The exercise leader's gender and physique salience : effects on self-presentational concerns in an exercise context

Self-presentation is the process by which individuals attempt to monitor and control how others perceive and evaluate them (Leary, 1992; Leary & Kowalski, 1990). Self-presentational concerns have been shown to influence a number of exercise-related behaviours, cognitions, and affective responses to exercise (e.g., social anxiety). Social anxiety occurs when an individual wants to create a specific impression on others, but is unsure (s)he will be successful (Leary & Kowalski, 1995). Social physique anxiety (SPA) is a specific form of social anxiety related the evaluation of one's body (Hart, Leary, & Rejeski, 1989). Both social anxiety and SPA may act as deterrents to exercise (Lantz, Hardy, & Ainsworth, 1997; Leary, 1992), so it is important to examine factors that may influence social anxiety and SPA; one such factor is self-presentational efficacy (SPE). SPE is one's confidence in successfully making desired impressions on others (Leary & Atherton, 1986) and has been associated with social anxiety and SPA (Leary & Kowalski, 1995; Gammage, Martin Ginis, & Hall, 2004). Several aspects of the exercise environment, such as the presence of mirrors, clothing, and the exercise leader or other participant characteristics, may be manipulated to influence self-presentational concerns (e.g., Gammage, Martin Ginis et aI., 2004; Martin & Fox, 2001; Martin Ginis, Prapavessis, & Haase, 2005). Given that the exercise leader has been recognized as one of the most important influences in the group exercise context (Franklin, 1988), it is important to further examine how the leader may impact self-presentational concerns. The present study examined the impact of the exercise leader's gender and physique salience (i.e., the extent to which the body was emphasized) on SPE, state social anxiety (SSA), and state social physique anxiety (SPA-S) of women in a live exercise class. Eighty-seven college-aged female non- or infrequent exercisers (i.e., exercised 2 or fewer times per week) participated in a group exercise class led by one of four leaders: a female whose physique was salient; a female whose physique was non-salient; a male whose physique was salient; or a male whose physique was non-salient. Participants completed measures of SPE, SSA, and SPA-S prior to and following completion of a 30- minute group exercise class. In addition, a measure of social comparison to the exercise leader and other participants with respect to attractiveness, skill, and fitness was completed by participants following the exercise class. A MANOV A was conducted to examine differences between groups on postexercise variables. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between groups on measures ofSPE, SSA, or SPA-S (allp's > .05). However, when all participants were collapsed into one group, a MANOV A showed a significant time effect (F(3, 81) = 19.45,p < .05, 1')2= .419). Follow-up ANOVAs indicated that post-exercise SPE increased significantly, while SSA and SPA-S decreased significantly (SPE: F(I, 83) = 30.87,p < .001,1')2 = .27; SSA: F(I,83) = 11.09,p < .001, 1')2 = .12; SPA-S: F (1,83) = 42.79,p < .001, 1')2 = .34). Further, results of a MANOVA revealed that participants who believed they were less fit than other group members (i.e., made negative social comparisons) reported significantly more post-exercise SSA and SP A-S than those who believed they were more fit than the other participants (i.e., made positive comparisons; SSA: F(2, 84) = 3.46, p < .05, 1')2 = .08; SPA-S: F(2, 84) = 5.69, p < .05, 1')2 = .12). These results may indicate that successfully completing an exercise class may serve as a source of SPE and lead to reduced social anxiety and SPA-S in this population. Alternatively, characteristics of the exercise leader may be less important than characteristics of the other participants. These results also suggest that the types of social comparisons made may influence self-presentational concerns in this sample. Future research should examine how the type of social comparison (i.e., negative or positive) made to the other group members may either generate or reduce anxiety. Also, factors that contribute to the types of social comparisons made with other exercisers should be examined. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

The effects of language complexity in a counterattitudinal appeal to laypeople : an application of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion to a legal issue

The effects of a complexly worded counterattitudinal appeal on laypeople's attitudes toward a legal issue were examined, using the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion as a theoretical framework. This model states that persuasion can result from the elaboration and scrutiny of the message arguments (i.e., central route processing), or can result from less cognitively effortful strategies, such as relying on source characteristics as a cue to message validity (i.e., peripheral route processing). One hundred and sixty-seven undergraduates (85 men and 81 women) listened to eitller a low status or high status source deliver a counterattitudinal speech on a legal issue. The speech was designed to contain strong or weak arguments. These arguments were 'worded in a simple and, therefore, easy to comprehend manner, or in a complex and, therefore, difficult to comprehend manner. Thus, there were three experimental manipulations: argument comprehensibility (easy to comprehend vs. difficult to comprehend), argumel11 strength (weak vs. strong), and source status (low vs. high). After listening to tIle speec.J] participants completed a measure 'of their attitude toward the legal issue, a thought listil1g task, an argument recall task,manipulation checks, measures of motivation to process the message, and measures of mood. As a result of the failure of the argument strength manipulation, only the effects of the comprehel1sibility and source status manipulations were tested. There was, however, some evidence of more central route processing in the easy comprehension condition than in the difficult comprehension condition, as predicted. Significant correlations were found between attitude and favourable and unfavourable thoughts about the legal issue with easy to comprehend arguments; whereas, there was a correlation only between attitude and favourable thoughts 11 toward the issue with difficult to comprehend arguments, suggesting, perhaps, that central route processing, \vhich involves argument scrutiny and elaboration, occurred under conditions of easy comprehension to a greater extent than under conditions of difficult comprehension. The results also revealed, among other findings, several significant effects of gender. Men had more favourable attitudes toward the legal issue than did women, men recalled more arguments from the speech than did women, men were less frustrated while listening to the speech than were ,vomen, and men put more effort into thinking about the message arguments than did women. When the arguments were difficult to comprehend, men had more favourable thoughts and fewer unfavourable thoughts about the legal issue than did women. Men and women may have had different affective responses to the issue of plea bargaining (with women responding more negatively than men), especially in light of a local and controversial plea bargain that occurred around the time of this study. Such pre-existing gender differences may have led to tIle lower frustration, the greater effort, the greater recall, and more positive attitudes for men than for WOlnen. Results· from this study suggest that current cognitive models of persuasion may not be very applicable to controversial issues which elicit strong emotional responses. Finally, these data indicate that affective responses, the controversial and emotional nature ofthe issue, gender and other individual differences are important considerations when experts are attempting to persuade laypeople toward a counterattitudinal position.

DONATION DECISIONS: THE ROLES OF FINANCIAL AND EMOTIONAL INFORMATION

This paper investigates the impact of personal affinity toward a charity and information regarding financial management of potential recipient charitable organizations on decisions to donate. Using an experiment, the study examines how personal donation decisions differ from corporate donation decisions made by managers and how the emotional intelligence of donors affects donation decisions. The results indicate that threshold and financial information on charities assembled by the Better Business Bureau, a charity rating agency, made a significant impact on corporate donation decisions. The study also shows that emotional intelligence plays an important role that aids both individual donors and managers to regulate their donation decisions.