Public controversy and citizens' attitude formation about animal research: A case for scholarship and recommendations on conflicts at the science-society interface.

Activist groups attack animal research and put scientists and their institutions under pressure, whereas scientists often remain silent. We report an interdisciplinary research project driven by a communication science perspective on how citizens respond to news reports about animal research (3 experiments, overall N = 765) and a German science-initiated information platform ("Tierversuche verstehen"; controlled user study, N = 100). Findings demonstrate that a critical journalist perspective within neutral, two-sided news reports (e.g., skeptical expert statements or images of suffering animals) does not affect citizen opinion strongly. Information media provided by scientific institutions seem to be welcomed even by citizens who hold critical prior attitudes. From these results, we develop a set of recommendations for future public communication of animal research that builds on best practices in organizational and crisis communication. These suggestions are intended to empower animal researchers to actively participate in public debate to support citizens' informed attitude formation.

Health Information Repertoires of Implant Patients: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Multiple Source Use and the Role of Health-Related Motives.

Health information-seeking behavior can be understood as an active and purposeful acquisition of information from selected information sources. It supports patients to cope with medical and health-related uncertainties and enables them to engage in informed decision-making. To obtain health information, patients can turn to a variety of sources, such as going to a physician, exchanging information with their family, or using different Internet sources. Research showed that patients typically use multiple sources to meet their health-related information needs. To attain a holistic and differentiated picture of patients' actual health information behavior, the current study draws on the repertoire approach. We conducted an online survey with 1,105 implant patients and performed a cluster analysis to explore their health information repertoires. To gain a deeper understanding of the practical meaning behind the repertoires, we also considered health-related information motives and socio-structural factors, as well as the implant type (dental, orthopedic, cochlear), to characterize the repertoires. The study revealed seven different health information repertoires of implant patients, varying in their combination of multiple sources used. In addition, group comparisons showed that the repertoires differ significantly regarding socio-structural factors, such as gender, age, and education, as well as implant type. Furthermore, information motives contribute significantly to the differentiation of the repertoires. The results are of high theoretical potential for communication science as well as practical use for strategic health communication.

Communication matters when it comes to adverse events: Associations of adverse events during implant treatment with patients' communication quality and trust assessments.

OBJECTIVES: Because patients' trust in their physicians is a critical factor in improving health outcomes and patient response to adverse events, it is important to analyze the determinants of trust. One of these determinants is patient-centered communication. Because the occurrence of adverse events must be communicated to the patient, we asked whether the perceived quality of patient-physician communication acts as an isolating factor between adverse events and patient trust. METHODS: We proposed and tested a structural equation model linking the occurrence of adverse events to the mediator patient-provider communication quality and to the outcome patient trust. The model was controlled for sociodemographic and health-related factors. We used online survey data from German implant patients (n = 1312), as implant treatment is associated with frequent adverse events such as infections. RESULTS: Our results show that adverse events during implant treatment are associated with small but significantly lower trust levels. Patient-provider communication quality partially mediates this association. CONCLUSIONS: Patient trust does not appear to be immune to deterioration from adverse events. Patient-provider communication plays a role in mitigating this association. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: To improve the quality of care, attention should be paid to how adverse events are communicated in a patient-centered manner.

Explaining Online Information Seeking Behaviors in People With Different Health Statuses: German Representative Cross-sectional Survey.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, the internet is an increasingly important channel for health information. Many theories have been applied in research on online health information seeking behaviors (HISBs), with each model integrating a different set of predictors; thus, a common understanding of the predictors of (online) HISB is still missing. Another shortcoming of the theories explaining (online) HISB is that most existing models, so far, focus on very specific health contexts such as cancer. Therefore, the assumptions of the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) as the latest integrative model are applied to study online HISB, because this model identifies the general cognitive and sociopsychological factors that explain health information seeking intention. We shift away from single diseases and explore cross-thematic patterns of online HISB intention and compare predictors concerning different health statuses as it can be assumed that groups of people perceiving themselves as ill or healthy will differ concerning their drivers of online HISB. Considering the specifics of online HISB and variation in individual context factors is key for the development of generalizable theories. OBJECTIVE: The objective of our study was to contribute to the development of the concept of online HISB in 2 areas. First, this study aimed to explore individual-level predictors of individuals' online HISB intention by applying the postulates of PRISM. Second, we compared relevant predictors of online HISB in groups of people with different health statuses to identify cross-thematic central patterns of online HISB. METHODS: Data from a representative sample of German internet users (n=822) served to explain online HISB intentions and influencing patterns in different groups of people. The applicability of the PRISM to online HISB intention was tested by structural equation modeling and multigroup comparison. RESULTS: Our results revealed PRISM to be an effective framework for explaining online HISB intention. For online HISB, attitudes toward seeking health information online provided the most important explanatory power followed by risk perceptions and affective risk responses. The multigroup comparison revealed differences both regarding the explanatory power of the model and the relevance of predictors of online HISB. The online HISB intention could be better explained for people facing a health threat, suggesting that the predictors adopted from PRISM were more suitable to explain a problem-driven type of information-seeking behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that attitudes toward seeking health information online and risk perceptions are of central importance for online HISB across different health-conditional contexts. Predictors such as self-efficacy and perceived knowledge insufficiency play a context-dependent role-they are more influential when individuals are facing health threats and the search for health information is of higher personal relevance and urgency. These findings can be understood as the first step to develop a generalized theory of online HISB.

Permanently online and permanently connected: Development and validation of the Online Vigilance Scale.

