1
Priming the Evaluation of Intentions of Characters in
Television News
Piotr Francuz, Anna Szalkowska, Ivan Shyerstuk
Department of Experimental Psychology,
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
Online Publication Date: January 26, 2008
Journal of Media Psychology, V 13, No. 1, Winter, 2008
Email: Piotr Francuz at francuz@kul.pl
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Abstract
Television news programs enjoy a high percentage of audiences. For most viewers,
events presented on the news are not only a source of knowledge but also a subject for
evaluation and commentaries. A typical informational program is built upon series of
consecutive stories. Results from numerous studies have shown that the ordering of events in
such a program exerts significant impact on the understanding of their content as well as the
mood and emotional arousal of the viewers. However, little is known so far about the effect
the order of news stories has on the evaluations of intentions of their characters (EICs). The
objective of the experiments presented in this article was to establish to what degree the
evaluation of the intention of the main character from a preceding TV news story affects that
of the main character from a subsequent news story.
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Introduction
Character Intention as the Central Component of the Narrative Schema
The narrative schema activated as a consequence of the incoming information enables
the structuring of human experiences in the form of a story, i.e., in the categories of human
intentions, goals and action planning, and the series of events that mediates actually achieving
these goals (Mandler 1984; Bruner 1986; Sarbin 1986). Therefore, the narrative schema is
used to interpret received information as a particular history and define the goal and intention
of its character. It plays a significant role in understanding the series of events presented in the
story. Zwaan, Langston and Graesser (1995) claimed that events and intentional and
purposeful actions of characters are the central elements of representation of a story
constructed by a subject.
Most commonly, the concept of intention is used interchangeably to define the goal,
motive of action or needs of the character of the story, or it can be used to describe the type of
emotions they experienced. Van Dijk (1985) used the term ‘intention’ with reference to an
action that consists of the intentional modification of the state of matters made by the subject
for a particular purpose. The intention and the goal are primary characteristics of action.
According to the general theory of action, it consists only of the character because both
intention and goal are psychic acts. However, they are different with respect to the function
they serve: the goal determines the action of the subject because of future consequences of the
action; intention, however, anticipates and determines undertaking the action even before the
goal is formulated. Therefore, we understand intention as the leading motive of action, the
basis of which is values recognized by the character as important. With such
conceptualization, the goal of action is secondary to the character’s intention.
The process of understanding, which is directed and activated by the narrative schema
in which cause-effect or teleological relationships are predominant, is determined mainly by
the way in which intentions and goals of the characters of a given story are interpreted. This
claim is supported by results from previous classical studies of methods of understanding and
remembering social events. By analyzing the structure of stories constructed by people,
Bartlett (1932), among others, attempted to find what kind of data pertaining to an event has
the most profound impact on understanding. He paid particular attention to the intentions of
characters in a story, temporal and spatial parameters of events associated with them, and
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starting conditions, which to some degree determine the intentions of characters. He found
that when subjects differed with respect to understanding an intention, in effect they also
perceived the same series of events as different stories.
The category of intention is an element guiding the way of understanding events and
directing the process of constructing their representations. Information concerning emotions,
motives and needs of the main characters of a story has a determining effect on remembering
a series of events. For example, the presentation of the goals of characters at the beginning of
a story was shown to help people understand and remember the story better than when this
information was given at the end (Owens, Bower, Black, 1979; Lichtenstein, Brewer, 1980).
A similar effect was found in a study by Abbot, Black and Smith (1985). They found that the
more clearly defined the associations were between the goals of characters and described
events, the better the subjects recalled the stories presented to them. Also, recognition of
single sentences from a previously exposed description of events was quicker and more
accurate if prior to their presentation the intentions of characters had been mentioned to the
subjects (Abbot, Black, Smith, 1985). The information from the best remembered story
includes its main character together with the associated goals and episodes that are an obstacle
or help to achieve these goals. However, what is important here is the link between these
events and the main intention of the character, in other words, the events making up a
cohesive plot of a story (Omanson, 1982). The results of studies have also suggested that
intentions of characters conveyed during narration to be the most important are remembered
better than their indirect strivings, which are subordinated to the achievement of the main
goal. The more these strivings are distant from the main intention, the more difficulties are
encountered while recalling them (Black, Bower, 1980).
The claim that the process of understanding narration is directed by way of
interpreting the main character’s intentions and goals is also supported by the results of an
experiment in which subjects were required to recognize facts belonging to a given story. It
was found that although certain details appeared to be an obvious consequence of the goal of
the character from the narrative, they were incorrectly reported by the subject as coming from
the story. Knowing the goal of the main character, the subjects had spontaneously included
into the representation of the history a previously heard story, the corresponding facts of
which did not actually belong to the presented story (Abbot, Black, Smith 1985). The results
found in the studies cited above provide support for the hypothesis claiming that the intention
and the goal of the main character of a story are steering elements for the course of the
process of understanding a narrative. Intentions and goals of action, in the structure of a
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narrative, seem to be the superior categories to which other elements of the structure of a story
are subordinated.
