Though researchers have investigated how video games impact players’ subsequent cognition and behavior, fewer studies have explored how enacting physical gestures when playing motion-controlled games leads to downstream impact. Participants who played while performing power poses showed greater risk-taking tendency compared with those who kept powerless poses. However, both power and powerless conditions showed reduced signature sizes compared with baseline signature. The findings highlight the role of game mechanics in affecting ensuing behavior and provide evidence that physical gestures involved in playing video games can impact offline risk behaviors. 

This study investigated how 191 women use period-tracking mobile applications. Findings revealed that approximately half of our respondents use some form of period-tracking mobile application. Women who use period-tracking mobile applications report using them to track and predict their menstrual cycle, keep track of menstrual symptoms, and use the information for easier and more accurate communication with their healthcare provider. In addition, women report using period-tracking mobile applications to track fertility as a means of pregnancy prevention. Women who did not use period-tracking mobile applications frequently reported that they did not feel a need to use them because their hormonal birth control predicted and regulated their period for them, and thus there was no need for a mobile application to do it. Lastly, several participants identified not using period-tracking mobile applications because they did not trust them. Reinforcing and extending previous literature, the present study highlights a tension concerning self-monitoring and self-care (Lupton, 2014), usefulness (Moglia et al., 2016), and opportunity for autonomy. 

In the context of 2014 U.S. Ebola virus outbreak, this paper conducted two studies to investigate whether neuroticism, one dimension of the Big Five personality traits, is associated with health information seeking behavior. Study 1 examined the relationship between neuroticism and use of diverse mediated channels to seek information on the Ebola virus. Study 2 used Google Trends Service to show that the strength of the association between neuroticism and Internet search activity was dependent upon levels of media attention to the Ebola virus. These findings contribute to a better understanding of personality-based predictors of health information seeking behavior in the face of a global public health crisis. 

In the context of 2014 U.S. Ebola virus outbreak, this paper conducted two studies to investigate whether neuroticism, one dimension of the Big Five personality traits, is associated with health information seeking behavior. Study 1 examined the relationship between neuroticism and use of diverse mediated channels to seek information on the Ebola virus. Study 2 used Google Trends Service to show that the strength of the association between neuroticism and Internet search activity was dependent upon levels of media attention to the Ebola virus. These findings contribute to a better understanding of personality-based predictors of health information seeking behavior in the face of a global public health crisis. 

Regardless of the gap in the number of countries with low versus high obesity rates, a similar degree of negative perceptions about obesity and obese individuals is pervasive throughout the world. Despite the inevitable negative social conception of obesity and obese individuals regardless of their country origins, little research has explored (a) the likelihood that newspapers contributed to the obesity stigmatization in societies and (b) how different, if at all, newspapers in those countries depicted obesity and obese individuals in news stories. Undergirded by the attribution theory and the model of stigma communication, a content analysis of two leading newspapers—one in the United States and one in South Korea—found that the American newspaper produced more stories with obesity stigmas than the Korean newspaper. Unlike the assumption of the attribution theory, news stories with an obesity stigma included not only personal, but also social levels of attributions of obesity in both countries’ newspapers. However, health expert sources might cancel out the potential harms of situating obesity-related stigmas in news stories in both newspapers. Implications of stigma communication are discussed to understand the possibility of biased, unhealthy news production. 

Based on the Extended Parallel Process Model, the authors explored the effects of a fear appeal message on people’s fear arousal, attitude and intention regarding calling while driving. Participants (N=200) were randomly assigned to either treatment group or control group. Treatment group were exposed to a full appeal message with both threat and efficacy components, whereas control group were exposed to the same message but without the efficacy component. All participants then completed a questionnaire measuring threat perceptions, fear arousal, attitude, and behavioral intention. Participants in treatment group also reported efficacy perceptions, subjective social norm, and perceived behavioral control. The treatment group reported higher level of advocated attitude and intention regarding calling while driving compared with the control group. It was also found that subjective social norm moderated the effects of perceived susceptibility on attitude. Efficacy beliefs led to future behavioral intention, mediated by perceived behavioral control. Implications for message design are discussed. 

This manuscript analyzes films and television (TV) portraying (in)fertility, diagnosis, treatment and outcomes. A qualitative thematic analysis revealed that television series and films narratively resolve (in)fertility utilizing myths. Findings indicate that all TV shows and films in our study presented at least one derivation of an (in)fertility myth. We identified this overarching infertility myth as “the faulted female body” (FFB), with three derivations: structural failure (e.g., t-shaped uterus), mental failure (e.g., “overthinking” about conception) and hyperfertility (as a racist construct). The utility of FFB in allowing restitution of story arcs is not reflective of off-screen experiences for viewers dealing with (in)fertility issues. The manuscript unpacks the FFB myth with Silverman’s (2015) method of consciousness raising (CR) to correct popular media representations of embodied reproductive myths. 

This study investigated the antecedents and consequences of perceived university support (PUS) for international students in the US. This study focused on international students’ reception of university-provided information as the main predictor of PUS. This study examined the positive roles of PUS in increasing international students’ identification with their host university and strengthening the two types of social capital, bonding and bridging social capital. Statistical results fully supported all of the proposed hypotheses. More specifically, international students’ reception of four different categories of information positively affected PUS. University identification positively mediated the relationships between PUS and social capital. 

