Argumentieren ist zentraler Bestandteil naturwissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisgewinnung. Dennoch gibt es bisher nur wenige Arbeiten, die untersuchen, wie Lernende auf der Grundlage selbstständig durchgeführter Experimente für bzw. gegen eine eigene Hypothese argumentieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht diese Arbeit, welchen Einfluss personale Faktoren (u. a. das Fachwissen und das situationale Interesse) und die Art der Lernumgebung (Realexperiment vs. Computersimulation) darauf nehmen, welche Typen von Argumenten verwendet werden. Ferner wird in dieser Arbeit untersucht, inwiefern die Verwendung dieser Argumentkategorien den Lernerfolg beeinflusst. Auf der Basis von Interviewdaten konnten zunächst für die vorgebrachten Argumente beim Wechseln bzw. Beibehalten eigener Hypothesen beim Experimentieren zehn Kategorien identifiziert werden (u. a. „Intuition“, „Expertenwissen“, „Messunsicherheiten“ sowie „Daten als Evidenz“). Zur quantitativen Erfassung wurde dann für die vier o. g. Argumentkategorien ein Likert-skaliertes Instrument entwickelt. Die aufgeführten Fragestellungen wurden schließlich in einer randomisierten Studie mit 938 Schülerinnen und Schülern untersucht. Bei der Untersuchung des Einflusses personaler Faktoren zeigt sich u. a., dass Lernende in einer Argumentation umso eher Daten als Evidenz heranziehen, je höher das fachliche Vorwissen ist. Die Verwendung dieser Argumentkategorie erhöht wiederum die Wahrscheinlichkeit dafür, dass Lernende nach dem Experimentieren eine fachlich adäquate Hypothese aufstellen. Dies impliziert, dass der Umgang mit experimentellen Daten und Beobachtungen im Physikunterricht stärker als bisher berücksichtigt werden muss, z. B. durch eine explizitere Förderung von Fähigkeiten zum Umgang mit experimentellen Daten. Bis auf einen gut erklärbaren Unterschied können grundlegende Unterschiede beim Experimentieren zwischen Gruppen, die mit einem Real- bzw. Computerexperiment gearbeitet haben, nicht belegt werden. / Argumentation from data and evidence evaluation is widely seen as a scientific core practice. One approach to engage students in a meaningful argumentation practice is to provide lab work situations where they can construct hypotheses on the basis of their own prior knowledge and consequently evaluate these hypotheses in light of self-collected data. However, until recently, only little research has analyzed students' argumentation from data. Against this backdrop this research seeks to identify: a) the influences of personal factors (such as content knowledge and situational interest); b) the type of learning environment as a situational factor (real vs. virtual experiment) on the use of different categories of argument (such as Intuition, Appeal to Authority, Measurement Uncertainties (explicit) and Data as Evidence); c) the influence of argumentation on learning outcomes through experimentation in school labs. First, an interview-study was used to identify the different types of arguments used by students. Analyses focused on the nature of justification in argument and revealed ten different categories students use while arguing for or against hypotheses. As a next step, four out of ten categories were operationalized by means of a Likert-scaled instrument to assess the use of different types of argument in a valid and reliable manner. The findings from a randomized study among 938 secondary school students in a lab work setting indicate, among others, that content knowledge is positively related to the use of data as evidence. Again, the use of data as evidence increases the probability of stating a correct hypothesis after conducting the experiment. This implies that the ability to deal with data and measurement uncertainties should be better fostered in physics classes. Besides one explicable difference, no evidence was found, which supports the hypothesis that students' argumentation would differ while working with hands-on materials vs. computer simulations.

Three sound bites, Whatever it takes (55 seconds), Safer, Stronger (30 seconds), and War on Terror (30 seconds), of President George W. Bush during the presidential election of 2004 will be explored and unpacked.