Priming the Contents in the “Television Stream”
Diversity and sequence are probably the most characteristic features of the television
message. Every day, from television, a specific stream of information flows that is composed
of consecutive program positions (feature films, informational and entertainment programs,
commercials, documentaries, etc.). This layout of the daily program is reflected on a smaller
scale in television informational programs composed of a sequence of news stories. Results
from numerous experimental studies suggest that the order of news stories in an informational
program has significant influence on the scope and depth of understanding. The results from
more recent studies on sequence of perception of television programs have been interpreted
with reference to "contamination" (Kerr, MacCoun, Kramer 1996; Wilson, Brekke 1994).
This phenomenon involves transferring positive or negative emotional states that appear while
watching a particular program onto at least two other programs preceding or following it.
Contamination is a process which takes place automatically, beyond the viewer’s
consciousness.
Preconscious and Postconscious Priming of Automatic Processes
Mental automatic processes can be primed preconsciously or postconsciously (Bargh,
1990; 1996). During preconscious priming, affective responses are evoked by means of the
anteceding stimuli exposed below the threshold of perception. As a result of a short-lasting
stimulation, the subject is not able to process these stimuli consciously (Murphy, Zajonc,
1994). In studies in which automatic processes are activated at the sub-threshold level, among
others, time of exposure and type of antecedent stimulus are manipulated, as well as the time
of the break between the exposure of the antecedent and masking stimuli, the type of mask
used or the visual field to which the stimuli are exposed. However, during postconscious
priming, affective responses are evoked by means of the anteceding stimuli, potentially
accessible to conscious processing, although most frequently exceeding the attention span of
the subject (Anderson, 1983; Newell, Rosenbloom, 1987; Smith, 1994).
The phenomenon of priming automatic cognitive and affective processes is also bound
to take place while perceiving a sequence of television programs. However, it is very difficult
to decide whether preconscious or postconscious priming occurs while watching television. In
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the study presented in this article, we assumed that EICs from the antecedent news story can
be accessible to consciousness not only potentially, but in actuality. This means we accept the
assumption about postconscious priming of evaluations of intentions of a protagonists’ action.
The only problem is the fact that in the natural situation of watching television there is usually
no possibility of on-line controlling of the viewer’s scope of consciousness. The study
procedure was designed for two different sequences of questions concerning the intention of a
character from news stories. The question about the intention was asked for the first time
immediately after watching the audiovisual material, and a more spontaneous response was
expected. The question was asked for the second time after the subject had recalled all details
associated with the observed news story (reflected evaluation). It was expected that the
answer to the question first in sequence would reveal greater impact on priming than the
answer to the second question due to less awareness of reasons for the evaluation.
The Assimilation Effect and Contrast Effect
The phenomenon of assimilation and contrast can occur as a result of preconscious
and postconscious priming. The term “assimilation effect” is understood as the response of
the subject to initially neutral target stimuli, in accordance with the emotional valence of the
antecedent stimuli. This response is observed as an increase in evaluation of the stimuli when
preceded by a stimulus evoking a positive emotional reaction and as a decrease when
preceded by one evoking a negative emotional reaction. The contrast effect is defined as a
response to the target stimulus, which occurs after the priming stimulus, which is opposite to
the valence of the antecedent stimuli. In other words, the contrast effect occurs when the
evaluations of the positive antecedent stimuli decrease and the evaluations of the negative
antecedent stimuli increase (Bargh 1996, 1997; Zajonc 2000). Contrary to the assimilation
effect which seems to be a “natural” affective response to the antecedent stimulus, the
identification of factors inducing the contrast effect is still subject to research and discussions
(cf. Schwarz, Bless 1992; Schwarz 1995; Wegener, Petty 1997).
Taking as a basis the results of experiments in automatic processes, we assumed in our
study that evaluations of a character's intention from the immediately antecedent news story
would be transferred to the following (test) news story, with preservation of the sign. In other
words, it was assumed that the EICs of television news stories would be assimilated.
The Semantic Similarity of the Consecutive News Stories
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In accordance with the models of semantic networks, activation of one notion (source)
“spreads” to other notions (targets) constituting its meaning. The more common features are
shared by the source notion and target notions, the higher likelihood and the shorter time of
their activation. Conversely, the fewer features the two notions have in common, the less
likely and the more time-consuming their mutual priming is (Collins, Loftus, 1975; JohnsonLaird 1988; Steyvers, Tenenbaum, 2003).
