Ana Cancela | Universidad Villanueva (original) (raw)
Papers by Ana Cancela
BMC Public Health
Background Although health public services recommend prevention strategies for COVID-19 some of t... more Background Although health public services recommend prevention strategies for COVID-19 some of these recommendations have not been taken seriously by young people. Understanding why some people comply with these recommendations and others do not seem to be crucial in helping public health services to predict behavior and compliance with rules, especially for young people. Previous studies suggest that knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) are useful to assess compliance with the preventive measures and public health policies. Being afraid has also been found to correlate with more engagement with preventive measures. This study aims to assess the KAP and fear of COVID-19 of Spanish university students and to understand the relation between diagnosis, KAP and the level of fear. Method Participants of this cross-sectional study were 598 college students (69.4% women) from different Spanish Universities. Data were collected for a month using an online questionnaire through Sphinx ...
El Profesional de la información
Problem gambling has recently been reclassified as a non-substance-associated behavioral addictio... more Problem gambling has recently been reclassified as a non-substance-associated behavioral addiction. To the associated vital impact (family, social, labor, and economic), we must add its increasing incidence in recent years, which has led to prioritizing the problem from the point of view of public health. Although the effects of advertising on gambling behavior have been explored since the second half of the twentieth century, there is a lack of research regarding its underlying mechanisms. Thus, the objective of this review is to present an update on the effects of advertisements on gambling attitudes and behavioral intentions, as well as to present the neurobiological correlates of gambling-related cues as a possible hypothesis for this effect. Advertisements in various formats may act both as a precipitating factor and as a maintenance factor for the gambling disorder, changing both attitudes and beliefs about gambling. Activation of brain areas related to reward, such as accumbe...
International Journal of Social Psychology, Revista de Psicología Social, 2018
Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demons... more Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demonstrated that people use their thoughts more when they recall past episodes of happiness and when they are induced to smile. This study was designed to evaluate whether a new induction of a happy mood (a joke) can influence thought use in response to a persuasive proposal. Two versions of the same joke were compared: a version that included an interruption before the punchline and another that did not include an interruption at that point. The aim was to examine whether this interruption increased or decreased the use of previously generated thoughts towards a persuasive communication. The results indicated that the participants who were interrupted before the punchline relied more on their own thoughts in forming their attitudes than did those who were in the control group. In consequence, an interruption during a pleasant experience (e.g., a joke) increased persuasion when thoughts were positive but decreased persuasion when thoughts were negative. Las emociones positivas pueden validar tanto pensamientos positivos como pensamientos negativos. La investigación previa ha demostrado que las personas utilizan más sus pensamientos después de recordar episodios felices y cuando se inducen expresiones faciales asociadas con sonrisa. Esta investigación evaluó en qué medida una nueva inducción de estado de ánimo positivo (un chiste) influye en el uso de los pensamientos generados previamente en respuesta a una propuesta persuasiva no relacionada con el chiste. Para ello, se compararon dos versiones de un mismo chiste: una versión que incluía una interrupción antes del desenlace y otra en la que no se incluía dicha interrupción en ese momento. Los resultados mostraron que aquellos participantes interrumpidos antes del desenlace del chiste usaron más sus pensamientos al formar actitudes que aquellos en el grupo control. Como consecuencia, una interrupción durante una experiencia placentera (e.g., un chiste) aumentó la persuasión cuando los pensamientos fueron positivos pero disminuyó la persuasión cuando los pensamientos fueron negativos
European Review of Applied Psychology, 2016
Introduction: Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonetheless... more Introduction: Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonetheless there is no clear, definitive evidence of sustained effectiveness of those efforts in all cases. Objective: The present study examined the role of perceived attention in changing attitudes toward vegetable consumption as well as the perceived stability and resistance of those changes. Method: Participants were randomly assigned to read a strong or weak health communication arguing in favor of vegetable consumption. After reading the message, participants reported attitudes toward this health issue, the perceived attention, and the perceived strength associated with their evaluations. Results: Participants who reported high (vs. low) perceived attention showed a greater effect of argument quality on persuasion. Furthermore, such participants also showed stronger attitudes compared to those who reported low perceived attention. Conclusion: This study showed that attitudes toward vegetable consumption can be changed after reading a persuasive message, and that the extent of perceived attention moderated the extent to which those changes were perceived as stable and resistant. Résumé Introduction: On ne ménage pas les efforts pour promouvoir les attitudes et les comportements de santé ; il n'y a pourtant aucune preuve à l'appui de leur efficacité sur le long terme. Objectif: Cette étude examine le rôle de l'attention subjective dans l'évolution des attitudes envers la consommation de légumes, ainsi que la persistance et la résistance de cette évolution. Méthode: Les participants ont d'abord dû lire un rapport de santé qui vante les bienfaits des légumes; certains recevaient un rapport peu convaincant, les autres des arguments plus puissants. Tous ont ensuite rendu compte de 3 leurs attitudes envers cette question diététique en précisant la portée, selon eux, de leurs évaluations. Résultats: Les participants démontrant une attention subjective élevée (par opposition à faible) à la lecture du rapport ont aussi produit les arguments les plus persuasifs. De plus, les attitudes de ces mêmes participants ont été plus assurées par rapport à ceux qui démontraient une faible attention subjective. Conclusion: Cette étude montre que les attitudes envers la consommation de légumes peuvent être modifiées par la lecture d'un message fort, et que leur persistance et leur résistance est fonction de leur degré d'attention subjective.
