Browsing by Author "Holz, Adrienne"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Can (S)He Close the Deal? The influence of Purchase Intention Through Gender-Assigned Artificial Intelligence
    Cole, Jared Lee (Virginia Tech, 2023-07-28)
    Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an increasingly integrated aspect of daily life. Particularly, businesses have been incorporating AI into many of their features from customer support to product personalization. While there has been a body of research exploring the interpersonal impacts of AI and human participants, there is limited research on the effects of human-like AI on its influence in the purchasing process. Taking the theoretical framework of the Computer Are Social Actors (CASA) paradigm, I utilized a 2 x 3 experiment to measure if the perceived sex of an artificial intelligence impacts consumers' purchase intention, trust, and sense of agency. Participants interacted with either a male-gendered or female-gendered AI chatbot, or a static website, which then recommended a water bottle based on the participants' preferences. The study indicated significance with both male and female participants preferring the control website over both AI sexes. The study also indicated significance in women participants feeling more overall agency than men participants during the experiment. The results indicate a potential need for a new level of human realism before CASA can be framed within some AI applications.
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    A Content Analysis of Persuasive Appeals Used in Media Campaigns to Encourage and Discourage Sugary Beverages and Water in the United States
    Kraak, Vivica; Holz, Adrienne; Woods, Chelsea Lane; Whitlow, Ann R.; Leary, Nicole (MDPI, 2023-07-13)
    The frequent consumption of sugary beverages is associated with many health risks. This study examined how persuasive appeals and graphics were used in different media campaigns to encourage and discourage sugary beverages and water in the United States (U.S.) The investigators developed a codebook, protocol and systematic process to conduct a qualitative content analysis for 280 media campaigns organized into a typology with six categories. SPSS version 28.0 was used to analyze rational and emotional appeals (i.e., positive, negative, coactive) for campaign slogans, taglines and graphic images (i.e., symbols, colors, audiences) for 60 unique campaigns across the typology. Results showed that positive emotional appeals were used more to promote sugary beverages in corporate advertising and marketing (64.7%) and social responsibility campaigns (68.8%), and less to encourage water in social marketing campaigns (30%). In contrast, public awareness campaigns used negative emotional appeals (48.1%), and advocacy campaigns combined rational (30%) and emotional positive (50%) and negative appeals (30%). Public policy campaigns used rational (82.6%) and positive emotional appeals (73.9%) to motivate support or opposition for sugary beverage tax legislation. Chi-square analyses assessed the relationships between the U.S. media campaign typology categories and graphic elements that revealed three variables with significant associations between the campaign typology and race/ethnicity (χ2(103) = 32.445, p = 0.039), content (χ2(103) = 70.760, p < 0.001) and product image (χ2(103) = 11.930, p = 0.036). Future research should examine how positive persuasive appeals in text and graphics can promote water to reduce sugary beverage health risks.
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    Exploring the Landscape of Media Campaigns That Encourage or Discourage Sustainable Diet Transitions for Americans, 1917–2023: A Systematic Scoping Review
    Consavage Stanley, Katherine; Leary, Nicole; Holz, Adrienne; Hedrick, Valisa E.; Serrano, Elena L.; Kraak, Vivica (MDPI, 2024-05-24)
    United States (U.S.) and global experts recommend that populations reduce red and processed meat (RPM) intake and transition to plant-rich, sustainable diets to support human and planetary health. A systematic scoping review was conducted to identify the landscape of media campaigns that promote plant-rich dietary patterns, traditional plant proteins, and novel plant-based meat alternatives (PBMA) and that encourage or discourage RPM products to Americans. Of 8321 records screened from four electronic databases, 103 records were included, along with 62 records from gray literature sources. Across 84 media campaigns (1917–2023) identified, corporate marketing campaigns (58.6%) were most prevalent compared to public information (13.8%), corporate sustainability (12.6%), countermarketing (5.7%), social marketing (4.6%), and public policy (4.6%) campaigns. Findings indicate that long-running corporate RPM campaigns, many with U.S. government oversight, dominated the landscape for decades, running alongside traditional plant protein campaigns. Novel PBMA campaigns emerged in the past decade. Many civil society campaigns promoted plant-rich dietary patterns, but few utilized social norm or behavior change theory, and only the Meatless Monday campaign was evaluated. The U.S. government, academia, businesses, and civil society should commit more resources to and evaluate the impact of media campaigns that support a sustainable diet transition for Americans, restrict and regulate the use of misinformation in media campaigns, and prioritize support for plant-based proteins and plant-rich dietary patterns.
