A meta-analysis of 54 cases testing the effectiveness of inoculation theory at conferring resistance and examining the mechanisms of the theory was conducted. The analyses revealed inoculation messages to be superior to both supportive messages and no-treatment controls at conferring resistance. Additionally, the results revealed refutational same and refutational different preemptions to be equally effective at reducing attitude change. However, the data were not consistent with some predictions made in narrative reviews of inoculation. No significant increase in resistance as a function of threat or involvement was found. Further, instead of a curvilinear effect for delay on resistance, the point estimates from our meta-analysis revealed equivalent resistance between immediate and moderate delays between inoculation and attack, with a decay in resistance after two weeks.

The primary goal of this project is to provide a summary of extant research regarding humor in the classroom, with an emphasis on identifying and explaining inconsistencies in research findings and offering new directions for future studies in this area. First, the definitions, functions, and main theories of humor are reviewed. Next, the paper explains types of humorous instructional communication. Third, the empirical findings of both the source and receiver perspectives are reviewed. Finally, this paper concludes with advice for educators and suggests potential future research directions for scholars.

This paper presents a meta-analysis of 79 cases (N = 21,857) testing the effectiveness of mediated intergroup contact on prejudice. Positive mediated contact decreased (r = −.23; 95% CI, −.29 to −.17), whereas negative mediated contact increased prejudicial attitudes (r = .31; 95% CI, .24 to .38) and intergroup anxiety and empathy were both significant mediators of these relationships. Furthermore, the data revealed no significant differences between parasocial and vicarious effects, positive and negative mediated-contact effects, or the effects of the duration of mediated-contact stimulus exposure on prejudice. However, the data did reveal experiments to have stronger effects than survey research. These and other results are discussed along with implications, limitations, and future research directions.

Three experiments tested if the machine and bandwagon heuristics moderate beliefs in fact-checked claims under different conditions of human/machine (dis)agreement and of transparency of the fact-checking system. Across experiments, people were more likely to align their belief in the claim when artificial intelligence (AI) and crowdsourcing agents’ fact-checks were congruent rather than incongruent. The heuristics provided further nuance to the processes, especially as a particular agent suggested truth verdicts. That is, people with stronger belief in the machine heuristic were more likely to judge the claim as true when an AI agent’s fact-check suggested the claim was likely true but not false; likewise, people with stronger belief in the bandwagon heuristic were more likely to judge the claim as true when the crowdsource agent fact-checked the claim to be true but not false. Making the system more transparent to users does not appear to change results.

This organizational life history documents how the founder of an elite gymnastics training organization led her organizational members to resist what she deemed to be unethical institutional influences prior to working toward changing those institutional practices. The study contributes the idea that institutional resistance leadership at the team and organizational levels can precede disruptive institutional entrepreneurship activities at the institutional level. The diachronic analysis describes the micro, local, historical, intra-organizational work that serves as a proving ground for generating resistance before proceeding to institutional level work; in doing so, the article explores how leadership activities can be ‘scaled up’ to affect institutions through the intermediary of an organization. Identity violations triggered a founder’s sensemaking and moved her to lead others to resist institutional forces on her own organization’s training practices. The founder used the rhetorical strategy of narrative to create sensebreaking to help members make sense of the dominant institutional influence, articulate an alternative philosophy, translate the alternative into practices, and acquire material resources for undertaking resistance at the local organizational level. Finally, in attempting to scale up to institutional entrepreneurship, the institutional resistance leadership then struggled with defining success for the organization in the view of dominant institutional actors.