Psicothema, 2015
The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are ... more The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are effective in changing attitudes. The goal of the present research was to examine to what extent the ease adolescents experience in generating thoughts can influence persuasion in the domain of a health-relevant topic. Participants were asked to generate either positive or negative thoughts about the Mediterranean diet. The spontaneous feeling of ease with which participants generated those thoughts was assessed for each participant. The impact of these two independent variables on attitudes toward the Mediterranean diet was examined. Participants who reported relatively higher (vs. lower) subjective ease experiences in the thought-listing task showed a greater effect of thought direction on attitudes toward the diet. This study demonstrates the importance of considering not only the thoughts people have with regard to health but also the subjective experiences and metacognitive feelings ...
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 2021
The successful impact of healthy eating campaigns often depends on the extent to which messages a... more The successful impact of healthy eating campaigns often depends on the extent to which messages are effective in changing attitudes and behaviors over time. The present work proposes that healthy eating campaigns can be designed taking into consideration elaboration and validation processes so that the degree of attitude change is maximally influenced and is consequential. The first set of studies described in this review demonstrates the importance of considering elaboration in determining initial attitudes toward healthy foods as well as the subsequent attitude strength consequences (e.g., stability, prediction of behavior, spreading). The second set of studies focuses on the role of perceived validity of one’s thoughts in the domain of eating as a potential mediator of the persuasion process. These studies include campaigns promoting positive attitudes toward healthy eating (e.g., eating of vegetables and fruits), and interventions oriented to decreasing the intake of unhealthy f...
Desde que comenzo la crisis economica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaci... more Desde que comenzo la crisis economica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaciones principales de la poblacion espanola. De esta situacion nacen alternativas como el emprendimiento y la esperanza de que dichas alternativas sirvan para mejorar la tasa de desempleo. Esta preocupacion ha llevado a que el gobierno intente fomentar las iniciativas emprendedoras con programas para la juventud y la inclusion de asignaturas sobre emprendimiento en el curriculum escolar. Sin embargo, el impacto que tienen estos mensajes pr oemprendimiento en los y las jovenes depende en buena medida de la efectividad de los mismos en cambiar las actitudes para que perduren en el tiempo. En el presente trabajo se propone un marco teorico que sirve para entender como se forman, se mantienen o cambian las actitudes de los y las jovenes hacia el emprendimiento. Para cumplir con este objetivo se revisan los mecanismos psicologicos que producen o bien un cambio superficial en las actitudes o un ...
Revista De Psicologia Social, 2018
espanolEl emprendimiento social (ES) hace referencia al desarrollo de proyectos innovadores cuyo ... more espanolEl emprendimiento social (ES) hace referencia al desarrollo de proyectos innovadores cuyo objetivo no es el beneficio individual sino la transformacion de la sociedad. Esta es una cuestion de especial relevancia para promover el desarrollo y la participacion de los jovenes. En esta investigacion presentamos los resultados obtenidos en dos estudios disenados bajo una perspectiva multidimensional en los que se analizan las actitudes y las intenciones conductuales respecto al emprendimiento social sobre la base de los constructos de liderazgo de servicio y estilos de vida. Los resultados del Estudio 1 indicaron que el liderazgo de servicio es un predictor clave de las actitudes y de las intenciones conductuales hacia el emprendimiento social, mientras que un estilo de vida violento esta negativamente asociado con dichas actitudes e intenciones conductuales. El Estudio 2 mostro que el estilo de liderazgo de servicio predice las actitudes hacia el emprendimiento social mas alla qu...