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    Family Processes in Family Group Chats
    Resor, Jessica M. (Virginia Tech, 2021-09-28)
    Family group chats are a popular form of technology-mediated communication. Family group chats represent an understudied area of family communication. In this qualitative multi-method study, I aimed to investigate how and why families use family group chats and how family processes are enacted within them. This grounded theory study was informed by family systems theory and uses and gratifications theory. Families participated in multi family member group interviews and were invited to submit the last one-month's history of their family group chat. Forty-nine participants from thirteen families across the United States participated in this study. I identified four themes from the data: (1) entering the chat, (2) growing and aging with the group chat, (3) accepting terms and conditions, and (4) holding the invisible string. I present a theoretical explanation of how these themes interact. Family group chats held a significant place in family life that extended family members' availability to one another and kept them in near constant contact, even when they were separated by geographic distance. I propose the possibility of family group chats as a protective factor to increase family functioning. This research generates future directions for the field and has implications for families, professionals who work with families, and group chat application developers. It provides one of the earliest investigations into family group chats from a family science perspective.
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    Narrative Persuasion and Transportation Theory as a Stigma Reduction Method for Substance Use Disorder: A Thematic Analysis
    Maher, Emily Therese (Virginia Tech, 2022-04-15)
    Drug use, overdose, and addiction has skyrocketed in the past twenty years (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Negative stigma towards addiction, or otherwise known as substance use disorder (SUD), has only increased since President Nixon declared the "war on drugs" in 1971 (National Public Radio, 2007). Negative public stigma of SUD creates barriers for treatment for those who are suffering, continuing to exacerbate the stigma surrounding SUD. To understand ways to reduce stigma surrounding SUD, this study will look at narrative persuasion through transportation theory to better understand the power of stories and stories of recovery as a method to reduce stigma surrounding SUD among community members. In addition to examining narrative persuasion literature, 21 semi-structured interviews from community stakeholder groups in Virginia's Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services region 3, were conducted. To further understand the content in the stakeholder interviews, a qualitative thematic analysis using inductive themes was conducted to determine common themes surrounding substance use disorder, stigma, and ways to reduce stigma surrounding substance use disorder through narrative persuasion. Based on participant interviews, community stakeholders hold negative perceptions of those with SUD based on personal and professional experiences but believe that positive personal narratives of SUD and recovery can reduce public stigma towards those who suffer from the disorder.
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    US Adults' Perceptions, Beliefs, and Behaviors towards Plant-Rich Dietary Patterns and Practices: International Food Information Council Food and Health Survey Insights, 2012-2022
    Consavage Stanley, Katherine; Hedrick, Valisa E.; Serrano, Elena L.; Holz, Adrienne; Kraak, Vivica (MDPI, 2023-12-01)
    Expert groups recommend that populations adopt dietary patterns higher in whole, plant-based foods and lower in red and processed meat as a high-impact climate action. Yet, there is limited understanding of populations' willingness to adopt plant-rich dietary patterns. This study examined United States (US) adults' perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors towards plant-rich dietary patterns and practices over a decade. Fifteen questions from the International Food Information Council's Food and Health Surveys (2012-2022) were analyzed across four sustainability domains (i.e., human health, environmental, social, and economic domains). Most respondents had favorable perceptions of environmentally sustainable food and beverages, but sustainability influenced less than half of consumers' purchase decisions. Plant-rich dietary pattern adherence increased across survey years (12.1% [2019] to 25.8% [2022], p < 0.001). One-quarter (28.1%) of Americans reported reducing their red meat intake over 12 months (2020-2022). Yet, another 15.5% reported greater red meat intake, and 18.8% reported greater plant-based meat alternative (PBMA) intake over 12 months. The percentage of respondents who reported greater red meat and PBMA consumption in the previous 12 months significantly increased across the years surveyed (2020-2022, p < 0.05). IFIC Survey findings highlight growing US consumer awareness of health, environmental, and social sustainability but low adoption of plant-rich dietary patterns and practices. Government leadership and coordinated actions by health professionals, civil society, and businesses are needed to educate and incentivize Americans to adopt plant-rich dietary behaviors, and greater industry transparency is needed to show how food and beverage products support human and planetary health.