Reasoning in accordance with the lines of the theory of spreading activation, it can be
hypothesized that the more similar the two consecutive news stories (the priming and the test
news stories) are with respect to their content, the more likely the assimilation effect is and
the shorter is the time required for EIC from the test news story.
Experiment 1
On the basis of the presented literature review, the following research hypotheses were
formulated:
H1: The EIC from the test news story will be: (a) higher if the intention from the
priming news story is evaluated positively, and (b) lower if the intention from the priming
news story is evaluated negatively (the assimilation effect).
H2: The EIC from the test news story will require more time if the test news story is
not associated semantically with the antecedent news story and will require less time if the
priming news story belongs to the same category as the test news story.
H3: The EIC from the test news story will be in accordance with the intention of a
character from the priming news story to a greater degree (stronger assimilation effect) when
it is made immediately after watching the test news story (the spontaneous evaluation) than
when it is preceded by the recall of the contents of this news story (the reflected evaluation).
Independent Variables
In the study, two criteria were used for categorizing the priming news stories:
1. The sign of the intention of a main character from the priming news stories: (a)
positive, (b) negative.
2. The semantic relationship between the priming and test news stories: (a) the
antecedent news story belongs to the same semantic category; so-called court news stories, as
the test news story, (b) antecedent news story and test news story do not belong to the same
semantic category.
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The division of the priming according to both independent variables was made on the
basis of the evaluations from independent judges. The combination of two double-value
variables leads to distinguishing among four groups of subjects. In each group, one of the four
priming news stories was exposed, followed by the same test news story. The sign of the
intention of a character from the test news story (not preceded by any other news story) was
also subject to the independent evaluation of judges.
Dependent Variables
Two dependent variables were used.
1. The type (sign) of intention of a character from the test narrative. The subjects
expressed their EIC from this news twice by answering the question: “What do you think was
the intention of the character from the news  good or bad?” The first time, the subjects
answered this question immediately after watching the test news; the second time it was
answered after a series of detailed questions concerning the contents of this news. The first
answer was considered an expression of the spontaneous EIC from the narrative, the second
was considered as indicative of the reflected evaluation.
2. The time required to evaluate the intention of a character from the test news.
Subjects
From the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, 87 students took part in the
experiment (4 groups, each composed of 21 or 22 subjects; 63 women and 24 men), with 65
competent judges (51 women and 14 men) from the same environment as the subjects. The
age of all subjects who took part in the study ranged from 18 years to 32 years (M = 21.18).
On the basis of the results of pilot research, we found that women and men assess the
intentions of other people’s behavior in the same way. Thus, we admitted that the
phenomenon of intention evaluation is of a universal character and the sex of persons under
research has no serious influence on the dependent variable. Only the results of that
experiment drew our attention to a possible connection between the sex of the character of the
story and the sex of the subject, and that was taken into consideration in experiment 2.
Study Materials and Apparatus
In the study, four priming news stories and one test news story which had been
broadcast on the television “News” program in the spring of 2000 from TVP1 were used. The
time of presentation of each news story was approximately 1.5 min. The main characters of
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two priming news stories were persons whose intentions were evaluated as positive (a woman
who saved a handicapped person from a house on fire and a man who on his own took action
resulting in finding the murderer of his daughter). The intentions of the other two priming
news stories were evaluated as negative (a French politician who embezzled money from the
state’s budget and two Satanists who murdered a teenager). The character from the test news
story was a man who shot and killed a thief stealing a car radio. The man stood before the
court on several instances and, although he was eventually found guilty, the court dismissed
him from serving the sentence. Taking into account various circumstances, the decision of our
judges, who pre-evaluated the intention of this man on the 20-point scale (from 0 – bad
intention to 20 – good intention), was split equally in half (both positive and negative
intentions were attributed to the man’s actions; see paragraph 3.5.1; Fig. 1).
The news stories whose characters were the father of the murdered daughter, two
Satanists and the character from the test news story were categorized as the so-called “court
news stories”. The news stories about the heroic act of the woman and about the French
politician did not belong to the same semantic category as the test news story.
The study was carried out with the use of the Computer Multimedia Questionnaire (v.
2.0). The Questionnaire contained, in order: an exposition of the audiovisual materials in the
sequence “a priming news story - the test news story”, a manual instructing how to use the
program and two questions concerning the sign of the intention of the character from the test
news story intervened by the questions about detailed information from the contents of this
news story. The answers and response times were registered by the program.
For the study, personal computers with 17’’ color screens and sound cards were
utilized. The experiments were carried out in rooms with several computers. Each subject
watched and listened (through headphones) to the audiovisual material individually.