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
It is well established that the physical attractiveness of the source of a message can influence ... more It is well established that the physical attractiveness of the source of a message can influence recipients' attitudes about the message proposal. The current research is the first to examine if attractiveness is also capable of affecting attitude confidence and resistance to change. Experiment 1 revealed that an attractive source decreased recipients' attitude confidence, even when it did not affect attitudes. Experiment 2 replicated this novel finding and identified a critical condition under which this effect is more likely to occur. Specifically, attractiveness only reduced attitude confidence when it was unrelated to the merits of the persuasive proposal. This moderation by message relevance suggests that people can correct the confidence in their judgment for inappropriate sources of bias. Experiment 3 specified the conditions under which correction is more likely to take place on attitudes and on attitude confidence. Specifically, correction for source attractiveness on attitudes required an explicit correction instruction but correction on attitude confidence occurred regardless of the instruction. Finally, Experiment 4 demonstrated that the effect of attractiveness in reducing attitude confidence is consequential by making attitudes less resistant to change when facing counter-attitudinal information. Taken together, the present research demonstrated that attractiveness can reduce attitude confidence as well as undermine subsequent resistance to counter-attitudinal messages, but only when attractiveness was viewed as an unwanted biasing factor (i.e., the message topic was unrelated to attractiveness).
Motivation and Emotion
Practitioners and researchers interested in designing wise interventions often recommend increasi... more Practitioners and researchers interested in designing wise interventions often recommend increasing personal involvement to be successful. Early research demonstrated that personal involvement increases elaboration leading to more persuasion for strong arguments, but to reduced persuasion if the arguments presented are specious. In most prior work, message recipients were plausibly motivated by their desire for knowledge. In the current research, we compare this epistemic goal to another goal in which people aim to process information to be entertained or have fun. Results showed that when people processed to gain knowledge (epistemic goal), they elaborated more in high personal involvement conditions, replicating the classic finding. However, high personal involvement decreased elaboration for people in hedonic conditions, reversing the classic interaction, and introducing a novel finding that is consistent with recent research suggesting that "thinking for pleasure" can be difficult.
Revista de Psicología Social
Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demons... more Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demonstrated that people use their thoughts more when they recall past episodes of happiness and when they are induced to smile. This study was designed to evaluate whether a new induction of a happy mood (a joke) can influence thought use in response to a persuasive proposal. Two versions of the same joke were compared: a version that included an interruption before the punchline and another that did not include an interruption at that point. The aim was to examine whether this interruption increased or decreased the use of previously generated thoughts towards a persuasive communication. The results indicated that the participants who were interrupted before the punchline relied more on their own thoughts in forming their attitudes than did those who were in the control group. In consequence, an interruption during a pleasant experience (e.g., a joke) increased persuasion when thoughts were positive but decreased persuasion when thoughts were negative.
Revista de Psicología Social
Social entrepreneurship (SE) refers to the development of innovative projects whose main aim is n... more Social entrepreneurship (SE) refers to the development of innovative projects whose main aim is not individual profit but the transformation of society. The issue is particularly important for promoting youth development and participation. This research offers insights from two studies designed from a multi-dimensional perspective analysing attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social ventures built upon the constructs of servant leadership and lifestyles. Results of Study 1 indicated that servant leadership is a key predictor of attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship, while having a violent lifestyle is negatively associated with these attitudes and intentions. Study 2 showed that servant leadership style predicted attitudes towards social entrepreneurship over and above other types of leadership (i.e., transformational, transactional and laissez-faire). These studies demonstrate the importance of considering servant leadership and relational styles as key factors in predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding social and active participation of young people. Limitations of the study and applications to designing interventions aimed at improving attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship are discussed.
Health and quality of life outcomes, Jan 15, 2018
The effect of indirect (versus direct) exposure to a traumatic event on the quality of life of te... more The effect of indirect (versus direct) exposure to a traumatic event on the quality of life of terrorist attack victims has received considerable attention in the literature. However, more research is required to examine whether the symptoms and underlying processes caused by both types of exposure are equivalent. Our main hypothesis is that well-being plays a different role depending on indirect vs. direct trauma exposure. In this cross-sectional study, eighty direct victims of 11-M terrorist attacks (people who were traveling in trains where bombs were placed) and two-hundred indirect victims (individuals highly exposed to the 11-M terrorist attacks through communications media) voluntarily participated without compensation. To test our hypothesis regarding the mediating role of indirect exposure, we conducted a biased corrected bootstrapping procedure. To test our hypothesis regarding the moderating role of direct exposure, data were subjected to a hierarchical regression analysi...
