each section ends with a discussion of limitations and directions for future research. Although it is clear that audio elements have important persuasive effects, more research is needed on this complex topic.

Pages: 50

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 18

This chapter covers the message development process. The first phase of message development involves doing initial groundwork on goal identification, audience targeting, channel selection, theory selection, and consideration of ethical issues. The second phase involves doing focus group research to collect information from members of the target audience that can shape message development (e.g., attitudes, beliefs, cultural norms) and developing message drafts by drawing carefully and systematically on message elements across the eight element groups. The third phase involves message pretesting and revision. Qualitative and quantitative approaches to collecting pretest data are discussed. The chapter then briefly addresses producing final versions of messages for use in experiments or campaigns.

Pages: 22

This chapter presents recommendations for designing experimental studies to test variations in message elements on persuasive outcome variables, for analyzing and interpreting data, and for reporting results. The section on research design covers the importance of using theory to guide message design research, including a control condition in experiments, keeping attribute versus variable status of message elements in mind, recruiting an adequate number of research participants, testing multiple instantiations of messages, and being aware of the implications for internal validity and ecological validity in how test messages are presented to research participants; the section also addresses issues relevant to study selection for meta-analyses. The section on data analysis and interpretation covers random versus fixed effects and the importance of not confusing individual-level and message-level correlations, not confusing effect sizes and effects, and not making claims about changes in dependent variables based on posttest data alone. Finally, the section on reporting results discusses the importance of following established reporting standards for original studies and meta-analyses and presents a list of 10 reporting standards for message testing studies. Each section includes a list of recommended readings.

Pages: 8

This chapter revisits the major themes of the book, which include a call for common vocabulary in message design, a call for more attention to message elements, the need for more rigorous attention to methods, the need for more systematic and accurate reporting, and an acknowledgement that the field of message design is challenging in ways that have led to the knowledge base being rather “messy.” The chapter includes a message design rubric based on the principles outlined in the book and provides guidance on using the rubric to develop messages. It closes by sharing an anecdote from a young message design scholar who provides a reminder of the importance of message design research and practice in everyday people's lives.