This study examines predictors of two key dimensions of scientific knowledge; perceived and factual knowledge about genetically modified organisms(GMO) and nuclear energy in the U.S. and South korea. We also explore how media use and elaborative processing affect two dimensions of scientific knowledge. The findings show that perceived and factual scientific knowledge are conceptually unique across two countries' samples and not significantly correlated. Most of indicators were not associated with factual knowledge, and attention un newspapers and on the internet and elaborative processing were related to perceived knowledge. Findings also suggest that the patterns of relationships between scientific knowledge and indicators were not much different between the U.S. and South Korea. We conclude that science researchers, practitioners, and educators associated with public policy of nuclear and GMO technology should measure and treat two dimensions of scientific knowledge independently in research designs, public policy and science education. 

This study evaluates whether the network society is a happy society by modeling the methodology of happiness economics, which quantitatively measures the relationship between subjective well-being and its predictors. Using structural equation modeling, the study investigated the effects of two main characteristics of the network society - social network and information flow - on subjective well-being. To construct a model of subjective well-being, 1940 respondents of the U.S. population were sampled from the 2010-2012 World Values Survey data. Responses to the selected thirteen questions in the survey were then incorporated into the structural equation system to predict one's subjective well-being. SPSS, PRELIS, and LISREL 9.2 were used to perform data analyses under the assumptions of maximum likelihood estimates. Findings from the study demonstrated that: (1) Inclusion in social network had a positive impact on one's level of subjective wellbeing; (2) One's access to information had a positive effect on subjective well-being. 

The present study aimed to systematically evaluate the effects of the exogenous variables affecting user acceptance and intention to use telepractice in South Korea in order to develop a telepractice acceptance model. A nationwide survey was administered to 215 speech language pathologists (SLPs), of whom 186 (86.52%) were female and 29 (13.48%) were male. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test nine hypotheses proposed based on the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). SEM analysis revealed that perceived ease of use for telepractice was significantly associated with perceived usefulness that was also positively associated with intention to use telepractice. These results are consistent with the prediction of the TAM; however, perceived ease of use for telepractice did not influence intention to use telepractice. In addition, three exogenous variables such as innovativeness, security, and facilitating conditions were also positively associated with perceived ease of use, intention to use and/or perceived usefulness. The present study is significant as it identified the current position of potential telepractice users and supports future expansion of telepractice service delivery model in South Korea.

This research compares various tobacco user groups’ tobacco risk perception and tobacco risk information factors; information seeking, sources, and trust in sources. Additionally, tobacco risk information factors that are associated with tobacco risk perception were identified. A nationally representative sample from the 2015 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)-FDA was employed. All users (including cigarette users) rated cigarettes as the most harmful and electronic cigarettes as the least harmful tobacco product. Alternative tobacco users rated their own product (i.e., smokeless, cigar) as the second least harmful compared to other products, and their risk rating of their own product was significantly lower than that of other users. Users of multiple tobacco products reported the highest risk perception, but they were more likely to be young adults with racial/ethnic minority backgrounds ascribing more trust to information from tobacco companies. A recent search of cessation information, greater exposure to risk information from television, newspapers, and public transportation, and higher trust in healthcare providers were associated with increased tobacco risk perception. Future interventions need to address the lack of risk perception for alternative tobacco products, optimistic bias among alternative tobacco users, and tobacco user groups’ different needs and source preferences for risk information. 

This study aimed at exploring the influential factors determining the general population’s attitudes toward telemedicine in Korea. This study investigated the effects of multiple predictors related to the benefits and risks of telemedicine on the perceived usefulness (PU) of and perceived ease of using (PEOU) telemedicine. Furthermore, this study explored how three Korea-oriented contextual factors—convenient visits to hospitals, preference for general hospitals, and medical shopping—influenced the general population’s perceptions about telemedicine. Through online survey, 998 usable surveys could be collected. A path analysis was conducted to test multiple hypotheses about relationships among main study variables. Results from the path analysis fully supported the significant roles of the benefit and risk related predictors in determining the PU and PEOU of telemedicine. However, unlike the original prediction, only convenient visits to hospitals as a contextual factor significantly affected the PU and PEOU of telemedicine. This study’s main findings contribute to widening our knowledge about people’s attitudes toward the nationwide implementation of telemedicine in Korea. 

This study takes a deeper look into the third-person perception (TPP), dividing it into the cognitive and emotional domains in the context of news on the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Using survey data from a representative sample of 1,053 South Koreans, we conceptualized cognitive and emotional third-person perceptions, respectively. The exposure to MERS news through mainstream media had a positive impact on both cognitive and emotional TPPs, whereas the exposure through social media negatively influenced both subsets of the TPP. Perceived sensationalism of MERS news widened the perceptual gap of the influence of MERS news on oneself and others in cognitive and emotional domains, whereas susceptibility to MERS yielded the reverse TPP in both cognitive and emotional domains. 

Media and health psychology have been complementary in increasing publicity or exposure to health information for the purpose of influencing behavioral modifications. To be relevant, health psychology constructs necessitate formative research to elicit and identify salient beliefs from the perspective of the population of interest. This practice generates theoretically sound and culturally appropriate content especially when the research being conducted is international in scope. This study reports results of an elicitation study that explored modal salient beliefs underlying information, motivation and behavioral skills for negotiating hygiene and haircare in low-income and lowpublicity contexts. Results indicate that respondents rely on informational heuristics, which compound their low motivation and efficacy in the various hair care negotiations they have to navigate.