Psicothema, 2017
This research explores the extent to which attitudes towards an environmentally-friendly topic (a... more This research explores the extent to which attitudes towards an environmentally-friendly topic (a green company) are affected by a “tip of the tongue” (TOT) experience. In this experiment, participants were first exposed to a description of a green company that elicited mostly positive or negative thoughts. As part of an apparently unrelated study, participants were then asked to describe an experience of TOT that either was or was not successfully resolved. The recalling task was independent from the thoughts about the company. Finally, participants reported their attitudes toward the green company for which they initially listed thoughts. Participants who recalled resolving a TOT experience relied on their thoughts about the initial (unrelated) green company more in forming their evaluations than did participants who recalled an unresolved TOT experience. Attitudes can be affected by thinking about an unrelated past meta-cognitive experience.
Health and Addictions/Salud y Drogas
Alcohol consumption represents a major problem for public health. As a consequence, there is a gr... more Alcohol consumption represents a major problem for public health. As a consequence, there is a growing interest in understanding which communication strategies have the ability to increase the persuasive power of anti-alcohol campaigns. Many designers of health campaigns use both actors and real people interchangeably to deliver their messages. Nevertheless, little is known regarding which of these two types of message sources are more persuasive. Aim & Methodology. In this study, we used an experimental design to explore the effect of recipients’ perceptions of the message source (presented as either real people or actors) on their drinking intentions. Results. We observed a significant difference in the drinking intentions as an effect of our manipulation, depending on previous recipients’ drinking levels. Heavy consumers were more readily persuaded by the real source message. In contrast, light consumers showed less drinking intentions after receiving the message from the fiction...
Introduction. – Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonethele... more Introduction. – Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonetheless thereis no clear, definitive evidence of sustained effectiveness of those efforts in all cases.Objective. – The present study examined the role of perceived attention in changing attitudes toward veg-etable consumption as well as the perceived stability and resistance of those changes (attitude strength).Method. – Participants were randomly assigned to read a strong or weak health communication arguingin favor of vegetable consumption. After reading the message, participants reported attitudes toward thishealth issue, the perceived attention, and the perceived strength associated with their evaluations.Results. – Participants who reported high (vs. low) perceived attention showed a greater effect of argumentquality on persuasion. Furthermore, such participants also reported stronger attitudes compared to thosewho reported low perceived attention.Conclusion. – This study showed that at...
Desde que comenzó la crisis económica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaci... more Desde que comenzó la crisis económica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaciones principales de la población española. De esta situación nacen alternativas como el emprendimiento y la esperanza de que dichas alternativas sirvan para mejorar la tasa de desempleo. Esta preocupación ha llevado a que el gobierno intente fomentar las iniciativas emprendedoras con programas para la juventud y la inclusión de asignaturas sobre emprendimiento en el currículum escolar. Sin embargo, el impacto que tienen estos mensajes pro-emprendimiento en los y las jóvenes depende en buena medida de la efectividad de los mismos en cambiar las actitudes para que perduren en el tiempo. En el presente trabajo se propone un marco teórico que sirve para entender cómo se forman, se mantienen o cambian las actitudes de los y las jóvenes hacia el emprendimiento. Para cumplir con este objetivo se revisan los mecanismos psicológicos que producen o bien un cambio superficial en las actitudes o un ...
Psicothema, 2015
The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are ... more The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are effective in changing attitudes. The goal of the present research was to examine to what extent the ease adolescents experience in generating thoughts can influence persuasion in the domain of a health-relevant topic. Participants were asked to generate either positive or negative thoughts about the Mediterranean diet. The spontaneous feeling of ease with which participants generated those thoughts was assessed for each participant. The impact of these two independent variables on attitudes toward the Mediterranean diet was examined. Participants who reported relatively higher (vs. lower) subjective ease experiences in the thought-listing task showed a greater effect of thought direction on attitudes toward the diet. This study demonstrates the importance of considering not only the thoughts people have with regard to health but also the subjective experiences and metacognitive feelings ...