People generally want to engage in a healthy lifestyle, to live in harmony with the environment, to contribute to social causes, and to avoid behaviours that are harmful for themselves and others. However, people often find it difficult to motivate themselves to engage in these beneficial behaviours. Even adopting a healthy lifestyle, such as healthy eating, physical activity, or smoking cessation, is hard despite being aware of the benefits. The increasing adoption and integration of technologies into our daily lives present unique opportunities to assist individuals to adopt healthy behaviours using technology. As a result, research on how to use technology to motivate health behaviour change has attracted the attention of both researchers and health practitioners. Technology designed for the purpose of bringing about desirable behaviour and attitude changes is referred to as Persuasive Technology (PT). Over the past decade, several PTs have been developed to motivate healthy behaviour, including helping people with addictive behaviour such as substance abuse, assisting individuals to achieve personal wellness, helping people manage diseases, and engaging people in preventive behaviours. Most of these PTs take a one-size-fits-all design approach. However, people differ in their motivation and beliefs about health and what constitutes a healthy life. A technology that motivates one type of person to change her behaviour may actually deter behaviour change for another type of person. As a result, existing PTs that are based on the one-size-fits-all approach may not be effective for promoting healthy behaviour change for most people. Because of the motivational pull that games offer, many PTs deliver their intervention in the form of games. This type of game-based PTs are referred to as persuasive games. Considering the increasing interest in delivering PT as a game, this dissertation uses persuasive games as a case study to illustrate the danger of applying the one-size-fits-all approach, the value and importance of tailoring PT, and to propose an approach for tailoring PTs to increase their efficacy. To address the problem that most existing PTs employ the one-size-fits-all design approach, I developed the Model-driven Persuasive Technology (MPT) design approach for tailoring PTs to various user types. The MPT is based on studying and modelling user’s behaviour with respect to their motivations. I developed the MPT approach in two preliminary studies (N = 221, N = 554) that model the determinants of healthy eating for people from different cultures, of different ages, and of both genders. I then applied the MPT approach in two large-scale studies to develop models for tailoring persuasive games to various gamer types. In the first study (N = 642), I examine eating behaviours and associated determinants, using the Health Belief Model. Using data from the study, I modelled the determinants of healthy eating behaviour for various gamer types. In the second study (N = 1108), I examined the persuasiveness of PT design strategies and developed models for tailoring the strategies to various gamer types. Behavioural determinants and PT design strategies are the two fundamental building blocks that drive PT interventions. The models revealed that some strategies were more effective for particular gamer types, thus, providing guidelines for tailoring persuasive games to various gamer types. To show the feasibility of the MPT design approach, I applied the model to design and develop two versions of a Model-driven Persuasive Game (MPG) targeting two distinct gamer types. To demonstrate the importance of tailoring persuasive games using the MPG approach, I conducted a large-scale evaluation (N = 802) of the two versions of the game and compared the efficacy of the tailored, contra-tailored, and the one-size-fits-all persuasive games condition with respect to their ability to promote positive changes in attitude, self-efficacy, and intention. To also demonstrate that the tailored MPG games inspire better play experience than the one-size-fits-all and the contra-tailored persuasive games, I measure the gamers’ perceived enjoyment and competence under the different game conditions. The results of the evaluation showed that while PTs can be effective for promoting healthy behaviour in terms of attitude, self-efficacy, and intention, the effectiveness of persuasion depends on using the right choice of persuasive strategy for each gamer type. The results showed that one size does not fit all and answered my overarching research question of whether there is a value in tailoring PT to an individual or group. The answer is that persuasive health interventions are more effective if they are tailored to the user types under consideration and that not tailoring PTs could be detrimental to behaviour change.

L’identification des contraintes financières et sociales qui sont sous-entendues dans la situation des personnages amoureux de la comédie de Ménandre – à partir de ses pièces et fragments subsistants et de ses adaptations en langue latine par Térence – permet d’éclairer la rhétorique de séduction ou de dissuasion employée par les divers personnages types de ce genre littéraire. Or, il existe un parallèle étroit entre ces discours et situations dramatiques et l’élégie érotique qui fleurit quelques siècles plus tard à Rome sous la plume de Tibulle, Properce et Ovide. Certains aspects déroutants de la rhétorique de séduction employée par les élégistes sont élucidés lorsqu’on les comprend dans le contexte dramatique de la comédie nouvelle : notamment, le poète narrateur se positionne dans la situation du jeune protagoniste amoureux de la comédie et la bien-aimée à qui il s’adresse se trouve dans la situation de la courtisane indépendante qui figure dans plusieurs pièces comiques. Cette recherche conclut qu’il existe une tension financière entre l’amant élégiaque et sa maîtresse qui, bien qu’elle soit passée sous silence par les poètes, influence les arguments utilisés par le narrateur à son égard et les propos imaginés ou rapportés de sa bien-aimée en retour. / The identification of the financial and social constraints that underlie Menander’s love plots helps in explaining the arguments contained in the persuasive and dissuasive discourses employed by the various archetypal characters of this literary genre. This research demonstrates that there is a narrow parallel between the rhetoric rooted in these narrative situations and the later works of the Latin love elegists in a way that elucidates some aspects of the elegiac discourse: the poet-narrator positions himself in the situation of the enamoured young man of new comedy and his beloved addressee’s situation corresponds to that of the independent mistress who appears in many comic plots.

