Date of Award
8-2014
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Media Studies
Advisor(s)
Makana Chock (Advisor)
Keywords
Al Qaeda, Cognitive dissonance, ISIS, Islamists, Political Psychology, Social Media
Subject Categories
Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
In this study, the researcher aims to look at how people would react to Islamists' online persuasive messages. This study is designed to measure the effects of two types of persuasive messages on people's attitude changes and information seeking behavior. Participants were recruited from a diverse pool using the Mturk website. The researcher recruited participants who are considered out-group members. Those are people who are primarily non-Muslims and non-Arabs. A 3 by 3-multifactorial between subjects experiment with the factors of message type (action justification, group-identity and no messages) and pre-existing attitude group (negative, neutral, and positive) was conducted to examine how a change in attitudes and behavior of these out-group members would occur after receiving the messages. The research findings show an overall favorable attitude change, including members of the control group who were not exposed to any messages. Participants who already held favorable attitudes about Islamists and were exposed to group-identity messages, were they became less favorable about Islamists. The results also indicate that a favorable attitude change does not necessarily lead to more information seeking behavior.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Al Desoukie, Omnia, "Understanding the Effect of Islamists' Online Persuasive Messages on People's Attitude Change and Information Seeking Behavior" (2014). Theses - ALL. 60.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/60