Results - Exp. 1
Judges' evaluations of the intentions of the characters from the news. After seeing one
priming news story or the test news story not preceded by any priming news, competent
judges answered the questions concerning the sign of the intention of the character(s) from
this news story (Fig. 1).
On the basis of the statistical analyses of evaluations made by the judges it was found
that:
1. The mean EIC from the test news story confirms its neutrality with respect to both
the ends of the 20-point scale (M = 11.63) and the mean EICs from the priming news stories.
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The intentions of characters from the priming news stories 1 and 3 received more negative
mean evaluations, and those from priming news stories 2 and 4 received more positive mean
evaluations than the mean evaluation from the test news story.
2. The intuitive EIC from the priming news stories made at the stage of searching for
adequate audiovisual materials for the study was supported by the judges’ opinions. The
difference between the positively and negatively evaluated intentions of the characters from
the news stories was statistically significant (F(1.38) = 55.19; p<0.001).
3. The positive EICs are characterized by a significantly smaller variance than the
negative evaluations (B (3) = 29.77; p<0.001). In other words, the judges showed much less
agreement in their evaluations of the intentions of the “negative” characters than in that of the
“positive” characters.
4. The judges needed approximately the same amount of time for the EICs from all
priming news stories, which means that the sign of the intention does not affect the time of its
evaluation.
Figure 1. Judges' evaluations of the sign of the intention of the characters from
the test news story and priming news stories (1-4)
20
POSITIVE
18,70
The evaluation of the intention
17,72
16
12
11,63
8
7,50
6,90
4
±Std. deviation
±Std. error
Mean
0
NEGATIVE
test
priming 1
priming 2
priming 3
priming 4
NEWS STORY
Priming news story
The semantic association with the
test news story
The evaluation of the
character’s intention
1
No
Negative
2
No
Negative
3
Yes
Positive
11
4
Yes
Positive
The effect of the priming news stories on evaluation of the intention of characters from
the test news story (hypotheses 1-3). According to hypothesis H1, a direct effect of the sign of
the intention of the character from the priming news story was expected on the evaluation of
the ambiguous intention of the character from the test news story. This hypothesis was not
confirmed. Only a weak interaction was found between the sign of the intention of a character
from the priming news stories and the degree of semantic similarity between the priming and
test news stories (F(83,1) = 3.10; p<0.082; Fig. 2).
Figure 2. The interaction of the sign and the semantic concord of the priming news
stories as related to the intention of the character from the test news story.*
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The intention of the test news story character
POSITIVE
The control level
12
Priming
news story 4
11
Priming
news story 1
Priming
news story 3
10
9
Priming
news story 2
8
NEGATIVE
The intention of the priming news story character:
negative
positive
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lack of conformity
conformity
The semantic conformity of the priming and test news stories
*The control level corresponds to evaluation of the intention of the character from
the experimental news story not preceded by any priming news story.
From the point of view of statistical criteria, hypothesis H1 cannot be accepted.
However, the two tendencies shown in Fig. 2 deserve a closer look. The first tendency is in
accordance with the predictions resulting from this hypothesis. If we accept as the reference
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point EIC from the test news story when not preceded by any of the priming news stories (the
control level), it turned out that irrespective of the semantic similarity between the priming
and the test news stories, a negative EIC from the antecedent news story lowered the level of
the evaluation from the test news story (priming news stories 1 and 3). Also in accordance
with the hypothesis, the subjects slightly increased their EIC from the test news story after
watching the semantically similar news stories whose main characters had a clearly positive
intention (priming news story 4). The second tendency is of a particular interest. It turned out
that if the intention of the character from the antecedent news story was positive, but this
news story did not belong to the same semantic category as the following news story, then the
intention of the character from the following news story was evaluated negatively (priming
news story 2). The contrast effect was observed in this case. The primed positive intention of
the character from the antecedent news story, however, induced a decrease in the EIC from
the following news story, on condition that both news stories belong to different categories.
The results of analysis of the time required to respond to the questions about the
intention of the character from the test news story revealed the tendency predicted by
hypothesis H2, although it was not statistically significant. After watching the priming news
story that did not belong to the same category as the test news story, the time required to
evaluate the intention of the character from the test news story was longer than when the
antecedent news story had been semantically similar to the test news story.
In accordance with hypothesis H3, we had expected that the assimilation effect would
be clearer in the case of the evaluation made spontaneously rather than in a reflected way. It
turned out, however, that the spontaneous EIC from the experimental news story did not differ
from the reflected evaluation made after having answered the questions about the details from
contents of this news story. However, it was observed that, irrespective of the type of priming
news story, more time was needed to make the spontaneous evaluation than the reflected
evaluation (all differences are statistically significant).
