Re-visiting hope as a discrete emotion and its role in Persuasion

ABSTRACT

Revisiting hope as a discrete emotion, we investigated hope as a central concept in this study. Hope was explicated as a positive discrete emotion associated with a nonzero but uncertain prospect (with a probability between 0 and 1) of an unattained goal. Hope can be successfully induced with messages that highlight a discrepancy between the current state and an unattained goal in tandem with a positive but uncertain prospect of goal attainment. Hope’s persuasive impact above and beyond fear was tested in a web-based experiment with health messages that promoted sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) consumption reduction and support for related public policies. Results demonstrated the impact of hope on both SSB consumption reduction and policy support as well as its potential interaction with fear in conferring persuasive effects. These findings offer a guideline for experimental manipulations of hope and set the stage for replications and further tests of moderators.

KEYWORDS:

• Hope
• fear
• discrete emotions
• persuasion
• health communication
• sugar-sweetened beverages

Disclosure statement

We have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Notes

1. The stimuli messages and the data are available at: https://DOI.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/BEVRU.

2. The pre-message measures served as the baseline. Hope was surprisingly high on a 0–4 scale. We suspected it might be due to the stressful situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic at the time of our data collection in that individuals were yearning for something positive in general. Such feelings were not specific to the messages or the topic of SSB.

3. Two additional analyses were performed, the results were very similar: One without controlling for pre-message hope: F(1, 611) = 6.69, p = .01, Cohen’s d = 0.30; and the other controlling for the difference between pre-message and post-problem hope (equivalent to controlling for post-problem hope|pre-message hope): F(1, 610) = 5.95, p = . 02, Cohen’s d = 0.28.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lijiang Shen

Lijiang Shen is a professor at the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences, Pennsylvania State University. HIs primary area of research considers the impact of message features and audience characteristics in persuasive health communication, message processing, and the process of persuasion/resistance to persuasion as well as quantitative research methods in communication.

Shu Scott Li

Shu Scott Li is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at the University of Akron. His research focuses on interpersonal influence, health persuasion campaigns, and nutrition intervention for healthy eating. In his most recent project, Scott investigated how message effects passed through interpersonal communication and produced individual health outcomes by identifying recurring patterns in the content and structure of campaign-induced conversations.

Kelly Sweeney

Kelly Sweeney is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences, Pennsylvania Sttate University. She studies mixed-media social interactions, which integrates traditional interpersonal and computer-mediated communication research. She examines how technology influences interpersonal communication and relationship development, specifically within the context of online dating and social support.

Daniel Lee

Daniel Lee is a doctoral student in the Department of Communication Arts & Sciences, Pennsylvania State University. He studies the role of audience. effects and individual differences in the context of computer-mediated communication. His research focuses on social media platforms, and how individuals use them strategically for self-presentation, public statements, and interpersonal interactions.