Abstract
This study explored how the proximity of threatening health news affects cognition and emotion through a 2 (Proximity: High=Low)4 (Topic) fractional experiment. Fifty-one participants read four news stories about either local or distant health threats, with their heart rate, skin conductance, and corrugator electromyography recorded. Results showed that high-proximity health threats elicited greater heart rate deceleration than did lowproximity health threats, indicating greater allocation of automatic resources to encoding
high-proximity threats. Recognition data demonstrated that details from high-proximity health threats were recognized more accurately than details from low-proximity health threats. There were no significant effects of proximity on either skin conductance levels or corrugator activation. These results are discussed in terms of Shoemaker’s (1996) hardwired for news hypothesis and A. Lang’s (2000, 2006) limited capacity model.
high-proximity threats. Recognition data demonstrated that details from high-proximity health threats were recognized more accurately than details from low-proximity health threats. There were no significant effects of proximity on either skin conductance levels or corrugator activation. These results are discussed in terms of Shoemaker’s (1996) hardwired for news hypothesis and A. Lang’s (2000, 2006) limited capacity model.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 268-287 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Communication Studies |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 1 Jul 2009 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2009 |
Keywords
- cognition
- emotion
- health news
- proximity
- psychophysiology