Discussion
1. The way in which the judges attributed the sign of the intention to the characters
from the analyzed news stories reveals an interesting truth about the principles governing our
evaluations of the motives of conduct of other people. First of all, we are in much greater
agreement when we evaluate others’ behavior positively than when we evaluate it negatively.
In the case of evidently negative actions (murder, financial fraud), our evaluations of the
intentions of these behaviors are significantly more diverse than in the case of actions
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evidently positive (the defense of values, of life, the fight for justice). However, it cannot be
excluded that the high variance observed with negative evaluations might result from the fact
that, for the study, the measurement that was applied for such a subtle phenomenon was too
general. Surely, the global evaluation of the intention on the “good – bad” scale should be
differentiated at least with respect to the point of view of the evaluator. The evaluation of the
intentions of his own actions from the point of view of a Satanist who murders a teenager
during a ritual “black mass” is obviously different from the evaluation of his intention made
by a person who learns about his bestial act. This remark is directly linked to the basic
assumptions of the theory of attribution.
According to Heider’s (1958) causal attribution theory, while explaining someone’s
behavior we resort to internal (personal) or external (environmental) factors. The personal
factors are: intentions, skills and motives. To the environmental factors belong objective
obstacles, favorable or unfavorable circumstances, and good luck or bad luck. The two types
of causes are mutually exclusive. According to the theory, a person who acts intentionally
(internal factors) cannot be directed at the same time by external factors.
Jones and Nisbett (1972) proposed a hypothesis concerning a difference in perception
of the causes of one’s own and of others’ behaviors. The difference is revealed in explaining
behavior by either external or internal factors, depending on adoption of the actor’s (the agent
of an action) or an observer’s perspective. In social psychology, this phenomenon is defined
as “actor-observer” asymmetry. In accordance with this tendency, as actors we explain our
behavior more frequently by resorting to external factors, and as observers of others’ behavior
we tend to explain it by internal factors.
Nisbett (1973) accounts for the asymmetry of attribution made from the perspectives
of an actor and an observer by: differences in the amount and quality of the available
information (an actor has much more data concerning determinants of his/her own behavior
when compared with an observer), diverse perceptual perspectives (characteristics of a
situation are the perceptual figure for an actor whereas for an observer it is the actor who is
the perceptual figure) and factors related to language (the first-person or the third-person
approach to the explained behavior).
2. In light of the results from this study, a clear tendency was found indicating that
EIC from a news story depends on the intention attributed to a character from the preceding
news story. The priming news story not associated semantically with the test news story,
presenting a character with positive intentions, displayed the greatest effect on the EIC from
the test news story. After watching this priming news story, a clear decrease was observed in
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the EIC from the test news story, which, contrary to hypothesis H1, exemplified the contrast
effect instead of the expected assimilation effect.
Schwarz and Bless (1992) and Schwarz (1995), the authors of the inclusion/exclusion
model, claimed that the contrast effect occurs when the so-called context clue (in the case of
our study it is the intention of a protagonist from the antecedent news story) and the object
(the intention of the protagonist from the test news story) belong to different semantic
categories. Immediately after watching two consecutive news stories, the viewer has the
information from both news stories at one time. However, if events belonging to two different
semantic categories are presented, they are likely to become separated from each other. The
context clue will be excluded from the semantic category to which the object belongs, and this
exclusion will result in attributing the characteristics distinctly contrasted with the priming
news story to the test news story. Thus, Schwarz’s model (1995) would account for the
occurrence of the contrast effect by resorting to semantic differences between news stories.
3. At the present stage of the analysis, it is difficult to finally decide whether the
occurrence of the contrast effect is determined solely by the fact that the priming news story
belonged to a semantic category, different from that of the test news story, or also the sign of
the intention of its character. Perhaps the observed effect is associated with another factor. In
the priming news story, which induced such a distinct contrast effect, the main character was
a woman. In the remaining priming news stories and in the test news story the protagonists
were men. Perhaps the observed effect is associated with the gender of the characters whose
intentions are evaluated? It would also be interesting if men and women differed in their
respectively formed evaluations.
Experiment 2
This experiment was designed to attempt to explain some of the phenomena observed
in the previous study. Better study materials and procedures for measuring dependent
variables were used. Based on the theoretical reasons that had originally motivated
formulation of the hypothesis for experiment 1 and on those resulting from the attribution
theory and the inclusion/exclusion model (Schwarz 1995), the following hypotheses
concerning priming of the intentions, and assimilation and contrast effects were put forward
for experiment 2:
H1. The priming news stories semantically related to the test news story will induce
the assimilation effect. The intention of the character from the test news story will be
15
evaluated in accordance with the sign of the intention of a character from the priming news
story.
