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A survey of 305 heads of household in Monterrey, Mexico, investigated public opinion during a 6-month period in 1982 that saw a changeover of presidents. Respondents were polled regarding their willingness to express their opinions about the outgoing & incoming presidents. Overall, results support the spiral of silence perspective. Path analysis reveals that (1) exposure & attention to the mass media were associated with both knowledge holding & perceptions of majority opinion, (2) interpersonal discussion of politics was associated with knowledge, (3) knowledge was related to personal opinion & perceived present & future majority opinion, (4) present majority opinion was linked to willingness to enter a political discussion, & (5) holding positive or negative cognitions was related to expressing favorable or unfavorable comments about each political figure. Recommendations for alternative ways of assessing fear of isolation, expanded sampling frames, tracking power shifts, & assessing perceptions of power are discussed. 3 Tables, 52 References. Adapted from the source document.

This study uses the theory of planned behavior and spiral of silence to explore the role of peer and social influence on communicative acts related to drinking behavior. Consistent with the theory of planned behavior, results of the study suggest that a person's own attitudes and sense of self-efficacy are important influences on willingness to communicate about drinking. Peer influence and, to a lesser extent, perceptions of majority attitudes were associated with willingness to voice an opinion. Only limited evidence of an association between media use and attention and beliefs about efficacy and majority opinion was found. Discussion centers on the possibility of incorporating concepts derived from the theory of planned behavior into the spiral of silence framework. Implications of these findings for future public service interventions also are discussed.

This study examines how movie depletions of a volcanic disaster influence viewers' perception and judgments concerning disaster-related experiences. A total of 162 college students watched one of three video clips: (1) the movie Volcano— a portrayal of a volcanic disaster taking place in the city of Los Angeles; (2) the documentary National Geographic's Volcano, and (3) an instructional video on gardening (control). Subjects then filed out a questionnaire that measures their perception of victimization risk, victimization apprehension, problem seriousness, and risk locus of control (RLOC). As for those who watched the movie, message involvement, perceived realism, and role attractiveness were measured as mediator variables. Overall, the results reveal that subjects in the volcanic movie (drama) and documentary conditions exhibited higher levels of fear and worry about falling victim to a volcanic disaster than did subjects in the control condition. For subjects in the drama condition, perceived realism of the presentation and role attractiveness of the characters increased the level of fear about volcanic disasters and induced heightened estimates of volcanic risk victimization. Further, increased role attractiveness was associated with greater levels of external risk locus of control.

This 1986 survey of 432 Madison, Wisconsin, residents describes an elaborated version of Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's model of the "spiral of silence." Consistent with her hypotheses, persons whose opinions were congruent with those of the national majority were more willing to speak to a stranger than were those whose opinions were shared only by a minority; however, the same result was not obtained for either a different mode of expression or system level. Factors such as involvement and knowledge were found to directly influence opinion expression, whereas education and gender were found to be indirectly related to expression.

The study explores the relationship between heuristic and systematic processing and first-, second-, and third-person effects. Controversy surrounding a referendum over the Confederate battle emblem appearing on the Mississippi state flag served as a backdrop for a survey of residents (N = 520) concerning the perceptions of the media's influence on self and others. Results suggest that accuracy-motivated heuristic and systematic processing shows a limited relationship to third- and first-person effects while at the same time demonstrating a robust relationship with transpersonal (second-person) effects. The study revealed that inferred attention of others to the flag issue accounted for additional variance beyond inferred exposure. In addition, systematic processing and second-person effects emerged as significant predictors of indicators of civic participation, discussion and voting, and media censorship. Implications of using the heuristic-systematic model in areas such as political campaigns, social capital and trust, agenda-setting, framing, and the spiral of silence are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of protection motivation theory (PMT) in the context of mass media reports about a hazard. Content elements of a hazard's severity, likelihood of occurring, and the effectiveness of preventive actions were systematically varied in a news story about a fabricated risk: exposure to fluorescent lighting lowering academic performance. Results of this experiment (N = 206) suggest that providing information about the severity of a hazard's consequences produces greater information seeking. In addition, information about levels of risk, severity, and efficacy combined jointly to produce greater rates of willingness to take actions designed to avoid the hazard. Results are seen as providing general support for PMT and are discussed within the broader framework of information seeking and heuristic and systematic information processing.

How do laypeople perceive uncertainties about environmental health risks? How do risk-related cognitions and emotions influence these uncertainties, and what roles do sociodemographic and contextual factors, risk judgments, and information exposures play? This study explores these questions using secondary analyses of survey data. Results suggest that uncertainty reflects individual-level emotions and cognitions, but may also be shaped by a variety of social and contextual factors. Emotions (worry and anger) are strongly associated with perceived uncertainty, and perceived lack of knowledge and perceived likelihood of becoming ill are weakly associated with it. Several demographic variables, information exposures, and risk judgment variables affect perceived uncertainty indirectly, primarily through perceived knowledge and emotions. These findings raise a variety of questions about the complex and dynamic interactions among risk contexts, socioeconomic factors, communication processes, perceived knowledge, emotions, and perceived uncertainties about risks.

This study draws a nexus between heuristic-systematic information processing and the theory of planned behavior through a model of risk information seeking and processing. The model proposes that the form of information processing individuals apply to risk information from the media and other sources affects beliefs, evaluations, and attitudes considered important to making judgments about performing risk-reducing behaviors. This study found that deeper, more systematic processing of risk information is positively related to evaluation strength, attitude strength, and the number of strongly held behavioral beliefs actively considered by respondents when thinking about environmental hazards. The relationships were consistent, appearing across two communities and three risks (two health risks and one ecological risk), and held up under multiple statistical controls.

Using a model of risk information seeking and processing developed by Griffin, Dunwoody, and Neuwirth (1999), this study looks at predictors of the processing strategies that people apply to health risk information. Specifically, this article focuses on one relationship within the model—the relationship between perceived amount of information needed to deal with a risk and heuristic‐systematic processing. Perceived amount of information needed refers to the gap between one's understanding of a risk and the level of understanding that one needs in order to make a decision about that risk. Building on the work of Chaiken (cf. 1980), the Griffin et al. model predicts—and finds—that the larger the gap, the more likely one will process information systematically. The study employs a novel measure of information processing in a survey setting by sending actual information to participants and then asking them how they attended to it; the researchers evaluate this strategy. Finally, the researchers discuss how these findings might help agencies and practitioners create more effective risk messages.