Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Prevention, Media Campaigns

In this study we start by recalling some hypotheses on how the media construct an event. Then we focus especially on a linguistic process, the presence of some particular adverbs, that we identified in French daily news media informing about the prevalence and incidence of HIV/AIDS. We claim that this linguistic process is part of the construction of the event and we experimentally test its reception effects. We show that this "adverbial marking" influences one's risk perception, the preventive intentions, the perceived seriousness of the epidemiological situation, and attitudes towards fighting the epidemic. The final discussion addresses the persuasiveness and efficacy of preventive mass media campaigns.

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. Indeed, mass media are a leading source of information about important health issues and therefore are targeted by those who aim to influence perceptions and behaviours.

Concerning HIV/AIDS, experimental research has focused on how best to compose media

mass media draw the public's attention to some questions and contribute to imbue those questions with a sense of urgency. They direct the public's preferences and define which problems are important and how events must be understood, telling what to think about and how to think about it [START_REF] Mccombs | The Agenda-setting Function of Mass-media[END_REF]Combs & Slovic, 1979;[START_REF] Iyengar | News that matters[END_REF][START_REF] Mazur | Risk Perception and News Coverage across Nations[END_REF][START_REF] Weaver | Thoughts on Agenda Setting, Framing, and Priming[END_REF]. The second one refers to the research about the (important) role of the media in the shaping of people's risk perception and claims that the mass media tend to exaggerate some risks and ignore others, sacrificing objectivity for sensationalism, hazards with associated deaths or injuries being longer and more prominently featured than other hazard stories [START_REF] Johnson | Agenda-setting, group conflict, and the social construction of risk[END_REF]Kristiansen, 1983;[START_REF] Karpowicz-Lazreg | Societal risk as seen by French public[END_REF]Af Wåhlberg & Sjöberg, 2000). The third one, referring to the Lippmann's "pseudo environment" idea (1922) claims that the mass media stage the world into representations which are considered by the public as "The real" (McCombs & Gilbert, 1986;[START_REF] Kinder | Public opinion and political action[END_REF] and to some extent matches with the main tenet of the Bandura's Social Learning Theory (1977) according to which the picture the people are given by the media distorts their worldview and makes them unrealistically worried.

There is also a large consensus in the human and social sciences that language is an essential aspect of the social construction of reality. The structural power of language is asserted by Berger and Luckmann in their "constructionist theory": "The common objectifications of everyday life are maintained primarily by linguistic signification" (1967, p.67) and also asserted by some social psychologists, supporting the thesis that language is not simply an inert vehicle for communication but also a means for the control of the world around us and its social orders [START_REF] Blakar | Language as a means of social power[END_REF]. This notion is also shared by researchers on mass media who highlight the inevitability of constructing meaning through the use of language, considering that factual reality must necessarily be put into words and this phrasing journalistic criteria and was also biased towards the dramatic and sensationalistic aspects [START_REF] Herzlich | Une maladie dans l'espace public. Le sida dans six quotidiens français[END_REF][START_REF] Herzlich | La construction d'un phénomène social : le sida dans la presse française[END_REF][START_REF] Masseran | La mise en scène médiatique du sida. De la peur au fatalisme[END_REF].

Apprehending AIDS as an event constructed through the media means that it is in media discourse and through media discourse that a fact is transformed into its representation.

Traditionally, studies concerning linguistics aspects questioned above all the use of metaphors, demonstrating that in Western press these have been widely used to make sense of HIV/AIDS during its construction as a new disease in the public consciousness [START_REF] Sontag | Illness as Metaphor and Aids and its Metaphors[END_REF][START_REF] Pepper | Book review: AIDS and its metaphor[END_REF][START_REF] Lupton | Moral threats and dangerous desires: AIDS in the news media[END_REF][START_REF] Aroni | Looking at the media[END_REF][START_REF] Manning | News and News sources[END_REF][START_REF] Herzlich | Une maladie dans l'espace public. Le sida dans six quotidiens français[END_REF][START_REF] Herzlich | La construction d'un phénomène social : le sida dans la presse française[END_REF]. Our study is to some extent also concerned by linguistic aspects, focusing on some particular linguistic forms frequently identified in journalistic statements, namely some adverbs, and questioning their status.

Let's consider the following statements: "AIDS has already killed 300 patients", "In December only, 91 deaths were reported", "Since its emergence, the virus has infected more than 60 million people worldwide, killing more than a third", "In Europe, their number has again increased by 60% from the first to the second half-year", "The infection is spreading at the rate of more than 14000 new cases per day"2 . The figures quoted are indeed raw data and are likely to be associated to scientificity in a collective subjective way of thinking, according to a certain representation of objectivity and the way in which it is revealed through discourse.

But it should not hide the fact that these information items have been worked upon and constructed; hence we argue that information is a construct and thereby constructs the reality referred to in the message. It is from this perspective that these particular statements are F o r P e e r R e v i e w investigated, considering them as efficient formatting of reality but also as an insidious and subtle construction of a properly mediatised world endowed with ideological characteristics.

The study examined if such statements did not quantify the number of people deceased, ill and/or infected in such a way that this number is seen as having exceeded an acceptable and tolerable threshold, precisely because of the presence of adverbs such as "already", "only" and/or "again"? They seem to put the indicated quantity into relief. It was then assessed if such statements are likely to influence the readers' judgment and appreciation of the epidemiological situation referred to in the message. For instance, according to [START_REF] Charaudeau | Grammaire du sens et de l'expression[END_REF], the use of the adverb "already" shows that "the moment the event occurs is deemed premature compared to its expected occurrence" and signals that "a certain reference point, considered as a maximum not to be exceeded, has been overshot" (p.483). This manner of phrasing the epidemiological fact could be seen as a way of influencing its "visibility", its "salient character" and its "character as event", in other words as a means of affecting the way the fact is perceived as regards its importance and seriousness.

Method

Independent Variables

Given that a first objective of this experimental study was to assess the impact of this particular phrasing on perceptions and judgments, we elaborated a text presented as an epidemiological information message regarding HIV/AIDS in which we manipulated the adverbial marking. Concretely, one version was characterized by the presence of adverbs in some statements ("high marking" condition) and another version not ("low marking" F o r P e e r R e v i e w condition). A second objective was to compare the effects of this phrasing (i.e. adverbial marking factor) according to whether the disease to which the experimental message referred was known or not. One version referred to a sexually transmitted infection whose existence the participants knew of, namely HIV/AIDS ("known disease" condition) and a second one referred to a sexually transmitted infection whose existence the participants did not know, namely Paramyxoviridae infection3 ("unknown disease" condition).

Dependent Variables

The self risk perception. Participants indicated whether they considered that, in comparison with other persons of same age, status and sexual orientation, the risk to be personally infected in the future was 1 "more weaker" -2 "weaker" -3 "the same" -4 "higher" -5 "more higher"4 .

The preventive intentions.

Participants were asked to indicate on a scale from 1 "not at all" to 7 "absolutely" to what extent they were willing to use a condom during the next sexual intercourse and to what extent they were willing to undertake a screening test over the next six months.