H2. The priming news stories semantically unrelated to the test news story will induce
the contrast effect. The intention of the character from the test news story will be evaluated
inversely to the sign of the intention of a character from the priming news story.
H3. The intention of the character from the test news story will be evaluated more
quickly if the priming news story is semantically related to it and will require more time if it
does not belong to the same category as the experimental news story.
Independent Variables
In experiment 2, the two independent variables that had also been used in the previous
study, namely the sign of the intention of the characters from the priming news stories and the
semantic relationship between the priming and the experimental news story, were
manipulated. Additionally, two other variables were taken into account: (1) the order of the
questions about the EIC from the news story: (a) first the evaluation from the observer’s point
of view and then from the actor’s point of view; (b) first from the actor’s perspective and then
from the observer’s perspective; and (2) the gender of the subjects.
Dependent Variables
Similarly to experiment 1, the EIC from the test news story was registered on a 20point scale in terms of “bad” – “good”. This question was answered twice, from the actor’s
and observer’s perspectives. Also, the times needed for EICs from the test news story were
measured, i.e., the time to respond to the questions about the intention.
Subjects
160 students (82 women and 78 men) of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
took part in the experiment. They were randomly assigned to four groups, each of 40 persons.
Also, 100 judges were employed in the study (57 women and 43 men). In accordance with the
suggestion that appeared from the previous research, in experiment 2 we balanced the number
of women and men. The age of all subjects ranged from 19 to 40 years (M = 22.23).
Study Materials and Apparatus
In this experiment, the test news story and two priming news stories with positive
characters from the previous experiment were used. Two new priming news stories were
16
added, presenting characters with negative intentions. One of them was semantically related
to the test news story (its character was a young man accused of murdering a student in a
disco) and the other was not (about an alcoholic abusing his family).
As previously, this experiment was conducted with the use of the Computer
Multimedia Questionnaire (v. 2.0) which, apart from the instruction and exposition of the
audiovisual materials, also contained questions concerning the intention of the character
(evaluated from the point of view of both the observer and the character of the news stories).
In order to minimize the influence of the order of these two questions, half of the subjects
evaluated the intention of the character first from their own point of view and then from the
character's; the other half evaluated in the reversed order.
The remaining elements of the experimental procedure were the same as in the
previous study.
Results
Judges' evaluations of the intentions of the characters from the news stories. The first
stage of the experiment aimed at testing the variance of the evaluations of two new news
stories with negative characters in comparison with the analogous news stories from the
previous study (Fig. 3).
Figure 3. Judges' evaluations of the sign of the intention of the characters from
the priming and test news stories from the previous experiment and of two new
news stories from the observer’s point of view.*
Intention of the character from the observer's point of view
17
[+]
20
±Standard deviation
±Standard error
Mean
18,50
16,40
16
12
8
9,43
5,80
3,70
4,50
4
1,50
0
[-]
Test news story T1-s
T1-n
T2-s
T3-s
T3-n
T4-s
news story
*T1 and T3 – news stories with a negative character; T2 and T4 – news stories
with a positive character; T1 and T2 – news stories semantically similar to the test
news story; T3 and T4 – news stories semantically different from the test news
story; -s – a news story used in experiment 1; -n – a new news story.
Taking into account the EICs from the television news stories made from the point of
view of the observer, it turned out that the mean values of the EICs from the new news stories
(T1-n and T3-n) were more polarized, and intragroup variances were lower than in the news
stories used in the previous study. Thus, in experiment 2, two new news stories with negative
characters were used. As far as the remaining news stories are concerned, the obtained results
were comparable with those obtained in experiment 1.
Evaluations of the intentions of the characters from the news stories from the
perspectives of actors and observers. The judges evaluated the intentions of the characters
from the priming and test news stories from two perspectives: that of the actor and that of the
observer. The EICs from all news stories made without a defined point of view (that is, made
by the judges in the same way as in experiment 1) are also presented in Fig. 4.
Figure 4. Mean evaluations of the intentions of the characters from the test and
priming news stories obtained when taking into account the perspective of the
evaluator or without a defined point of view.
18
20
18
The ev aluation of the intention:
f rom the character's point of v iew
The evaluation of the intention
without a def ined point of v iew
16
f rom the observ er's point of v iew
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
test news story
priming 2-s
priming 4-s
priming 1-s
priming 3-s
News story
On the basis of the obtained data, the following conclusion can be drawn:
As a result of taking into account two perspectives, the actor's and the observer's, the
EICs from the news stories were differentiated. The characters with bad intentions and the
character from the test news story were evaluated more highly from their own point of view
than from the observer’s. Statistically significant differences were demonstrated in the case of
the test news story (t = -3.98; p<0.001) and the priming news stories with negative characters:
the news story unrelated semantically to the test news story (T1: t = -4.83; p<0.001) and the
news story semantically related to the test news story (T3: t = -2.41; p<0.03). In the case of
the positive characters, no statistically significant differences in the evaluation of their
intentions from the point of view of the observer or actor were found.