Smartphones and other mobile devices have fundamentally changed patterns of Internet use in everyday life by making online access constantly available. The present paper offers a theoretical explication and empirical assessment of the concept of online vigilance, referring to users' permanent cognitive orientation towards online content and communication as well as their disposition to exploit these options constantly. Based on four studies, a validated and reliable self-report measure of online vigilance was developed. In combination, the results suggest that the Online Vigilance Scale (OVS) shows a stable factor structure in various contexts and user populations and provides future work in communication, psychology, and other social sciences with a new measure of the individual cognitive orientation towards ubiquitous online communication.

Tailoring in risk communication by linking risk profiles and communication preferences: The case of speeding of young car drivers.

Speeding is one of the most relevant risk behaviors for serious and fatal accidents, particularly among young drivers. This study presents a tailoring strategy for anti-speeding communication. By referring to their motivational dispositions toward speeding derived from motivational models of health behavior, young car drivers were segmented into different risk groups. In order to ensure that risk communication efforts would actually be capable to target these groups, the linkage between the risk profiles and communication preferences were explored. The study was conducted on the basis of survey data of 1168 German car drivers aged between 17 and 24 years. The data reveal four types of risk drivers significantly differing in their motivational profiles. Moreover, the findings show significant differences in communication habits and media use between these risk groups. By linking the risk profiles and communication preferences, implications for tailoring strategies of road safety communication campaigns are derived. Promising segmentation and targeting strategies are discussed also beyond the current case of anti-speeding campaigns.

Playing in or out of character: user role differences in the experience of interactive storytelling.

Interactive storytelling (IS) is a promising new entertainment technology synthesizing preauthored narrative with dynamic user interaction. Existing IS prototypes employ different modes to involve users in a story, ranging from individual avatar control to comprehensive control over the virtual environment. The current experiment tested whether different player modes (exerting local vs. global influence) yield different user experiences (e.g., senses of immersion vs. control). A within-subject design involved 34 participants playing the cinematic IS drama "Emo Emma"( 1 ) both in the local (actor) and in global (ghost) mode. The latter mode allowed free movement in the virtual environment and hidden influence on characters, objects, and story development. As expected, control-related experiential qualities (effectance, autonomy, flow, and pride) were more intense for players in the global (ghost) mode. Immersion-related experiences did not differ over modes. Additionally, men preferred the sense of command facilitated by the ghost mode, whereas women preferred the sense of involvement facilitated by the actor mode.

Exploring replay value: shifts and continuities in user experiences between first and second exposure to an interactive story.

While replay value is a common term in interactive entertainment, psychological research on its meaning in terms of user experiences is sparse. An exploratory experiment using the interactive drama "Façade" was conducted (n=50) to examine shifts and continuities in entertainment-related user experiences between first and second exposure to the same system. A questionnaire with brief scales measuring various user-experience dimensions (interaction-related facets such as usability, flow, and presence, as well as narrative-related facets such as suspense and curiosity) was administered after the first and the second round of exposure. Findings suggest that replay produces gains in action-related experience components such as presence and effectance, whereas narrative-related experiences such as curiosity and suspense remain stable across exposures. Implications for theorizing on interactive entertainment experiences are discussed.

Of virtual victims and victimized virtues: differential effects of experienced aggression in video games on social cooperation.

Two experimental studies were used to investigate how interacting with aggressive virtual characters in video games affects trust and cooperation of players. Study 1 demonstrates that experiencing virtual aggression from a victim's perspective can impair players' investments in a subsequent common goods dilemma situation. This effect is mediated by reduced expectations of trust in the cooperativeness of interaction partners. In Study 2 the same effect was replicated by using a different cooperation task and by investigating the moderating role of justice sensitivity from a victim's perspective as a dispositional factor. Participants transferred less money to an unknown partner in a trust game after exposure to aggressive nonplayer characters in a video game. This effect was stronger for people high in victim sensitivity. Results of both studies can be interpreted in line with the sensitivity to mean intentions model and add to the body of research on violent media effects.

Exploring the enjoyment of playing browser games.

Browser games--mostly persistent game worlds that can be used without client software and monetary cost with a Web browser--belong to the understudied digital game types, although they attract large player communities and motivate sustained play. The present work reports findings from an online survey of 8,203 players of a German strategy browser game ("Travian"). Results suggest that multiplayer browser games are enjoyed primarily because of the social relationships involved in game play and the specific time and flexibility characteristics ("easy-in, easy-out"). Competition, in contrast, seems to be less important for browser gamers than for users of other game types. Findings are discussed in terms of video game enjoyment and game addiction.

Experimental evidence for suspense as determinant of video game enjoyment.

Based on theoretical assumptions from film psychology and their application to video games, the hypothesis is tested that suspense is a major factor in video game enjoyment. A first-person shooter game was experimentally manipulated to create either a low level or a high level of suspense. Sixty-three participants were randomly assigned to experimental conditions; enjoyment was assessed after playing by a 10-item rating scale. Results support the assumption that suspense is a driver of video game enjoyment.

Effectance and control as determinants of video game enjoyment.

This article explores video game enjoyment originated by games' key characteristic, interactivity. An online experiment (N=500) tested experiences of effectance (perceived influence on the game world) and of being in control as mechanisms that link interactivity to enjoyment. A video game was manipulated to either allow normal play, reduce perceived effectance, or reduce perceived control. Enjoyment ratings suggest that effectance is an important factor in video game enjoyment but that the relationship between control of the game situation and enjoyment is more complex.