Tag Archives: perceptions

‘Was Doing’ Versus ‘Did’: Verbs Matter When Judging Other People’s Intentions

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Your English teacher wasn’t kidding: Grammar really does matter. The verb form used to describe an action can affect how the action is perceived—and these subtle variations could mean the difference between an innocent or guilty verdict in criminal law, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

William Hart, of the University of Alabama, was inspired to conduct the study by research on how people think about narratives. “Research was showing that when you describe somebody’s actions in terms of what they’re ‘doing,’ that action is way more vivid in [a reader’s] mind” than if the action is described in terms of what the person ‘did.’ At the same time, other researchers had found that when people imagine action vividly, they were more likely to think the person performing the action was doing it intentionally. (more…)

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YouTube PSAs: Comments More Persuasive Than Videos

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Professor Joseph Walther led an MSU research project that found that comments accompanying YouTube public service announcements were more persuasive to viewers than the videos themselves. Image credit: Michigan State University

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University researchers, studying public service announcements placed on YouTube about marijuana use, have found that the comments accompanying the PSAs are more influential among viewers than the videos themselves. 

The researchers showed four anti-marijuana PSAs, and the accompanying comments, to college students and asked for their evaluations of the PSAs and their attitudes about marijuana. 

What was found was that negative, derisive comments about the video led the students to perceive the video as worse than when the comments were positive, even though they watched the videos individually. And when students identified with the anonymous commenters, the comments affected their perceptions of marijuana’s harmful effects. 

“Generally, the comments changed people’s attitudes more than the variations of the videos,” said Joseph Walther, a professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies and Media, and the Department of Communication, who led the research.  (more…)

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