The perceived seriousness of the (epidemiological) situation. Participants were asked to rate seven societal problems on a scale from 1 "the most important problem" to 7 "the least important problem the public powers have to solve". Besides HIV/Paramyxoviridae infection, the list referred to road safety, juvenile delinquency, unemployment, pollution, terrorism and urban cleanliness. Then they were asked to rate five public health problems on a scale from 1 "the most important" to 5 "the least important problem the public powers have to solve".

Besides HIV/Paramyxoviridae infection, the list referred to cancer, cardiovascular diseases, tuberculosis and obesity.

The attitude on how to fight the epidemic. Participants were asked to indicate their agreement on a scale from 1 "totally agree" to 7 "totally disagree", considering three "coercive" opinions: "It is time a serologic test is made compulsory for every person one might reasonably think he/she might have been infected the virus", "Anyone having tested positive to a test should be registered in a file that registers the names of anyone newly infected", "It would be useful to set up a customs check for travellers coming from countries where the epidemic is persistent, asking them their serologic status" ; and three "tolerant" opinions: "It is unfair to blame a person infecting his/her partner not knowing he/she is carrying the virus", "Anybody infected by the virus has the right to keep his serologic status secret", "Only the person concerned by the screening test should have access to the result".

Participants

Ninety nine subjects were involved in this study, randomly assigned to the four experimental conditions defined before. They were all male students from 18 to 22 years old and all sexually active, ninety subjects declaring more than four sexual relations during the last six months. As regards these sexual relations, 35,4% systematically used a condom, 50,5% occasionally and 14,1% never. None has undergone a HIV test over the last 12 months and none knows someone suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Results

The self risk perception

Table 1 near here An ANOVA revealed that the comparative optimism (see Table 1) expressed by the participants who received the version characterized by the presence of adverbs (i.e. "adverbial high marking" condition) was significantly weaker (M = 2.86 versus 2.27, F(1, 97) = 10.06, p <.01], with a more detailed analysis showing however that the difference only approached significance in the "known disease" condition (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 2.92, p = .09 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 8.39, p <.01). The comparative optimism was also significantly weaker in the "unknown disease" condition (M = 2.83 versus 2.30, F(1, 97) = 8.04, p <.01), with a more detailed analysis showing however that this difference did not approach significance in the "adverbial low marking" condition (Gr.2 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 2.11, p = .13 / Gr.4 versus Gr.3, F(1, 95) = 7.19, p <.01). No significant interaction effect appeared (F<1).

The preventive intentions

Table 2 near here Regarding the preventive intentions (see Table 2), the same ANOVA revealed that the participants' intention to use a condom during the next sexual intercourse was significantly more important in the "adverbial high marking" condition (M = 4.98 versus 4.23, F(1, 97) = 9.06, p <.01), whatever their knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 3.85, p <.06 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 5.51, p <.03). This intention was also significantly stronger in the "unknown disease" condition (M = 4.91 versus 4.30, F(1, 97) = 5.87, p <.02), a more detailed analysis showing however that this difference did not reach significance in the "adverbial low marking" condition (Gr.2 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 2.38, p = .12 / Gr.4 versus Gr.3, F(1, 95) = 3.85, p <.06). No significant interaction effect appeared (F<1). Regardless of the experimental conditions, the intention to practice a screening test was rather weak but the statistical analysis showed that this reluctance for the test was significantly less important in the "adverbial high marking" condition (M = 3.55 versus 2.79, F(1, 97) = 11.61, p <.001), whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 7.88, p <.01 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 3.89, p <.06). On the other hand, this particular intention did not differ significantly between the "known disease" and "unknown disease" conditions (M = 3.24 versus 3.12, F<1).

The perceived seriousness of the (epidemiological) situation

Table 3 near here

The statistical analysis revealed that when they compared the disease with other societal problems (see Table 3, 1 st ranking), the subjects significantly assigned a greater importance to it as a problem to solve by the public powers in the "adverbial high marking" condition (M = 3.63 versus 4.71, F(1, 97) = 34.24, p <.0001), whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 15.60, p <.001 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 18.74, p <.0001). On the other hand, this judgment did not differ significantly between the participants informed about the HIV/AIDS (i.e. known disease) and the participants informed about Paramyxoviridae (i.e. unknown disease) (M = 4.31 versus 4.02, F(1, 97) = 2.07, p = .15). The same pattern of results appeared when the disease is compared with other public health problems (see Table 3, 2 nd ranking), the statistical analysis showing that the judgment of importance was significantly greater in the "adverbial high marking "condition (M = 1.61 versus 1.98, F(1, 97) = 7.02, p <.001). However a more detailed analysis revealed that this difference did not reach significance in the "unknown disease" condition (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 6.83, p <.02 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 1.38). Again the "disease knowledge" factor did not yield a significant effect on this judgement (M = 1.88 versus 1.70, F(1, 97) = 1.67). The attitude as regards the way to fight against the epidemic Table 4.1 near here Whatever the coercive opinion considered, agreement with it was more important in the "adverbial high marking" condition (see Table 4.1). The ANOVA revealed that in this condition, participants supported significantly the compulsory test measure (M = 3.35 versus 3.98, F(1, 97) = 7.93, p <.01), especially when it was a matter of unknown disease (Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 5.95, p <.02 / Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 2.26, p = .13) ; the identification / registration measure (M = 3.65 versus 4.48, F(1, 97) = 13.43, p <.001), whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 4.16, p <.05 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 9.67, p <.01) ; the customs check measure (M = 3.92 versus 4.37, F(1, 97) = 5.95, p <.02), with a more detailed analysis showing however that the difference was significant only in the "unknown disease" condition (Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 6.08, p <.02 / Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F<1). As regards the "disease knowledge" factor, the same ANOVA showed that it only produced a marginally significant effect in the "adverbial high marking" condition as regard the customs check measure (Gr.4 versus Gr.3, F(1, 95) = 3.31, p = .07).

Although the effect of the "adverbial marking" factor was descriptively greater in the "unknown disease" than in the "known disease" condition, no significant interaction effect appeared (F<1).

Table 4.2 near here

Regarding the tolerant opinions (see Table 4.2), their agreement was weaker in the "adverbial high marking" condition. The statistical analysis revealed that the difference was As regards the opinion according to which "it is unfair to blame a person for infecting the partner when not knowing her seropositivity", the difference was only marginal in the "unknown disease" condition (Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 3.30, p = .07). The same analysis did not reveal a significant effect of the "disease knowledge" factor for any of these tolerant opinions (F<1), nor an interaction effect (F<1).

Table 4.3 near here

The ANOVA revealed that participants who received the version characterized by an adverbial high marking envisaged a manner to fight against the epidemic which was significantly more coercive (M = 3.38 versus 4.16, F(1, 97) = 19.61, p <.0001), whatever their knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 6.99, p <.01 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 12.71, p <.001). On the other hand, the "disease knowledge" factor had no effect and no interaction effect appeared (F<1).

Discussion

First, this experiment shows that the introduction of some linguistic adverbs in an epidemiological information message regarding a sexually transmitted infection, strengthens the subjects' self risk perception, reinforces their preventive intentions, in this case, the intention to use a condom and to realize a screening test, and lastly enhances their perception as regards the seriousness and gravity of the problem. Second it also shows that the effect of this linguistic manipulation on these perceptions and intentions is approximately the same, whether the subjects know the disease or not.