BMC Public Health
Background Although health public services recommend prevention strategies for COVID-19 some of t... more Background Although health public services recommend prevention strategies for COVID-19 some of these recommendations have not been taken seriously by young people. Understanding why some people comply with these recommendations and others do not seem to be crucial in helping public health services to predict behavior and compliance with rules, especially for young people. Previous studies suggest that knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) are useful to assess compliance with the preventive measures and public health policies. Being afraid has also been found to correlate with more engagement with preventive measures. This study aims to assess the KAP and fear of COVID-19 of Spanish university students and to understand the relation between diagnosis, KAP and the level of fear. Method Participants of this cross-sectional study were 598 college students (69.4% women) from different Spanish Universities. Data were collected for a month using an online questionnaire through Sphinx ...
El Profesional de la información
Problem gambling has recently been reclassified as a non-substance-associated behavioral addictio... more Problem gambling has recently been reclassified as a non-substance-associated behavioral addiction. To the associated vital impact (family, social, labor, and economic), we must add its increasing incidence in recent years, which has led to prioritizing the problem from the point of view of public health. Although the effects of advertising on gambling behavior have been explored since the second half of the twentieth century, there is a lack of research regarding its underlying mechanisms. Thus, the objective of this review is to present an update on the effects of advertisements on gambling attitudes and behavioral intentions, as well as to present the neurobiological correlates of gambling-related cues as a possible hypothesis for this effect. Advertisements in various formats may act both as a precipitating factor and as a maintenance factor for the gambling disorder, changing both attitudes and beliefs about gambling. Activation of brain areas related to reward, such as accumbe...
International Journal of Social Psychology, Revista de Psicología Social, 2018
Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demons... more Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demonstrated that people use their thoughts more when they recall past episodes of happiness and when they are induced to smile. This study was designed to evaluate whether a new induction of a happy mood (a joke) can influence thought use in response to a persuasive proposal. Two versions of the same joke were compared: a version that included an interruption before the punchline and another that did not include an interruption at that point. The aim was to examine whether this interruption increased or decreased the use of previously generated thoughts towards a persuasive communication. The results indicated that the participants who were interrupted before the punchline relied more on their own thoughts in forming their attitudes than did those who were in the control group. In consequence, an interruption during a pleasant experience (e.g., a joke) increased persuasion when thoughts were positive but decreased persuasion when thoughts were negative. Las emociones positivas pueden validar tanto pensamientos positivos como pensamientos negativos. La investigación previa ha demostrado que las personas utilizan más sus pensamientos después de recordar episodios felices y cuando se inducen expresiones faciales asociadas con sonrisa. Esta investigación evaluó en qué medida una nueva inducción de estado de ánimo positivo (un chiste) influye en el uso de los pensamientos generados previamente en respuesta a una propuesta persuasiva no relacionada con el chiste. Para ello, se compararon dos versiones de un mismo chiste: una versión que incluía una interrupción antes del desenlace y otra en la que no se incluía dicha interrupción en ese momento. Los resultados mostraron que aquellos participantes interrumpidos antes del desenlace del chiste usaron más sus pensamientos al formar actitudes que aquellos en el grupo control. Como consecuencia, una interrupción durante una experiencia placentera (e.g., un chiste) aumentó la persuasión cuando los pensamientos fueron positivos pero disminuyó la persuasión cuando los pensamientos fueron negativos
European Review of Applied Psychology, 2016
Introduction: Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonetheless... more Introduction: Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonetheless there is no clear, definitive evidence of sustained effectiveness of those efforts in all cases. Objective: The present study examined the role of perceived attention in changing attitudes toward vegetable consumption as well as the perceived stability and resistance of those changes. Method: Participants were randomly assigned to read a strong or weak health communication arguing in favor of vegetable consumption. After reading the message, participants reported attitudes toward this health issue, the perceived attention, and the perceived strength associated with their evaluations. Results: Participants who reported high (vs. low) perceived attention showed a greater effect of argument quality on persuasion. Furthermore, such participants also showed stronger attitudes compared to those who reported low perceived attention. Conclusion: This study showed that attitudes toward vegetable consumption can be changed after reading a persuasive message, and that the extent of perceived attention moderated the extent to which those changes were perceived as stable and resistant. Résumé Introduction: On ne ménage pas les efforts pour promouvoir les attitudes et les comportements de santé ; il n'y a pourtant aucune preuve à l'appui de leur efficacité sur le long terme. Objectif: Cette étude examine le rôle de l'attention subjective dans l'évolution des attitudes envers la consommation de légumes, ainsi que la persistance et la résistance de cette évolution. Méthode: Les participants ont d'abord dû lire un rapport de santé qui vante les bienfaits des légumes; certains recevaient un rapport peu convaincant, les autres des arguments plus puissants. Tous ont ensuite rendu compte de 3 leurs attitudes envers cette question diététique en précisant la portée, selon eux, de leurs évaluations. Résultats: Les participants démontrant une attention subjective élevée (par opposition à faible) à la lecture du rapport ont aussi produit les arguments les plus persuasifs. De plus, les attitudes de ces mêmes participants ont été plus assurées par rapport à ceux qui démontraient une faible attention subjective. Conclusion: Cette étude montre que les attitudes envers la consommation de légumes peuvent être modifiées par la lecture d'un message fort, et que leur persistance et leur résistance est fonction de leur degré d'attention subjective.