The influence of EIC from the priming news story on that from the test news story.
According to hypotheses H1 and H2, two effects – assimilation and contrast – were expected,
depending on whether the contents of the priming and the test news stories were similar (the
assimilation effect, H1) or different (the contrast effect, H2). Making a distinction between
two perspectives of the EIC, the following tendencies were found on the basis of the obtained
data:
1. Taking into consideration the semantic association between the priming and the test
news stories, the contrast effect occurred only in the case of the news story unrelated
thematically with the test news story (the observer's perspective: t(78) = 2.06; p<0.04; the
actor's perspective: t(78) = 2.96; p<0.004); see Fig. 5). This finding unequivocally confirms
19
hypothesis H2. Most probably, the more distinct contrast effect observed in experiment 2
relative to that from the previous experiment was due to both modified procedure of the
evaluation of the intention and less ambiguous audiovisual material, as evaluated by judges.
Figure 5. Evaluation of the intention of the character from the test news story
preceded by priming news stories carried out from his own point of view; the
control level is indicative of the evaluation of the intention of the character from
15,0
14,5
POSITIVE
Priming
news story 1
14,0
13,5
13,0
12,5
The control level
12,0
11,5
t(78) = 2.96; p<.004
The intention of the test news story character from his point of view
the test news story not preceded by any priming news story.
Priming
news story 4
Priming
news story 3
11,0
10,5
Priming
news story 2
10,0
9,5
9,0
8,5
NEGATIVE
The intention of the priming news story character:
negative
positive
8,0
lack of conformity
conformity
The semantic conformity of the priming and test news stories
2. The obtained data do not allow us to fully confirm hypothesis H1 concerning the
assimilation effect. Although the result of the interaction depicted in Fig. 5 in a way confirms
these predictions (F(1,156) = 6.28; p<0.013), the assimilation effect induced by the
semantically similar news story was significantly weaker than the contrast effect induced by
the news story unrelated semantically.
In experiment 2, the independent variables were also controlled for which hypotheses
had not been formulated. These were: (1) the order of asking the question about the intention
of the character, first from the observer’s point of view and then from the character’s
perspective or in the reversed order; and (2) gender.
3. On the basis of the obtained data, it was found that the order of asking these
questions significantly modified the level of the evaluation of the intention, if the question
was asked first from the observer’s point of view and only then from the actor’s point of view
(F(1,152) = 32.07; p<0.001). This means that the intention of the character was perceived
20
more favorably if evaluated first from the observer’s perspective and later from the actor’s
point of view. This effect did not occur with the reversed order of questions. This finding was
observed in all groups irrespective of the type of the priming news story.
4. Introduction of a new variable of the order of the questions about the intention of
the character caused a decrease in intragroup variances and made the assimilation effect
discussed in point 3 considerably more distinct (the level of significance for this interaction
increased from p<0.013 to p<0.001).
5. Hypotheses H1 and H2, concerning the assimilation and contrast effects as related to
the semantic association between the priming and experimental news stories, were ultimately
verified after taking into account the subjects’ gender. The effects predicted by these
hypotheses were fully confirmed in the case of both the observer's (F(1,152) = 6.72; p<0.01)
and the character's (F(1,152) = 5.39; p<0.02) perspectives, but only with respect to men (Fig.
6). In terms of high variations inside the groups, no serious statistical differences between
women and men were found in terms of major effects (there was no gender effect). The
influence of sex on the effect of assimilation and contrast came to be seen only in terms of
interaction with the remaining two replaceable independent values.
Figure 6. The interaction of the following variables: the sign of the intention of a
character from the priming news stories and the semantic association between the
priming and test news story relative to the evaluation of the intention of the
character from the test news story from the observer’s perspective.
21
The intention of the character from the observer's point of view
13,0
The intention of the priming news story character:
negative
positive
12,5
C
12,0
11,5
A
11,0
10,5
10,0
9,5
9,0
D
Control level
(competent judges)
8,5
8,0
7,5
7,0
Semantics
non-confirm
B
confirm
Semantics
non-confirm
Femals
confirm
Males
6. In accordance with hypothesis H3, differences in the time required for EIC from the
test news story were expected to depend on the semantic similarity between the test news
story and the priming news story. The obtained data did not confirm this hypothesis.
Discussion
The objective of the studies presented above was to identify factors responsible for the
phenomenon of priming EICs from television news stories. Two independent experiments
were carried out.