We will refer to the "informative" and/or "descriptive" dimension of these particular linguistic forms (i.e. adverbs). Indeed, to talk about the "information value" of these adverbs amounts to saying that, due to their linguistic meaning, they contribute to represent the reality, giving to the depicted situation a certain image in which the notions of "excessiveness", "unpredictability", "inexpectability", "exceptionality" and "uncontrollability" are salient. In other words, such a phrasing/wording of the prevalence and the incidence of the disease reinforces the perceived "danger" and "uncontrollability" of the situation.

It is worth recalling that for the linguist [START_REF] Charaudeau | Grammaire du sens et de l'expression[END_REF], the use of the adverb "already" shows that "the moment the event occurs is deemed premature compared to its expected occurrence" and signals that "a certain reference point, considered as a maximum not to be exceeded, has been overshot". Similarly, according to the researchers on "Risk perception" [START_REF] Slovic | Perception of risk[END_REF][START_REF] Slovic | Why study risk perception[END_REF], these notions are precisely some of the dimensions a subject uses to judge the riskiness of a given situation or activity and to decide how much risk he is willing to accept (i.e. risk tolerance). Maybe our participants mobilized these particular semantic categories while they processed the message.

This study has evident implications for the designers of mass media public health campaigns oriented toward the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, as it shows that a simple linguistic manipulation is enough to increase the intention to adopt preventive behaviour. But to some extent, its efficacy is limited. Indeed, if this discursive strategy acts favourably on prevention, it also reinforces the support for coercive measures when it concerns the way of fighting against the extent of the disease. It also illustrates the unwanted consequences a mass media campaign can sometimes produce, in this case discriminatory reactions. Numerous authors have pointed out that designers of HIV/AIDS preventive campaigns have to manage a paradox: how to involve people in the adoption of healthy behaviours not while provoking discriminatory reactions (Berrenger, Rosnik, & Kravcisin, 1991;[START_REF] Ménard | La double contrainte de la communication publique sur le Sida[END_REF][START_REF] Peretti-Watel | Un risque, ça va ! Trois risques, bonjour les dégâts. Les difficultés de l'éducation pour la santé à prévenir des risques comportementaux multiples[END_REF].

Referring to the "Second-order victim-blaming" process (Dressel, Carter, & Balachandran, 1995), we may wonder if some negative affects did not mediate the effect on the attitude. Maybe our participants have considered that the epidemiological situation described in the message is due to the lack of responsibility of certain people, newly infected, in spite of numerous and large preventive campaigns organized until now, and therefore judged them badly (i.e. depreciation and blame), judging that "all has been done to prevent them" or "to give them the means to avoid the disease". So we can hypothesize that the "adverbial high marking" version has reinforced these judgments and feelings. However, this "attribution of blame" process implies that subjects are convinced that the health related topic has been largely covered by mass media campaigns and so people are sufficiently aware of the problem. In other words, it depends on the perception the subjects have about the (past) mass mediatization of the disease. So did this process work in our study when the communication was about an "unknown disease"? Let us recall that increased support for coercive policy, by reinforcing the adverbial marking of the message, was also obtained when this one referred to a disease whose existence was unknown to the participants. So we can think that in the "unknown disease" condition, participants did not consider that this particular disease had been the object of wide media coverage and then we can hypothesize that the underlying process is different. Future research should address this question.

The efficacy of the discursive strategy manipulated in this study has to be questioned for another reason. Indeed, we have to question its "real" efficacy, that is, its capacity to convert these preventive intentions into effective behaviours. We will refer now to a main tenet of the Elaboration Likelihood Model according to which the message's degree of cognitive elaboration determines how strongly the new attitude is triggered: the more important the cognitive elaboration, the more persistent, resistant and predictive of conforming behaviour is the resulting attitude [START_REF] Petty | The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion[END_REF][START_REF] Petty | Elaboration as a determinant of attitude strength : creating attitudes that are persistent, resistant and predictive of behaviour[END_REF][START_REF] Petty | Elaboration as a determinant of attitude strength : creating attitudes that are persistent, resistant and predictive of behaviour[END_REF]. But we have some good reasons to think that the cognitive elaboration of the message content was weaker in the "adverbial high marking" condition.

These reasons are theoretical and relative to the pragmatics and the "intentionalist paradigm" of the communication (Grice, 1975;[START_REF] Sperber | Relevance: Communication and Cognition[END_REF][START_REF] Krauss | Language and social behavior[END_REF]. Indeed, the adverbs which we have manipulated in this study have also an "argumentative function", that is, they confer to the statements some measure of "argumentative force" or "argumentative orientation" as it is defined in the theory of argumentation in the language: "The presence of some morphemes (nearly for instance) in some sentences gives an intrinsic argumentative orientation to these sentences, predisposing them to be used in some types of conclusions rather than others" (Ducrot, 1980, p.27), and "The statement's argumentative force or orientation can be defined as the type of conclusions suggested to the recipient, the conclusions that the statement offers as one of the discursive aims" (Anscombre & Ducrot, 1983, p.149). So basing our argument on these considerations, we can hypothesize that the presence in the message of these linguistic markers has also generated inferences centred on the "speaker's meaning" and that these were matched with a less "systematic information processing" of the informative content. Here let us recall that stronger preventive intentions were obtained in the "adverbial high marking" condition. So we can wonder to what extent can a change towards more preventive intentions, yielded by this discursive strategy, lead to effective and lasting behaviour? So are the mass media a useful tool or an obstacle for those who aim to change behaviour towards more precaution and security? First it depends on the type of change that such a media discourse is able to produce. Public health campaigns designers ideally seek to provoke significant long term effects and so they have to be certain that messages they compose are highly processed, a required condition to reinforce the attitude-behaviour link.

For this, they have to develop ingenious and subtle strategies to facilitate the cognitive elaboration of the message, the key to success. The strategy we tested here enhanced preventive intentions. However, although we did not measure the cognitive elaboration of the message, we hypothesized that this strategy could impact it negatively. Generally speaking, we may wonder to what extent, mass media messages, due to their characteristics and the criteria which direct their construction, are likely to be highly processed? Second it depends precisely on the objectives that journalists assign to the message. As we have told before, there is a large consensus among the mass media researchers according to which journalists are primarily concerned with their audience so that mass media information is primarily driven by criteria which have much to do with drama and sensational. The recent studies on the media treatment of emerging diseases such as SARS, mad cow disease or aviary flu have shown how the information continued to be directed by these criteria [START_REF] Washer | Representations of SARS in the British newspapers[END_REF][START_REF] Wallis | Disease Metaphors in New Epidemics. The UK Media framing of the 2003 SARS Epidemic[END_REF]Dudo, Dahlstrom, & Brossard, 2007). We may wonder to what extent messages, based on such criteria, trigger predominantly affective, stereotyped and automatic reactions instead of rational reactions. In her book entitled "AIDS and its metaphors", Susan [START_REF] Sontag | Illness as Metaphor and Aids and its Metaphors[END_REF] wrote "The most honest attitude which we can have towards the disease consists in purifying it of the metaphor". We will add that the mass media actor must act honestly towards his/her audience. May this be the case for present and future emerging diseases.

