Parasocial interactions with media characters: the role of perceived and actual sociodemographic and psychological similarity.

Introduction: Similarity between media character and viewer is an important predictor of parasocial interactions. Thereby, similarities are often limited to single characteristics or to the similarities viewers perceive between themselves and characters. This article expands the existing literature in two ways.

A Longitudinal Study on the Effects of Parasocial Relationships and Breakups With Characters of a Health-Related TV Show on Self-Efficacy and Exercise Behavior: The Case of The Biggest Loser.

Overweight is one of the major health-related challenges in industrialized countries and mostly preventable through a healthy diet and regular engagement in physical activity. Health communication practitioners and researchers, therefore, started using the media's persuasive potential by creating entertainment-education (E-E) programs that promote healthy nutrition and exercise. By observing the characters in E-E programs, audience members can learn vicariously and eventually develop personal bonds with them.

Pre-sleep arousal induced by suspenseful series and cliffhangers have only minor effects on sleep: A sleep laboratory study.

Pre-sleep arousal impairs sleep. Therefore, watching suspenseful TV series before sleep is not recommended as they increase arousal. In particular, the consumption of multiple episodes of the same suspenseful TV series in one sitting - termed binge-watching - could lead to large increases in physiological arousal delaying sleep onset.

Images of bodies in mass and social media and body dissatisfaction: The role of internalization and self-discrepancy.

Introduction: The study examines the influence on body dissatisfaction of viewed images of bodies transmitted over mass media and social media, as mediated by the internalization of body ideals through media and self-discrepancy (the difference between the perceived actual self and the perceived ideal self).

Method: In this study, the images of bodies individuals view in their everyday media diet are estimated using a newly developed pictorial scale for women (thinness) and men (muscularity). For participants, the perceived body image is formed through mass media (magazines, TV) and social media (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat).

Feeling pressured by health prevention campaigns as a motivational force: Examining the role of visual and verbal mode design features.

This research examines the influence of address style (direct, no address) and narrative voice (first-person, third-person) on the feeling of being pressured by a public service announcement about work stress in two sequential studies. The results of a choice-based conjoint analysis show that persuasive messages designed with a first-person narrative voice and direct address tend to pressure recipients. Results of a between-subjects online experiment suggest that this feeling increases subjects' behavioral intentions to prevent stress when people interact parasocially with the displayed character.

Pre-sleep social media use does not strongly disturb sleep: a sleep laboratory study in healthy young participants.

Objective: Sleep is critical for our mental health and optimal cognitive functioning. Social media use is increasingly common and suspected to disturb sleep due to increasing bedtime arousal. However, most studies rely on self-reported sleep.

Mental contrasting with implementation intentions as a technique for media-mediated persuasive health communication.

Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII) is a self-regulation strategy that combines the strategies mental contrasting (MC) in which individualscontrast a desired future with the current reality with the strategy of forming implementation intentions (II), which involves making concrete if-then plans (implementation intentions, II) to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of the desired future. Numerous studies across behavioral domains have demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy in supporting people to adopt health-promoting behaviors or changing unhealthy behaviors. However, research on MCII has so far neglected the applicability of the concept in media-mediated persuasive health communication.

The influence of valence shifts in fear appeals on message processing and behavioral intentions: A moderated mediation model.

Newer approaches in health communication research indicate that understanding the flow of emotional experiences during exposure to fear appeals can clarify their persuasive effects. In a laboratory experiment, the impact of valence shifts during exposure to fear appeals on determinants of health-relevant behaviors were examined. Continuous response measurement allowed gathering real-time data about participants' experiences of valence shifts during exposure.

Using efficacy cues in persuasive health communication is more effective than employing threats - An experimental study of a vaccination intervention against Ebola.

Objectives: Although much effort has been made to study fear appeals in persuasive health communication, there is still mixed support for the effectiveness of this approach. Therefore, this research investigated the effect of invoked fear via health communication messages on crucial components of the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) by focusing on the rarely examined interaction between perceptions of threat and efficacy and their effects on fear control and danger control processes as well as health-relevant outcomes.

Design: We recruited 447 participants (M  = 32.