In the light of the obtained data, one can claim that the intention of a character from a
news story is dependent on the type of story presented previously. This process takes place
under conditions of limited consciousness of the EICs from the preceding news story. In
accordance with the hypotheses verified in experiment 1, the negative EIC from the priming
news story was found to slightly decrease the EIC from the test news story and, after watching
the semantically similar news story whose character had a clearly positive intention, the EIC
from the following news story increased. These tendencies illustrate the assimilation effect.
In experiment 2, the impact of the semantic similarity between the priming and the test
news stories on the EIC from the test news story was clearly displayed. The EIC from the test
news story was influenced most by the news story unrelated semantically, presenting a female
character with a positive intention. In this case, the contrast effect occurred; that is, the EIC
from the following news story decreased significantly when compared with the control group.
22
This result supports theoretical assumptions of the inclusion/exclusion model (cf. Schwarz,
Bless 1992; Schwarz 1995).
Taking into consideration the falsified hypotheses concerning the time required to
evaluate the intention of the character from the test news story preceded by the priming news
story belonging versus not belonging to the same semantic category, it should be concluded
that the theoretical bases for Collins and Loftus’s model (1975) of spreading activation do not
find support with respect to such complex stimuli as television news stories, and especially
the intentions of their characters. These results indicate the need for further research in the
area of experimental social psychology and psychology of gender differences.
The modifications introduced into experiment 2, consisting of reformulation of the
questions about the intention of the character, turned out to be very fruitful. First of all,
differentiating the questions with respect to the perspective of the evaluator allowed us to
eliminate a significant source of the uncontrolled variance that was observed in the scores of
experiment 1. Controlling the order of the questions about the intention of the character from
the test news story from the point of view of the observer and actor also proved a successful
solution. This finding supports the claim that we are able to adopt someone else's perspective
only when we have previously determined our own attitude toward this character. Therefore,
the attribution theory should be recognized as highly valuable in accounting for the EICs from
television news stories.
The most striking result in this study was finding that the hypotheses concerning the
assimilation and contrast effects were unambiguously confirmed, but only in males. The
effects were revealed when the subjects evaluated the intention of the character from the test
news story both from their own and from the protagonist’s perspectives.
To account for this finding, we should point to some diverse correction mechanism for
men and women who are engaged in the process of priming and evaluating intentions of
characters from consecutive news stories. Reports from numerous studies support the
occurrence of gender differences in many spheres. Among other things, they suggest a marked
difference between men and women in social sensitivity and empathy. Studies of Blum (1997)
provided compelling evidence that women demonstrate a significantly better ability than men
to decode non-verbal and affective information or to interpret visual and auditory clues about
others (Blum 1997; Goleman 1997; Moir, Jessel, 1991). Women are more willing than men to
listen to interlocutors and spontaneously adopt their point of view. However, this does not
mean that men are deprived of these kinds of empathic skills.
23
Gender also determines the diverse thinking characteristics of men and women, and
the schemata of information processing associated with them. Activated schemata influence
interpretation of events, especially in ambiguous situations or unequivocal interpretations
(e.g., the EIC from the test news story). In this case, gender differences affect the process of
causal attribution. Convincing reports have suggested that this process is much more complex
in women than in men (Heider 1958). It is probable that while evaluating the intention of a
character from a news story, women concentrate on the process of monitoring numerous
social contexts in which they perceive another person and, in this way, their resistance to
effects of priming increases.
There is ample evidence confirming the occurrence of gender-related communication
problems, the source of which is diversity in the ways of “reading” the other’s intentions. In
the context of the issues of automatic processes and priming of intentions, the result obtained
in our study provides inspiration for further scientific investigations.
From a practical point of view, the conclusions from this study can be a valuable
source of knowledge for authors of informational programs on public television. They should
be particularly aware of the effects brought about by the order in which they put together
broadcast news stories.
Another practical implication from this study is knowledge showing that women and
men display a diverse manner of understanding others’ behaviors. This knowledge is very
important in everyday life. In the process of improving our mutual communication, we should
be aware of the existing differences between men and women with regard to perceiving the
surrounding world, especially the intentions of other people’s behaviors. We should also
realize that every day we meet people who are under the influence of the evaluations made
during “just-passed” events and that they can transfer these evaluations onto subsequent
events. Unfortunately, they often do it subconsciously and, what is worse, not always
appropriately.
Although not all predictions contained in the verified hypotheses were confirmed, they
did put forward new questions and suggested an interesting research perspective.
Communicating and understanding intentions of human behaviors still remains a puzzle,
although it is very probable that the path suggested by this form of study is more and more
heuristically fruitful: it brings more questions than answers.
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Inquiries should be sent to the first author, Piotr Francuz at
francuz@kul.pl