  For example: "The HIV contaminates in France 6000 new persons per year (…) 3500 HIV infections have been registered from January to June" (low marking/known disease condition) versus "The HIV contaminates in France up to 6000 new persons per year (…) Already 3500 HIV infections have been registered just for the period of January to June" (high marking/ known disease condition) versus "The Paramixoviridae contaminates in France 6000 new persons per year (…) 3500 Paramyxoviridae infections have been registered from January to June" (low marking/unknown disease condition) versus "The Paramixoviridae contaminates in France up to 6000 new persons per year (…) Already 3500 Paramyxoviridae infections have been registered just for the period of January to June" (high marking/ unknown disease condition).

  the right for the person to keep his/her seropositivity secret (M = 5.08 versus 3.86, F(1, 97) = 25.82, p <.0001), whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 13.45, p <.001 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 11.91, p <.001) ; the right for the person who realize a screening test to be the unique recipient of the results (M = 5.19 versus 3.81, F(1, 97) = 32.03, p <.0001), whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 versus Gr.1, F(1, 95) = 14.35, p <.001 / Gr.4 versus Gr.2, F(1, 95) = 17.09, p <.0001).

  .L., & Luchmann, T.(1967). The social construction of reality. A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books. Berrenger, J.L., Rosnik, D., & Kravcisin, N.J.(1991). Blaming the victim: When diseaseprevention program misfire. Current Psychology:Research and Reviews, 9,(4),[415][416][417][418][419][420]

  .N. (1992). Cancer, Heart Disease, and AIDS: What Do the Media Tell Us about These Diseases? Health Communication, 4(2), 105-120. Combs, B., & Slovic, P. (1979). Newspaper coverage of causes of death. Journalism Quarterly, 56, 837-843. Dressel, P.L., Carter, V., & Balachandran, A. (1995). Second-order victim-blaming. Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, 22(2), 107-123. Ducrot, O. (1980). Les mots du discours. Paris: Editions de Minuit. Dudo, A.D., Dahlstrom, M.F., & Brossard, D. (2007). Reporting a potential pandemic. A riskrelated assessment of avian influenza coverage in U.S. newspaper. Science Communication, 28(4), 429-454. Entman, R.M. (2004). Projections of power: Framing news, public opinion, and U. S. foreign policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Fielding, S.L. (1997). Comment: The discursive shaping of reality and mass media. Sociological imagination, 34(2), 148-154. Grice, H.P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.) Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press.

  and standard deviation (SD) regarding the comparative optimism in function of the adverbial marking and the knowledge of the disease and standard deviation (SD) regarding the approbation of tolerant opinions in function of the adverbial marking and the knowledge of the disease

This study only focused on some of the numerous statements collected in a study devoted to the media treatment of AIDS in the French press(Coppola & Camus, 2006).

In fact it was a fictitious disease whose the so called origin was the "Paramyxoviridae virus". We controlled that the participants declared they did not know it.

To some extent, this "self risk perception" measure refers to "comparative optimism". Thus when we will present the results, we will talk about "comparative optimism".

Journal of Applied Social PsychologyJournal of Applied Social Psychology

David & G. Soucey (Eds.), Reviewing the behavioral science knowledge base on technology

Second ranking M = 1.96

The lower the mean is, the higher the priority given to the disease as a problem to solve by the public powers is. The lower the mean is, the higher the approbation of the opinion is. The lower the mean is, the higher the approbation of the opinion is. The lower the mean is, the more coercive the general attitude is (after inversion of the polarity of scales for tolerant items)


Vincent Coppola

Odile Camus

Keywords: Persuasive communication, Pragmatics, Social advertising, Health communication Persuasive communication, Pragmatics, Social advertising, Health communication

research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come

Persuasive communication and advertising efficacy for

public health policy : A critical approach.

Introduction

Generally speaking, each project of communication in an advertising context aims at catching the recipient's attention and impacting on his attitude and, above all, his behaviour. The progress of this process of influence has been carefully studied in the field of consumer psychology where the construct of attitude is now a central object of study (Kassarjian, 1982;[START_REF] Mcguire | Some internal psychological factors influencing consumer choice[END_REF]. On this particular subject, dual process models of persuasion progressively became models of reference as regards the topic of attitude change with easily found applications in the advertising communication domain [START_REF] Cacioppo | Central and peripheral routes to persuasion: The role of message repetition[END_REF][START_REF] Petty | Effects of issue involvement on attitudes in an advertising context[END_REF], 1983, 1984b;[START_REF] Petty | Central and peripheral routes to advertising effectiveness: The moderating role of involvement[END_REF][START_REF] Rucker | Understanding advertising effectiveness from a psychological perspective: The importance of attitudes and attitude strength[END_REF]. 1999) and the "Heuristic-Systematic Model" (Chaiken, 1980[START_REF] Chaiken | The heuristic model of persuasion[END_REF][START_REF] Chaiken | Heuristic and systematic information processing within and beyond the persuasion context[END_REF]. Let us present their main assumptions.

Two routes to persuasion and attitude change

Two modes of processing that the recipient employs when presented with a persuasive message are distinguished in these models. These two modes of thinking bound a cognitive elaboration continuum which ranges from low elaboration (i.e. low thought) to high elaboration (i.e. high thought), elaboration being defined as "the extent to which a person thinks about the issue-relevant arguments contained in the message" (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986, p. 128). The first one, called the "central route" (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) or the "systematic processing" [START_REF] Chaiken | The heuristic model of persuasion[END_REF] can be defined as a thoughtful process, involving a sustained and careful scrutiny of the arguments presented in favour of the advocated position (often indicated in the conclusion of the message). In this case, the quality of the arguments is the main determinant of the attitude change, a message with "strong" arguments producing a higher attitude change than a message with "weak" arguments, via the cognitive responses that these arguments have elicited during the processing.

The possibility for the recipient to judge the validity of the advocated position indicated in the message and thus to have an attitude toward a particular object without involving an extensive cognitive processing of the actual argument presented characterizes essentially the second mode of processing, namely the "peripheral route" (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) or the "heuristic processing" [START_REF] Chaiken | The heuristic model of persuasion[END_REF]. In that case, the value assigned by the recipient to some particular cues, which are typically dissociated from the informative contents of the message, is determinant in the attitude change. For example, the recipient can focus his attention primarily on the source of the message, in particular when this one is salient in the context of the communication, and react in function of her credibility or attractiveness, which will thus be the important factors of the attitude change.