Psicothema, 2015
The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are ... more The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are effective in changing attitudes. The goal of the present research was to examine to what extent the ease adolescents experience in generating thoughts can influence persuasion in the domain of a health-relevant topic. Participants were asked to generate either positive or negative thoughts about the Mediterranean diet. The spontaneous feeling of ease with which participants generated those thoughts was assessed for each participant. The impact of these two independent variables on attitudes toward the Mediterranean diet was examined. Participants who reported relatively higher (vs. lower) subjective ease experiences in the thought-listing task showed a greater effect of thought direction on attitudes toward the diet. This study demonstrates the importance of considering not only the thoughts people have with regard to health but also the subjective experiences and metacognitive feelings ...
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 2021
The successful impact of healthy eating campaigns often depends on the extent to which messages a... more The successful impact of healthy eating campaigns often depends on the extent to which messages are effective in changing attitudes and behaviors over time. The present work proposes that healthy eating campaigns can be designed taking into consideration elaboration and validation processes so that the degree of attitude change is maximally influenced and is consequential. The first set of studies described in this review demonstrates the importance of considering elaboration in determining initial attitudes toward healthy foods as well as the subsequent attitude strength consequences (e.g., stability, prediction of behavior, spreading). The second set of studies focuses on the role of perceived validity of one’s thoughts in the domain of eating as a potential mediator of the persuasion process. These studies include campaigns promoting positive attitudes toward healthy eating (e.g., eating of vegetables and fruits), and interventions oriented to decreasing the intake of unhealthy f...
Desde que comenzo la crisis economica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaci... more Desde que comenzo la crisis economica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaciones principales de la poblacion espanola. De esta situacion nacen alternativas como el emprendimiento y la esperanza de que dichas alternativas sirvan para mejorar la tasa de desempleo. Esta preocupacion ha llevado a que el gobierno intente fomentar las iniciativas emprendedoras con programas para la juventud y la inclusion de asignaturas sobre emprendimiento en el curriculum escolar. Sin embargo, el impacto que tienen estos mensajes pr oemprendimiento en los y las jovenes depende en buena medida de la efectividad de los mismos en cambiar las actitudes para que perduren en el tiempo. En el presente trabajo se propone un marco teorico que sirve para entender como se forman, se mantienen o cambian las actitudes de los y las jovenes hacia el emprendimiento. Para cumplir con este objetivo se revisan los mecanismos psicologicos que producen o bien un cambio superficial en las actitudes o un ...
Revista De Psicologia Social, 2018
espanolEl emprendimiento social (ES) hace referencia al desarrollo de proyectos innovadores cuyo ... more espanolEl emprendimiento social (ES) hace referencia al desarrollo de proyectos innovadores cuyo objetivo no es el beneficio individual sino la transformacion de la sociedad. Esta es una cuestion de especial relevancia para promover el desarrollo y la participacion de los jovenes. En esta investigacion presentamos los resultados obtenidos en dos estudios disenados bajo una perspectiva multidimensional en los que se analizan las actitudes y las intenciones conductuales respecto al emprendimiento social sobre la base de los constructos de liderazgo de servicio y estilos de vida. Los resultados del Estudio 1 indicaron que el liderazgo de servicio es un predictor clave de las actitudes y de las intenciones conductuales hacia el emprendimiento social, mientras que un estilo de vida violento esta negativamente asociado con dichas actitudes e intenciones conductuales. El Estudio 2 mostro que el estilo de liderazgo de servicio predice las actitudes hacia el emprendimiento social mas alla qu...
