The matching effect in persuasive communication about lockdown.

Scientific literature about persuasion has shown that the effectiveness of persuasive communication may depend on the match between the affective or cognitive contents of the message and the affective [(Need for Affect (NFA)] or cognitive [Need for Cognition (NFC)] orientation of the recipient. The present work aims to contribute to studying this effect by considering the context of health-related communication during the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Specifically, we aim to demonstrate that, when the message is characterized by affective and cognitive contents having the same (congruent message) or different valence (incongruent message), the attitude toward the target (i.e., a new lockdown) will be guided by the valence of the contents matching the individual affective/cognitive orientation. A total of 1,003 participants took part in a 2 (Cognitive content message: Positive vs. Negative) × 2 (Affective content message: Positive vs. Negative) factorial design and answered an online questionnaire. Results show that people with high levels of NFA and low levels of NFC report attitudes toward lockdown consistent with the valence of the affective contents. Conversely, attitudes of people with high levels of NFC and low levels of NFA were not influenced by contents that matched their orientation (i.e., cognitive).

Sense or sensibility? The neuro-functional basis of the structural matching effect in persuasion.

The present study investigates the neural pathways underlying individual susceptibility to affective or cognitive information in persuasive communication, also known as the structural matching effect. Expanding on the presumed involvement of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) in persuasion, we hypothesized that the vMPFC contributes to the evaluation of persuasive information depending on its match with the recipient's affective or cognitive predominance. During functional magnetic resonance imaging, 30 participants evaluated 10 consumable products presented with both affective and cognitive persuasive messages. All participants were characterized on a continuum regarding their personal orientation in terms of individual differences in need for affect (NFA) and need for cognition (NFC). The results showed that the vMPFC, posterior cingulate cortex, and cerebellum are more strongly activated when the persuasive message content, either affective or cognitive, matched the recipient's individual affective or cognitive orientation. Interestingly, this effect in the vMPFC was found specifically when participants evaluated the products presented by the persuasive messages, whereas the correlation in the posterior cingulate cortex and cerebellum activity was detected when reading the messages. These results confirm the hypothesis that the vMPFC plays a role in subjectively weighting persuasive message content depending on individual differences in affective and cognitive orientation. Such a structural matching effect might involve the vMPFC particularly during explicit expressions of subjective valuations. These novel findings also further develop the conceptualization of the role of the vMPFC in self-related processing.

Group membership and social status modulate joint actions.

The ability to form shared task representations is considered a keystone of social cognition. It remains, however, contentious if, and to what extent, social categorization impacts on shared representations. In the present study, we address the possibility of the modulation of action co-representation by social categorization, such as group membership and social status, as indexed by the social Simon effect. Italian participants were requested to perform a social Simon task, along with either an Italian (high-status in-group) or an Albanian (low-status out-group) participant. Results show that Italian participants co-represented the action of their partner when paired with a high-status in-group participant. Conversely, this effect was absent when they performed the task with a low-status out-group participant. Furthermore, the Albanian participants co-represented the action of their partner when paired with an Italian participant. These results suggest that group membership modulates action co-representation through the varying of the groups' relative status. The impact of this issue is boundless given the increasing multicultural nature of our society. Indeed, if multiculturalism fails, modern society does likewise.

When affective (but not cognitive) ambivalence predicts discrimination toward a minority group.

Individuals often hold ambivalent attitudes (i.e., positive and negative attitudes at the same time) toward groups and social categories. The aim of the present research was to examine the differential effects of affective and cognitive dimensions of ambivalence on the (amplification of) responses towards a minority group. We asked 188 students from the University of Perugia to read a short description of a fictitious group of immigrants. After expressing their affective and cognitive attitudes toward the target group, participants received positive, negative, or no supplementary information about this group. Discrimination was assessed by asking participants to allocate to the target group a percentage of a financial support fund for poor people (both Italian and immigrant) living in their regional area. As expected, we found that only affective ambivalence amplified either negative or positive responses toward the group.

Girls' math performance under stereotype threat: the moderating role of mothers' gender stereotypes.

Previous research on stereotype threat in children suggests that making gender identity salient disrupts girls' math performance at as early as 5 to 7 years of age. The present study (n = 124) tested the hypothesis that parents' endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderates girls' susceptibility to stereotype threat. Results confirmed that stereotype threat impaired girls' performance on math tasks among students from kindergarten through 2nd grade. Moreover, mothers' but not fathers' endorsement of gender stereotypes about math moderated girls' vulnerability to stereotype threat: performance of girls whose mothers strongly rejected the gender stereotype about math did not decrease under stereotype threat. These findings are important because they point to the role of mothers' beliefs in the development of girls' vulnerability to the negative effects of gender stereotypes about math.

Social participation and independent mobility in children: the effects of two implementations of "we go to school alone".

The aim of this research was to determine the outcomes of the "We go to school alone" program in two Districts of Rome through a longitudinal study involving 392 children (mean age = 8.37 years) and 270 parents. The outcomes of the program in the two Districts were very different. Only one resulted in an increase in children's autonomous mobility on the home-school journey, a reduction in the number of times a child was taken to school by car, and, even more important, in an increase in the general level of children's independent mobility in their neighborhood. The findings are discussed in terms of a process evaluation that enabled us to understand the differing results.