The factors which influence these two routes to persuasion

These models are also original in specifying the main variables involved in the activation of these two modes of the processing of the persuasive message (i.e. central/systematic vs. peripheral/heuristic). First, the motivation to process: experimental studies have shown that when the recipient is in a condition of "low motivation", he tends to divert his attention from the argumentative contents and form his judgment about the advocated position much more in reference to the peripheral cues available in the context, whereas when he is in a condition of "high motivation", he will be more likely to involve a cognitive effort in the evaluation of the argumentative contents and thus to form his judgment in function of its quality (Chaiken, 1980;[START_REF] Petty | Issue involvement can increase or decrease persuasion by enhancing message-relevant cognitive responses[END_REF], 1984c;[START_REF] Petty | Personal involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion[END_REF]. Some motivational factors can be viewed as transitional conditions insofar as the recipient is experimentally and temporarily put in a state of high or less motivation. Among these ones, the personal relevance of the message topic which made the recipient more or less "involved", the consequences and repercussions of the decision and judgment which made the recipient more or less "accountable", have until now been the most experimentally manipulated factors, in particular when these models were applied to an advertising context [START_REF] Burnkrant | Effects of involvement and message content on information processing intensity[END_REF]Kokkinaki & Lunt, 1999;[START_REF] Laczniak | Toward a better understanding of the role of advertising message involvement in ad processing[END_REF][START_REF] Park | Types and levels of involvement and brand attitude formation[END_REF][START_REF] Petty | Effects of issue involvement on attitudes in an advertising context[END_REF], 1983, 1984a). Other motivational factors correspond to some personality variables, psychological characteristics, and cognitive styles which are more stable, whatever the moment and the situation. Among the most studied of these have been the "need for cognition" factor, reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities [START_REF] Cacioppo | The need for cognition[END_REF][START_REF] Cacioppo | Effects of need for cognition on message evaluation, argument recall, and persuasion[END_REF][START_REF] Cacioppo | Central and peripheral routes to persuasion: An individual difference perspective[END_REF], and more recently, the "need for closure" factor, reflecting an individual's desire for a clear, definite, or unambiguous knowledge and thus a motivation to draw a conclusion quickly and terminate cognitive information processing (Klein & Webster, 2000;Kruglansky, Webster & Klem, 1993;[START_REF] Webster | Individual differences in Need for Cognitive Closure[END_REF].

The ability to process is the second factor of activation. Just a single presentation or too fast a presentation of the message, too complicated contents or the unavailability of the relevant knowledge needed to scrutinize the arguments, the necessity to react immediately and to express the attitude more quickly, a state of stress, distraction or tiredness, are conditions which can stop the recipient from highly elaborating the informative contents (i.e. arguments) and orientate him towards peripheral cues, in particular when these one are made salient in the context. Motivational factors and ability factors are not similar, referring to different variables, so that when the recipient for instance is motivated to process but does not have the capacity or the possibility to process, he will tend to take the peripheral route.

The consequences of these two routes on attitude and attitude change

The studies have shown that the mode of processing is not without consequence on attitude strength, in other words that the strength of any attitude change depends on where it was changed along the cognitive elaboration continuum. An attitude which results from the "central route" or the "systematic processing" (i.e. high amount of thinking) is stronger than an attitude which results from the "peripheral route" or the "heuristic processing" (i.e. low amount of thinking) and the strength of the attitude impacts on its other properties such as persistency, resistance, and predictability. Once formed or newly changed, an attitude tends to persist longer over time, to resist better to a counter persuasion and to predict behaviour better when changed under high than under low thinking conditions [START_REF] Chaiken | Structural consistency and attitude strenght[END_REF]Haugtvedt & Petty, 1992;Petty, Haugtvedt & Smith, 1995).

Considering this ultimate assumption, it is important for advertisers (and marketers) to know how extensive the target's processing was during the exposure to the message and its evaluation, in others words to know if the recipient directed it towards the "central route" or the "peripheral route". Indeed, whether the advertising is strictly commercial with the objective to change the recipient's attitude toward consumer goods or strictly preventive, with the objective to make people sensitive to diverse social problems, the advertiser aims at yielding strong attitudes which will be followed by effective behaviours and practices. Let us end this presentation of the dual models of persuasion by recalling that these models have been empirically validated and applied in commercial advertising contexts [START_REF] Areni | The role of argument quality in the Elaboration Likelihood Model[END_REF]Areni & Sparks, 2005;Brock & Shavitt, 1983;[START_REF] Chaiken | Heuristic processing can bias systematic processing: Effects of source credibility, argument ambiguity, and task importance on attitude judgment[END_REF]Haugtvedt, Petty & Cacioppo, 1992;Haugtvedt & Priester, 1997;Haugtvedt & Strathman, 1990;Wu & Shaffer, 1987) just as well in preventive advertising contexts (Baker, Petty & Gleicher, 1991;Briňol & Petty, 2006;[START_REF] Petty | The Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion[END_REF][START_REF] Petty | Persuasion theory and AIDS prevention[END_REF][START_REF] Rucker | Increasing the effectiveness of communications to consumers: Recommendations based on the Elaboration Likelihood and attitude certainty perspectives[END_REF].

A pragmatic approach of the communication

At this point of our presentation, if we consider that persuasive communication, whatever its topic and the social problem for which it is designed, is above all a process of communication between a locutor (i.e. source of the persuasive message) and an interlocutor (i.e. recipient of the persuasive message), then we can envisage revisiting these models of persuasion making reference to some tenets of pragmatics. As we have pointed out in the introduction, studies of communication and language undertaken during the last three decades, have emphasized the necessity of putting away the "code model" of the communication in favour of the pragmatic approach [START_REF] Ghiglione | Où va la pragmatique ? De la pragmatique à la psychologie sociale. Grenoble: Presses Universitaires de Grenoble. to persuasion in the presence or absence of prior information[END_REF]Meunier & Perraya, 2004;Reboul & Moeschler, 1998a[START_REF] Reboul | Pragmatique du discours. De l'interprétation des énoncés à l'interprétation du discours[END_REF].

Code and inference

A rather large consensus exists today in the field of communication and language sciences, according to which the inferential processes lie at the heart of the pragmatic conception of communication [START_REF] Bracops | Introduction à la pragmatique. Les théories fondatrices : actes de langage, pragmatique cognitive, pragmatique intégrée[END_REF][START_REF] Sperber | Relevance: Communication and cognition[END_REF][START_REF] Wilson | Relevance theory[END_REF]. These processes, which are superimposed on the code to make possible a complete interpretation of the sentences, are precisely the main subject of the pragmatics: "The study of the interpretation of the sentences recovers from what is called today pragmatics" (Sperber & Wilson, 1986, p.22). The pragmatic conception of communication is thus characterized by the notion that the linguistic communication has to be viewed as semantically under determined and completed by deductive mechanisms which are fundamentally cognitive to be completely interpreted, that is with some degree of exactitude.

Generally speaking, we will point out that the pragmatic conception of communication emphasizes the following notions which are a part of Grice's central claims (1975,1989): the intentionality present in the produced sentences, that is the distinction between "sentence meaning" and "speaker's meaning", and the presence of an implicit dimension, that is the distinction between the "message's literal meaning" and the "message's non literal meaning".

Let us point out that these distinctions are central in what Krauss and Chiu (1997) have called the "Intentionalist Paradigm". An essential feature of most human communication is the expression and recognition of intentions. Indeed, according to Grice, the sentence, characterized by its syntactic structure and semantic value, and like that, subject of the linguistic, has to be considered like a cue of the speaker's intended meaning; and the determination of this meaning depends on the recipient's capacity to make a deduction (i.e. inference) or much more in accordance with the Grice's terminology, to find some "implicatures" (Grice, 1975).