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
It is well established that the physical attractiveness of the source of a message can influence ... more It is well established that the physical attractiveness of the source of a message can influence recipients' attitudes about the message proposal. The current research is the first to examine if attractiveness is also capable of affecting attitude confidence and resistance to change. Experiment 1 revealed that an attractive source decreased recipients' attitude confidence, even when it did not affect attitudes. Experiment 2 replicated this novel finding and identified a critical condition under which this effect is more likely to occur. Specifically, attractiveness only reduced attitude confidence when it was unrelated to the merits of the persuasive proposal. This moderation by message relevance suggests that people can correct the confidence in their judgment for inappropriate sources of bias. Experiment 3 specified the conditions under which correction is more likely to take place on attitudes and on attitude confidence. Specifically, correction for source attractiveness on attitudes required an explicit correction instruction but correction on attitude confidence occurred regardless of the instruction. Finally, Experiment 4 demonstrated that the effect of attractiveness in reducing attitude confidence is consequential by making attitudes less resistant to change when facing counter-attitudinal information. Taken together, the present research demonstrated that attractiveness can reduce attitude confidence as well as undermine subsequent resistance to counter-attitudinal messages, but only when attractiveness was viewed as an unwanted biasing factor (i.e., the message topic was unrelated to attractiveness).
Motivation and Emotion
Practitioners and researchers interested in designing wise interventions often recommend increasi... more Practitioners and researchers interested in designing wise interventions often recommend increasing personal involvement to be successful. Early research demonstrated that personal involvement increases elaboration leading to more persuasion for strong arguments, but to reduced persuasion if the arguments presented are specious. In most prior work, message recipients were plausibly motivated by their desire for knowledge. In the current research, we compare this epistemic goal to another goal in which people aim to process information to be entertained or have fun. Results showed that when people processed to gain knowledge (epistemic goal), they elaborated more in high personal involvement conditions, replicating the classic finding. However, high personal involvement decreased elaboration for people in hedonic conditions, reversing the classic interaction, and introducing a novel finding that is consistent with recent research suggesting that "thinking for pleasure" can be difficult.
Revista de Psicología Social
Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demons... more Positive emotions can validate either positive or negative thoughts. Previous research has demonstrated that people use their thoughts more when they recall past episodes of happiness and when they are induced to smile. This study was designed to evaluate whether a new induction of a happy mood (a joke) can influence thought use in response to a persuasive proposal. Two versions of the same joke were compared: a version that included an interruption before the punchline and another that did not include an interruption at that point. The aim was to examine whether this interruption increased or decreased the use of previously generated thoughts towards a persuasive communication. The results indicated that the participants who were interrupted before the punchline relied more on their own thoughts in forming their attitudes than did those who were in the control group. In consequence, an interruption during a pleasant experience (e.g., a joke) increased persuasion when thoughts were positive but decreased persuasion when thoughts were negative.
Revista de Psicología Social
Social entrepreneurship (SE) refers to the development of innovative projects whose main aim is n... more Social entrepreneurship (SE) refers to the development of innovative projects whose main aim is not individual profit but the transformation of society. The issue is particularly important for promoting youth development and participation. This research offers insights from two studies designed from a multi-dimensional perspective analysing attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social ventures built upon the constructs of servant leadership and lifestyles. Results of Study 1 indicated that servant leadership is a key predictor of attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship, while having a violent lifestyle is negatively associated with these attitudes and intentions. Study 2 showed that servant leadership style predicted attitudes towards social entrepreneurship over and above other types of leadership (i.e., transformational, transactional and laissez-faire). These studies demonstrate the importance of considering servant leadership and relational styles as key factors in predicting attitudes and behavioural intentions regarding social and active participation of young people. Limitations of the study and applications to designing interventions aimed at improving attitudes and behavioural intentions towards social entrepreneurship are discussed.
Health and quality of life outcomes, Jan 15, 2018
The effect of indirect (versus direct) exposure to a traumatic event on the quality of life of te... more The effect of indirect (versus direct) exposure to a traumatic event on the quality of life of terrorist attack victims has received considerable attention in the literature. However, more research is required to examine whether the symptoms and underlying processes caused by both types of exposure are equivalent. Our main hypothesis is that well-being plays a different role depending on indirect vs. direct trauma exposure. In this cross-sectional study, eighty direct victims of 11-M terrorist attacks (people who were traveling in trains where bombs were placed) and two-hundred indirect victims (individuals highly exposed to the 11-M terrorist attacks through communications media) voluntarily participated without compensation. To test our hypothesis regarding the mediating role of indirect exposure, we conducted a biased corrected bootstrapping procedure. To test our hypothesis regarding the moderating role of direct exposure, data were subjected to a hierarchical regression analysi...