Technology is changing the structure and dynamics of how humans communicate. Channels of communication are also used for attempts at persuasion, but until now persuasion that (if accepted) would promote the adoption of misinformation could not spread as readily through historical information channels. With the advent of the Internet and World Wide Web this has changed dramatically. In this dissertation it is argued that modern digital communication media such as YouTube, in confluence with what theories of persuasion have to say about how humans deal with persuasion, may create a situation in which misinformation may spread and be accepted on a large scale. The research in this dissertation explores this notion by presenting a group of 120 adolescents who are familiar with the Web with such a misinforming persuasive message. The purpose of which is to determine whether they accept the misinformation presented in the Web-context or are sceptical of it. Different manipulations were done to the persuasive message, known to increase the likelihood of persuasion. The research found that, for this group of participants, no attempt to increase uncritical acceptance of a persuasive message made a statistical difference between different groupings of participants. When intended behaviour was measured in addition to attitude towards the misinformation, participants were even less persuaded. The results are interesting as a starting point for further study, but its generalizability and certain design features must be called into question / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Often praised for its sophistication in the narrator- and character-text, the Odyssey is regarded as the ultimate epic of a warrior’s much-troubled nostos. As a corollary of both its theme and the polytropia of the main hero, the poem explores extensively the motifs of secrecy and disguise. Apart from the lying tales of Odysseus, one important, albeit less obvious, example of the tendency to secrecy and disguise is the exchanges between the gods, which constitute a distinct group of speeches that have significant implications for the action of the poem. The aim of this dissertation is to study the divine dialogues of the Odyssey from the angle of communication and persuasion. Employing findings from narratology, discourse analysis, and oral poetics, and through close readings of the Homeric text, I argue that the overwhelming majority of these related passages have certain characteristics, whose common denominator is obliqueness. Apart from Helius’ appeal to Zeus (Chapter 2), distinctive in its own narratorial rendition, the rest of the dialogues, namely Hermes’ message-delivery to Calypso (Prologue), the two divine assemblies (Chapter 1), plus the exchanges of Zeus with Poseidon (Chapter 2) and Athena (Epilogue) conform to set patterns of communication. Within this framework, interlocutors strongly tend towards concealment and partiality. They make extensive use of conversational implicatures, shed light only on certain sides of the story while suppressing others, and present feigned or even exaggerated arguments in order to persuade their addressee. Direct confrontation is in principle avoided, and even when it does occur, it takes a rather oblique form. In this communicative scheme, the procedure of decision-making is not clear-cut, and the concept of persuasion is fluid and hidden behind the indirect and subtle dialogic process.

Cette thèse traite de l’étude du changement d’attitude dans un contexte de dissonance cognitive (Festinger, 1957), et plus précisément dans le cadre du paradigme de l’essai contre-attitudinal (Brehm & Cohen, 1962). L’objectif de ce travail est triple. Premièrement, nous opérons une remise en question de l’induction de choix des paradigmes de dissonance, en utilisant, au sein de nos expérimentations, la perception de choix des participants comme variable continue permettant de prédire le changement d’attitude. Notre second objectif est de mobiliser, dans le cadre de la dissonance, des variables issues du modèle des probabilités d’élaboration (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) liées au changement d’attitude. Ces variables permettent notamment de recueillir les pensées positives et négatives (i.e., l’élaboration) que les participants produisent vis-à-vis d’un argumentaire. Nous émettons ainsi l’hypothèse que la rédaction d’un essai contre attitudinal sous perception élevée de choix entraînera conjointement de l’élaboration et du changement d’attitude chez les participants. Le dernier objectif de cette thèse est de tester l’impact de variables, autres que le choix perçu, permettant d’augmenter l’élaboration des participants. Nous nous sommes ainsi intéressés à la résistance de l’attitude initiale, ainsi qu’au délai de réflexion, afin d’étudier leurs effets sur le changement d’attitude. / This thesis covers the study of attitude change in the area of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), and more precisely in the context of the counter-attitudinal advocacy paradigm (Brehm & Cohen, 1962). The aim of this work is triple. First, we challenge the induction of choice adopted within dissonance paradigms using, in our studies, perception of choice as a discrete variable suitable to predict attitude change. Our second goal is to borrow - for a use into dissonance paradigms - variables implied in attitude change within the elaboration likelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) than can be used in order to gather the positive and negative thoughts (i.e., elaboration) that participants can produce regarding to an advocacy. We thus hypothesize that a counter-attitudinal advocacy will, under high perceived-choice, lead participants to produce elaboration and attitude change. Our last goal is to assess the impact of other variables than perceived choice that can have an impact on participants’ elaboration. Therefore, we took interest in attitude resistance and reflection delays in order to observe their effect on attitude change.