In developing this claim, Grice laid the foundations for an "inferential model" of communication, a model which constitutes an alternative to the classical "code model". The partisans of this alternative model, which has been largely developed in the Sperber and Wilson's works (1986), claim that the words in a sentence and the meanings those words are understood to convey do not bear a fixed relationship -that the communicative use of language requires participants to go beyond the words in extracting (i.e. deducting) what the speaker intend to mean. In other words, the recipient of the message takes an interest in the message's literal meanings for deducing the speaker's intended meaning and this "speaker's meaning" can not be mapped onto word strings in one-to-one fashion. An utterance is, of course, a linguistically coded piece of evidence, so that verbal comprehension involves an element of decoding. However, the linguistic meaning recovered by decoding is just one of the inputs to a non-demonstrative inference process which yields an interpretation of the "speaker's meaning". From then on, successful communication entails the exchange of "communicative intentions" and messages are the simple vehicles of these exchanges.

Situation and communication contract

In this alternative model, if the function of the language is to represent some thoughts originally located in the speaker's brain, it is assumed that this representation is only in relative adequacy with these original thoughts, generally more complex. The recipient will have to do reasoning and attempt some rational bets on the speaker's meaning. This reasoning can be viewed in a way as a calculation of the implied meaning, in which some extra linguistic information will be considered. These extra linguistic elements constitute what [START_REF] Sperber | Relevance: Communication and cognition[END_REF] have called the "cognitive environment" and what [START_REF] Clark | Context for comprehension[END_REF] have called the "common ground" and constitute a part of the context of the sentence.

Some implicatures are sufficiently generalised to be automatically generated or activated by the recipient in reaction to a particular sentence. The inferential interpretation of this sentence thus consists in drawing a plausible "communicative intention" from linguistic forms and/or linguistic fragments perceived by the recipient as a cue. But why and how have some implicatures a strong degree of determination? Why are some pragmatic interpretations realized with a very high regularity in front of some produced sentences? It seems reasonable to argue that because the interlocutors have a clear perception and a manifest representation of the situation in which the communication process is accomplished, and/or are sufficiently informed as regards some parameters of this situation, they succeed to find what the speaker intends to mean.

The situation in which the communication and thus the language takes place is defined by some particulars parameters, among which the identity and the status of the interlocutors ("who are the interlocutors?"), the central theme of the message ("what is the topic?"), the main objective of the communication ("what is the aim of the exchange?"). These particular pieces of information about the identity, the topic and the aim are useful to the recipient for deducing with some degree of confidence the underlying meaning and to reconstruct the communicative intention. They constitute a structured set of information which is likely to make some deductions more or less accessible and available. These parameters constitute what some authors call the "communication contract" [START_REF] Heath | Contrat de communication et co-construction du sens[END_REF]Charaudeau, 2004;[START_REF] Ghiglione | La psychologie sociale cognitive de la communication[END_REF]. For instance, Charaudeau (2004) argued that the "contract" is "that which speaks before one has spoken, that which is understood before one has read it, that which gives the text meaning through its conditions of communication …One part of the meaning is constructed before one enters the particularity of a text, and it is the communication contract that puts it in place, conditioning in part the actors of the exchange" (p. 112).

Toward a critique of the dual models of persuasion

If the notions developed by Grice (1975) and by [START_REF] Sperber | Relevance: Communication and cognition[END_REF] reflect correctly what is fundamentally a communication process between a source (speaker or writer) and a recipient (hearer or reader), then we may wonder whether the dual models of persuasion described above have sufficiently considered them and thus portrayed realistically the recipient's processing of the message. Let us consider now the following remarks.

Transparency and immanence of the language

The first remark regards the theoretical frames in which these studies on persuasion have been undertaken, and especially the conception of the language and the meaning which underlie them. As productive as they were, it seems to us that social psychological studies on persuasive communication have until now largely neglected the pragmatics views of language and meaning. Broadly speaking, we could say that language is endowed with no pragmatic properties, which means that it is viewed only from the point of view of its descriptive function. In other words, language is a simple inert vehicle of pieces of information (i.e. arguments) about the object of attitude; and its unique function is to convey semantic content (i.e. the message) with the greatest transparency, such content being sufficiently convincing and sound to produce an attitude change (i.e. persuasive effect). As a consequence, the meaning of the (persuasive) message is fully specified by its elements, the words which compose the sentences of the message being necessary and sufficient for the recipient to construct the meaning. So we argue here that these models of persuasion have been conceptualized and empirically validated in a narrow Encoding/Decoding paradigm.

In these studies on persuasive communication there is no consideration given to the idea that in the message there are some linguistics fragments which constitute information about the speaker's intended meaning, that is a cue on which the recipient can focus and from which he can activate more or less spontaneously and with sufficient confidence an inference about the "speaker's meaning" and once this "communicative intention" constructed, distracting his attention and reflexion from the strict informative content of the message. We can reasonably argue that also in a persuasive situation as defined in the Petty et al.'s paradigm, the recipient has some expectations, which means that he not only elaborates the issue-relevant information in the message but also attempts to foresee and anticipate what the author of the message intends to say, to what conclusion he wants to lead him. And this particular deduction will be all the more easier to make since some linguistic fragments are present in the text. The "strength" of the argument As we have seen, the quality of the argumentation is a determining factor of the attitude change in the models of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1984c;[START_REF] Petty | Personal involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion[END_REF]. Indeed, provided that the recipient goes into the "central route", arguments of good quality will increase persuasion whereas poor arguments produce the opposite effect. But it appears clearly that the "argument" here is mainly defined as a linguistic and semantic item, carrying a literal meaning and telling (intended here as describing and portraying) something about the "real", and it is to this particular dimension of language that the recipient is supposed to react when he processes (i.e. elaborates) the message. Some lexical components exist in language which, by virtue of their literal meaning when only linguistically considered, give to the statement a superiority as argument. In other words, added to a particular statement, they make it a better candidate for argumentation so that they somehow contribute to increase the "force" of the argument (as intended in Petty et al.'s works). To make clearer our assumption, let us consider the following statements extracted from the French dailies. They will also serve as a preamble to the empirical study that we have announced in our introduction and which concerns preventive advertising communication.

These particular statements are: "In New York, three hundred persons are already dead, victims of AIDS (…) AIDS have already killed three hundred patients"; "In December only, ninety one deaths have been registered"; "According to the last World Health Organisation's data, seven million people have already been infected by HIV"; "Since it emerged, the virus has infected more than sixty million people worldwide, killing more than a third"; "Already twenty million deaths (…) The infection is spreading at the rate of more than fourteen thousand new cases per day". Such statements, precisely because of the particular adverbs they incorporate, quantify the number of people deceased, ill and infected in such a way that this number is seen as having exceeded an acceptable and tolerable threshold. By virtue of their literal meaning, they put the indicated quantity into relief and make them more salient and thus are likely to orientate the recipient's judgment as regards the epidemiological situation portrayed in the message. For instance, the linguist [START_REF] Charaudeau | Grammaire du sens et de l'expression[END_REF] argued that the adverb "already" indicates that "the moment the event occurs is deemed premature compared to its expected occurrence" and signals that a "certain reference point, considered as a maximum not to be exceeded, has been overshot" (p. 265). So considering the notion of "argument strength" as defined in Petty et al.'s studies, we can consider here that these statements are "stronger" arguments than are the same statements devoid of these particular adverbs.

