TY  - JOUR
U1  - Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
A1  - Formanowicz, Magdalena
A1  - Pietraszkiewicz, Agnieszka
A1  - Roessel, Janin
A1  - Suitner, Caterina
A1  - Witkowska, Marta
A1  - Maass, Anne
T1  - “Make it happen!” Verbs as markers of agency increase message effectiveness
JF  - Social psychology
N2  - Verbs may be attributed to higher agency than other grammatical categories. In Study 1, we confirmed this hypothesis with archival datasets comprising verbs (N = 950) and adjectives (N = 2115). We then investigated whether verbs (vs. adjectives) increase message effectiveness. In three experiments presenting potential NGOs (Studies 2 and 3) or corporate campaigns (Study 4) in verb or adjective form, we demonstrate the hypothesized relationship. Across studies, (overall N = 721) grammatical agency consistently increased message effectiveness. Semantic agency varied across contexts by either increasing (Study 2), not affecting (Study 3), or decreasing (Study 4) the effectiveness of the message. Overall, experiments provide insights in to the meta-semantic effects of verbs – demonstrating how grammar may influence communication outcomes.
KW  - Big Two
KW  - agency
KW  - verbs
KW  - social grammar
KW  - language
KW  - Verb
KW  - Grammatik
KW  - Adjektiv
KW  - Kommunikation
KW  - Agens
KW  - message effectiveness
Y1  - 2021
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bsz:mh39-116137
SN  - 2151-2590
SS  - 2151-2590
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000435
DO  - https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000435
N1  - The electronic supplementary material is available with the online version of the article <a href="https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000435">here</a>.
N1  - A correction is available <a href="https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000457">here</a>.
VL  - 52
IS  - 2
SP  - 75
EP  - 89
PB  - Hogrefe
CY  - Göttingen
ER  -