MESSAGE PREFERENCE, WORLD-VIEW ORIENTATIONS AND ALUMNI INTERESTS

MARY RUTH SNYDER, Purdue University

Abstract

"Messages which are favorable to the existing image of the world are easily received" (Boulding, 1956). This observation inspired the hypothesis that people prefer messages congruent with their world-view orientation (WVO). The present study adopted the "world hypotheses" of philosopher Stephen Pepper (1942) to investigate world-view orientations: Contextualist, Formist, Mechanist, Organicist. Subjects were Purdue University alumni selected from two age groups (graduates from 1900-1968 and from 1969-1979) within five schools (Agriculture; Consumer and Family Sciences; Engineering; Humanities, Social Science and Education; and Science). Three hundred alumni were randomly selected from each of the ten school/age groups; of the 3,000 sent a mailed questionnaire, 1,896 responded. The questionnaire assessed (1) preferences for messages based on WVO, (2) level of interest in eight aspects of the university, and (3) the respondents' dominant WVO. Following procedures used by previous researchers, 643 WVO "purists" were identified. Message preferences of each WVO group were ranked by weighted-average rank as follows: Mechanists (N = 404), organistic (O), mechanistic (M), contextualistic (C), formistic (F); Formists (N = 119), O, C, M, F; Organicists (N = 96), O, M, C, F; contextualists (N = 24), C, O, M, F. Of the Mechanists, CFS alumni composed nearly 30%; of the Formists, ENGR alumni, nearly 30%; the Organicists, CFS and HSSE, 25% each; Contextualists, HSSE, 33%. An "action experiment" was carried out as a part of a regular dues-solicitation mailing of the Purdue Alumni Association (PAA). Half of 18,836 Engineering non-member alumni were sent a message based on their message preference and most-appealing aspect of the university. The other half were sent a standard message. Two months after the mailing, dues payments from the experimental group numbered 125, from the standard (control) group, 93. Aspects of the university most appealing to alumni of all age and school groups surveyed were Academic Programs, Research, and Responsible Use of Resources; least appealing, Athletics and Alumni Involvement. The hypothesis that people prefer messages congruent with their world-view orientation was supported by two of the four orientation groups; the third group ranked its congruent message second; the fourth group ranked its congruent message last.

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Communication

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