However, if we refer to the "theory of the argumentation within language" [START_REF] Anscombre | L'argumentation dans la langue[END_REF], 1983) and some psycholinguistic studies on the argumentative function of language markers [START_REF] Bassano | Opérateurs et connecteurs argumentatifs: Une approche psycholinguistique[END_REF]Bassano & Champaud, 1987;Champaud & Bassano, 1987), we have to consider that the informative and descriptive properties are not the main properties of these morphemes, or at less do not exhaust their role in the sentence. These linguistic fragments have also an argumentative function, which means that they endow the statement which incorporates them with an "argumentative force" or "argumentative orientation" defined by [START_REF] Anscombre | L'argumentation dans la langue[END_REF] as "the type of conclusions suggested to the recipient, the conclusions that the statement offers as one of the discursive aims" (p. 149). To view these particular linguistic items in the statement as more "argumentative" than "informative", it implies that in addition to its informative content, the statement comprises of several lexical items that endow it with an argumentative orientation, leading the recipient in this or that direction and making another conclusion discursively impossible. Thus, the statements discussed above are descriptive, which means that they portray the epidemiological situation but they also indicate something about the principal aim of the message and the speaker's "communicative intention", precisely via the adverbs located within the message. This last proposal amounts to saying that which was considered as a stronger argument in the encoding/decoding paradigm of persuasive communication is likely to be viewed primarily as a cue of the speaker's intended meaning once the central claims of pragmatics are considered. How will these particular statements be processed and elaborated in reception? What are their effects in reception on attitude change? The following empirical study will attempt to answer these questions.

Method

Objective and hypothesis

The experimental study we propose now is at the juncture of the two themes presented above: persuasive communication and pragmatics. Its objective is to give some support to the critique we have proposed regarding the lack of a pragmatic approach of the language and communication in the studies on persuasion. Its general hypothesis is that the presence of linguistic markers referring to the argumentative orientation in a persuasive message will generate inferences centred on the communicative intention and that these will be matched with a lesser elaboration of its informative contents. In its empirical aspects strictly speaking, this study also examines an advertising context since the subjects are asked to express their attitude toward a new feminine condom called "Preservatex", presented in the conclusion of the message as a newly commercialised product, and their intention to purchase and use it.

Before presenting the methodology, let us present its specific hypothesis.

Hypothesis 1. The intention to purchase the condom referred to in the message will be more important when the argumentative orientation of the message will be marked.

Hypothesis 2. The intention to use the condom referred to in the message will be more important when the argumentative orientation of the message will be marked.

Hypothesis 3. The general attitude towards the marketing of the condom will be more favourable when the argumentative orientation of the message will be marked.

Hypothesis 4. The intentional aspects of the message (i.e. "communicative intention") will be more considered by the recipients when the argumentative orientation of the message will be marked.

Hypothesis 5. The recipients' cognitive elaboration of the message informative contents will be lesser when the argumentative orientation of the message will be marked.

Independent variables and experimental plan

In a text presented as an epidemiological information message, we vary 1) the marking of the argumentative orientation ("high marking" vs. "low marking") by endowing some statements of the message with argumentative markers, and 2) the known character of the disease ("known disease" vs. "unknown disease"), by presenting a message which informs participants about a disease whose existence is and is not known to them1 . More precisely, this text consists of following three parts. First, an introduction which resembles more a title "Sexually Transmitted Infections: Let us take stock of the situation".

Second, the main contents of the message inform about the current epidemiological situation of a particular sexually transmitted disease. This part consists of ten statements and within it are introduced the two independent variables indicated above (high vs. low marking and known vs. unknown disease). Third, there is a conclusion which invites the participants to consider a new feminine condom, the marketing of which is imminent "Preservatex, to consume without moderation". Some of the experimental manipulations introduced in the second part are presented below.

Low marking

Dependent variables

The intention to purchase the condom: participants are asked to indicate this intention on a scale from 1 "not at all" to 7 "absolutely".

The intention to use the condom during the next sexual intercourse: participants are asked to indicate this intention on a scale from 1 "not at all" to 7 "absolutely".

The attitude towards the marketing of the condom: participants are asked to express some judgements as regards this commercialization on three seven-point semantic differential scales anchored at -3 and +3 ("unnecessarynecessary"; "inessentialessential"; "irrelevant relevant").

The perceived communicative intention: participants are asked to indicate on a scale from 1 "not at all" to 7 "absolutely" to what extent they consider that by elaborating this message, the communicator intended to "alert the women about the risks they incur";

"emphasize the seriousness of the situation for the women"; "to give the women a sense of responsibility" 2 .

The cognitive elaboration of the message contents: participants are faced with six multiple choice items and asked to indicate for each of them the option which tally with the information presented in the text. All the participants receive a global score from 0 to 6.

Population

2 Let us clarify that among the ten statements which constitute the message, only three concern women. unknown) experimental design defined above. They declared having had three sexual intercourses and more during the last six months. 43,5% of them indicated that they "always" used a condom during these sexual encounters, 34,8% indicated that they used it "occasionally" and 21,7% indicated that they "never" used it. No participant had practised a screening test during the last year and no participant had used a feminine condom until now.

Results

Intention to purchase and to use the condom (hypothesis 1 & 2)

The results indicate that the marking of the argumentative orientation is not without effect on the intentions to purchase and to use the condom referred to in the conclusion of the message (see Table 1). An ANOVA shows that the subjects' purchase intention is significantly more important in "high marking" condition (M = 4.67 vs. 3.93; F(1,85) = 9.41; p <.003), whatever their knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 5.05; p <.03 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 4.37; p <.04). As regards the intention to use it, it is also more important in "high marking" condition (M = 4.0 vs. 3.47; F(1,85) = 5.32; p <.03), but a more detailed analysis shows that the difference does not approach significance in the "unknown disease" condition (Gr.3 vs. Table 1 here

Attitude towards the marketing of the condom (hypothesis 3)

The results reflect that the judgments regarding the marketing of the condom depend on the marking of the argumentative orientation (see Table 2). The ANOVA reveals that the participants in "high marking" condition judge this marketing more "necessary" (M = 1.35 vs. 0.66; F(1,85) = 4.79; p <.04), but a more detailed analysis shows that the difference is not significant in the "unknown disease" condition and only marginal in the "known disease" condition (Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 1.76 & Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 3.14; p = .07). In the same "high marking" condition, the marketing is also considered as more "relevant" (M = 1.43 vs. 0.71; F(1,85) = 5.88; p <.02), a more detailed analysis showing that the difference is only marginal whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 2.76; p = .09 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 3,28; p = .07). As regards the third judgment (inessential vs.

essential), the same pattern of results emerges (M = 1.61 vs. 0.90; F(1,85) = 6.78; p <.02 / Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 3.57; p = .06 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 3.22; p = .07). A general attitude more favourable in "high marking" condition (M = 1.46 vs. 0.76; F(1,85) = 6,06; p <.02) results from these judgments, a more detailed analysis showing however that the difference is only marginal whatever the "knowledge of the disease" (Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 3.24; p = .07 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 2.83; p = .09). The participants' judgments about the commercialization of the condom do not differ significantly whether they know the disease or not (F<1) and from this pattern results a general attitude which is sensibly the same (F<1). The perceived communicative intention (hypothesis 4)