Die Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der Kommunikation der beiden Energie-Technologien Wasserstoff und Offshore-Wind und untersucht, inwieweit konkrete Argumente in der Lage sind, deren Akzeptanz intendiert zu beeinflussen. Um die Wirkung von sowohl positiven als auch negativen Argumenten zu messen, wurde ein repräsentativ angelegtes Experiment durchgeführt. Die Auswahl der dort getesteten Argumente basiert auf zwei Basis-Studien, mit deren Hilfe Argumente identifiziert wurden, welche Akteure aus den Bereichen Wirtschaft, Politik, Forschung, Gesellschaft und Medien in ihrer Kommunikation nutzten: (1) Systematische Dokumentenanalyse von Kommunikationsmaterial und (2) Quantitative Medienanalyse von Nachrichtenmedien für 2009 und 2013. Dabei wurde das Ziel verfolgt, für jedes der fünf Akteurssysteme sowohl häufig (dominante) als auch selten verwendete Argumente (Reframes) aufzuspüren, um die Wirkung beider Argument-Typen zu untersuchen. Die Effekte von Argumenten auf die Akzeptanz wurden sowohl unmittelbar erfasst als auch nach einer Zeitspanne von 3 Wochen, was – durch ein Panel-Design umgesetzt – auch Aussagen über die Wirkungsdauer lieferte. Zudem wurde analysiert, inwieweit der Persuasionsprozess durch bestimmte Moderatoren beeinflusst wird: Emotionalisierung, Competitive Framing, Persönliche Betroffenheit von einer Technologie, Art der Informationsverarbeitung und Zeitpunkt der Urteilsbildung. Die Studie konnte für beide Energie-Technologien eine stärkere Wirkung dominanter Argumente im Vergleich zu Reframes feststellen. Reframes sollten deshalb in der Kommunikation nur dann verwendet werden, wenn das Argument bereits einen gewissen Bekanntheitsgrad erzielt hat. Emotionalisierung wirkte nur bedingt: Insbesondere positive Reframes sowie negative dominante Argumente konnten emotionalisiert die Akzeptanz stärker beeinflussen. Zudem wurde das NIMBY-Konzept relativiert: Besonders von einer Technologie persönlich Betroffene wurden von positiven Argumenten überzeugt – negative Argumente entfalteten ihre Wirkung dagegen eher bei Nicht-Betroffenen. Weiterhin ließen sich die Annahmen der klassischen Zwei-Prozess-Modelle der Informationsverarbeitung entkräften, da auch die in dieser Studie fokussierten inhaltlichen Argumente heuristisch verarbeitet wurden und Wirkung erzielten.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med ökad kunskap om konsumenters uppfattning av märkta samarbeten. En kvalitativ forskningsmetod genomförs där respondenterna får ta del av tre exempelvideor med en fiktiv influencer som praktiserar olika former av deklarationer. Tio semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförs med fältanteckningar som stöd för att få en djupare förståelse av respondenternas uppfattning av materialet. Studien bidrar med kunskap kring muntliga och grafiska deklarationer inom influencer marketing på Youtube. Studiens resultat indikerar att högre transparens bör praktiseras för att ge konsumenter en mer positiv syn på influencern och varumärket som marknadsförs. Med resultatet som grund utformades en lista med rekommendationer för hur influencers kan deklarera samarbeten för att på ett effektivt sätt undvika manipulation och missförstånd hos konsumenterna. / The purpose of our research is to contribute with increased knowledge of consumers' perceptions of sponsored collaborations and their declarations. A qualitative research method is implemented in which respondents get to see three example videos with a fictional influencer practicing different forms of declaration. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with supporting field notes to reach a deeper understanding of respondents' perceptions of the material. The study's results indicate that higher transparency should be practiced giving consumers a more positive view of the influencer and the brand being marketed. With the result as a basis, a list of declaration recommendations was formulated in order to effectively avoid consumer manipulation and misunderstanding.

Master of Arts / Department of Communication Studies, Theatre, and Dance / Nicole Laster / This study examines the effect of using a combination of narrative and statistical evidence on persuasion. Literature is divided on whether narrative or statistical evidence is more persuasive. There are a number of explanations to support both arguments, but arguing that one is superior may be flawed because these evidence types function differently and are not necessarily competitive. A few studies support the use of both narratives and statistics together, but none of these studies address the proportions when combining the two evidence types. This study fills the gap by creating messages with different degrees of anecdotal and statistical evidence. Conditions range from full anecdotal support to full statistical support and include three blended conditions (25/75, 50/50, 75/25). A total of 384 participants were surveyed via a national survey company. Results indicate that evidence type (narratives or statistics) and the various blends of evidence type do not change the persuasive effectiveness of a claim. While supporting persuasive claims with some kind of evidence is imperative, general populations do not favor one evidence type (narratives or statistics) over the other, and in fact, may be split in what they find more effective. Nor do people believe that evidence types function all that differently—at least when it comes to the support they provide for claims from livestock producers. Results, implications and recommendations for future research are discussed in detail.