Psicothema, 2017
This research explores the extent to which attitudes towards an environmentally-friendly topic (a... more This research explores the extent to which attitudes towards an environmentally-friendly topic (a green company) are affected by a “tip of the tongue” (TOT) experience. In this experiment, participants were first exposed to a description of a green company that elicited mostly positive or negative thoughts. As part of an apparently unrelated study, participants were then asked to describe an experience of TOT that either was or was not successfully resolved. The recalling task was independent from the thoughts about the company. Finally, participants reported their attitudes toward the green company for which they initially listed thoughts. Participants who recalled resolving a TOT experience relied on their thoughts about the initial (unrelated) green company more in forming their evaluations than did participants who recalled an unresolved TOT experience. Attitudes can be affected by thinking about an unrelated past meta-cognitive experience.
Health and Addictions/Salud y Drogas
Alcohol consumption represents a major problem for public health. As a consequence, there is a gr... more Alcohol consumption represents a major problem for public health. As a consequence, there is a growing interest in understanding which communication strategies have the ability to increase the persuasive power of anti-alcohol campaigns. Many designers of health campaigns use both actors and real people interchangeably to deliver their messages. Nevertheless, little is known regarding which of these two types of message sources are more persuasive. Aim & Methodology. In this study, we used an experimental design to explore the effect of recipients’ perceptions of the message source (presented as either real people or actors) on their drinking intentions. Results. We observed a significant difference in the drinking intentions as an effect of our manipulation, depending on previous recipients’ drinking levels. Heavy consumers were more readily persuaded by the real source message. In contrast, light consumers showed less drinking intentions after receiving the message from the fiction...
Introduction. – Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonethele... more Introduction. – Many efforts are invested in promoting healthy attitudes and behaviors; nonetheless thereis no clear, definitive evidence of sustained effectiveness of those efforts in all cases.Objective. – The present study examined the role of perceived attention in changing attitudes toward veg-etable consumption as well as the perceived stability and resistance of those changes (attitude strength).Method. – Participants were randomly assigned to read a strong or weak health communication arguingin favor of vegetable consumption. After reading the message, participants reported attitudes toward thishealth issue, the perceived attention, and the perceived strength associated with their evaluations.Results. – Participants who reported high (vs. low) perceived attention showed a greater effect of argumentquality on persuasion. Furthermore, such participants also reported stronger attitudes compared to thosewho reported low perceived attention.Conclusion. – This study showed that at...
Desde que comenzó la crisis económica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaci... more Desde que comenzó la crisis económica en 2007, la tasa de desempleo ha sido una de las preocupaciones principales de la población española. De esta situación nacen alternativas como el emprendimiento y la esperanza de que dichas alternativas sirvan para mejorar la tasa de desempleo. Esta preocupación ha llevado a que el gobierno intente fomentar las iniciativas emprendedoras con programas para la juventud y la inclusión de asignaturas sobre emprendimiento en el currículum escolar. Sin embargo, el impacto que tienen estos mensajes pro-emprendimiento en los y las jóvenes depende en buena medida de la efectividad de los mismos en cambiar las actitudes para que perduren en el tiempo. En el presente trabajo se propone un marco teórico que sirve para entender cómo se forman, se mantienen o cambian las actitudes de los y las jóvenes hacia el emprendimiento. Para cumplir con este objetivo se revisan los mecanismos psicológicos que producen o bien un cambio superficial en las actitudes o un ...
Psicothema, 2015
The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are ... more The successful impact of health campaigns often depends on the extent to which interventions are effective in changing attitudes. The goal of the present research was to examine to what extent the ease adolescents experience in generating thoughts can influence persuasion in the domain of a health-relevant topic. Participants were asked to generate either positive or negative thoughts about the Mediterranean diet. The spontaneous feeling of ease with which participants generated those thoughts was assessed for each participant. The impact of these two independent variables on attitudes toward the Mediterranean diet was examined. Participants who reported relatively higher (vs. lower) subjective ease experiences in the thought-listing task showed a greater effect of thought direction on attitudes toward the diet. This study demonstrates the importance of considering not only the thoughts people have with regard to health but also the subjective experiences and metacognitive feelings ...