The results show that participants in "high marking" condition express a higher level of approbation of the propositions regarding the speaker's communication intention (see Table 3). The ANOVA reveals that they are significantly more in agreement with the idea that the author of the message intended to "alert the women about he risks they incur" (M = 5.59 vs. Table 3 here

The processing of the message contents (hypothesis 5)

The participants informed with a message characterized by the high marking of argumentative orientation show a lower score of memorization of the message contents (see Table 4). The ANOVA reveals that the difference is significant (M = 2.52 vs. 3.39; F(1,85) = 20.31; p <.0001), whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 9.94; p <.01 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 10.37; p <.01). On the other hand, this score does not differ whether the participants know the disease or not (F<1). Table 4 here Within each experimental condition and for each of the three propositions regarding the author's communicative intention, we have calculated a correlation coefficient (i.e. Pearson's r) between the level of approbation for this proposition and the score of memorization of the message contents (see Table 5). The statistical analysis reveals a strong relationship between these two measures only in the "high marking" condition, which means that in this condition of argumentative orientation the higher the approbation of the proposition is, the weaker the score of memorization is.

Table 5 here

Discussion

The main objective of this study was to support our claim that studies on persuasive communication have been undertaken until now within an Encoding/Decoding paradigm of the communication and that a pragmatic approach of the persuasive communication is not only possible but maybe also necessary, given that persuasion within the dual model is a matter of "communication". The main hypothesis was that a message characterized by the presence of some linguistic markers referring to the argumentative orientation would be less elaborated inasmuch as these argumentative markers would be perceived and processed in reception as some cues of what the speaker intended to mean through his message, which means that the recipient of message was supposed to generate some inferences centred on this communication intention and in so doing, to elaborate to a lesser extent the strict informative contents of the message. The empirical data support this general hypothesis. Indeed, the participants who were exposed to the message within which these linguistic markers were disseminated are significantly more in agreement with the propositions relative to the author's communicative intention. Moreover their memorization score of the message contents was lesser and finally this score was strongly correlated with their level of approbation for the items of the author's intended meaning so that the more they were in agreement with these particular items, the less they were in a position to restore correctly the informative contents of the message.

We suppose that in this "high marking" condition, while they were reading the message, recipients have focused their attention on the argumentative markers and made use of what the cognitivist [START_REF] Dennet | The intentional stance[END_REF][START_REF] Dennet | True believers: The intentional strategy and why it works[END_REF]) called the "intentional strategy", reconstructing what the linguist Anscombre (1995) called the "deep meaning" of the sentence. Let us recall here that studies on reading and interpretation of sentences have shown that comprehension results from two kind of strategies which work together to ensure an accurate and rapid processing of information. These cognitive processes are the "bottom-up" processing and the "top-down" processing. Generally speaking, when the recipient activates a "bottom-up" processing, he is supposed to extract the information from the message and to deal with this one in a relatively complete and systematic fashion, with little recourse to higher-level knowledge. On the other hand, with a "top-down" processing, the uptake of information is guided by the individual's prior knowledge, expectations and hypothesis and the recipient (i.e. reader) is supposed to take in only just enough visual stimuli to test and comfort these ones [START_REF] Denhière | Comprendre un texte: Construire quoi? Avec quoi? Comment?[END_REF]Goodman, 1967;Smith, 1971). Referring to this distinction, we can hypothesize that participants who were asked to process the message with argumentative markers were more likely to activate a "top-down" processing and this very early in their understanding of the message. Let us recall too that theories that stress "top-down" processing hold that in most situations, the reader's activity consists in reconstructing the meaning from the text with the least possible time and effort, selectively using the least number of cues possible and the most productive cues [START_REF] Adams | Les modèles de lecture[END_REF]Goodman & Gollasch, 1980;[START_REF] Smith | The role of prediction in reading[END_REF]. We can thus hypothesize that the linguistic markers were relevant for the recipient in his attempt to reconstruct what the author intended to mean. Besides, we can hypothesize that the activation of these deductions (i.e. inferences) about the author's intended meaning and the confirmation of these given the other linguistic markers which appear subsequently have as consequence stopped or at least reduced the cognitive effort the recipient is willing to dedicate to the processing of the informative contents conveyed by the message. In other words, once he has collected the cues which enable him to make an inference about the author's intended meaning and once he is sufficiently confident as regards the relevance of his inference about this communicative intention, the recipient would head towards a lesser elaboration of the informative contents (i.e. a processing which is less "central/systematic").

This study has also shown that by stressing the argumentative orientation of the message, one can increase the subjects' intention to purchase a new condom referred to in the conclusion of the persuasive message, to act favourably on the intention to use it during the next sexual intercourse, and finally produce a more favourable attitude toward its commercialization. To some extent, our study entails some social policy goals in terms of prevention and thus concerns social and public service advertising more than commercial advertising [START_REF] Cossette | La publicité, déchet culturel[END_REF]Kotler, Roberto & Lee, 2002;Kotler & Zaltman, 1971;[START_REF] Sublet | Use of health communication and social marketing principles in planning occupational safety and health interventions[END_REF]. However, to assign such social importance to this experiment supposes to question the real efficacy of this linguistic strategy, in this case its capacity to transform such intentions and attitudes into effective behaviours and practices. Let us recall that according to the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion, the more important the amount of thinking about the relevant information contained in the message is (i.e. high cognitive elaboration), the more stable, the more resistant, and (above all) the more predictive the behaviour and attitude which result from this (high) cognitive elaboration (Haugtvedt & Petty, 1992;Krosnick & Petty, 1995;Petty et al., 1995). Now let us recall too that in our study, the stronger intentions as regards the purchase and the utilisation of the condom on the one hand, and the more favourable attitude toward the marketing of the condom on the other hand have been registered in the condition where the elaboration of the informative contents of the message was deliberately less. Consequently, we can reasonably hypothesize that the discursive strategy tested here has only short time effects, moreover only on the attitude and (but) not on the behaviours.

Conclusion

We hope that this study supports our claim that a pragmatic approach of communication and language in studies on persuasive communication is appropriate. We are in agreement with [START_REF] Sperber | Relevance: Communication and cognition[END_REF] when they claimed that "to describe communication in terms of intentions and inferences seems appropriate from a psychological point of view" (p. 42).

This "Intentionalist paradigm" seems to us psychologically and cognitively more realistic than the one which has dominated until now studies on persuasion, that is the Encoding/Decoding paradigm. To refer to the pragmatic approach of communication is all the more relevant since the "code model" has underlain until now most studies on persuasion applied to the prevention of risky behaviour [START_REF] Baker | Persuasion theory and drug abuse prevention[END_REF]Petty, Baker & Gleicher, 1991;[START_REF] Petty | Persuasion theory and AIDS prevention[END_REF][START_REF] Verplanken | Persuasive communication of risk information: A test of cue versus message processing effects in a field experiment[END_REF]. Broadly speaking, public service advertising is a leading source of information about important health issues and therefore is targeted by those who aim to influence perceptions and behaviours. The main challenge for the designers of the communication is how best to compose messages in order to increase their efficacy [START_REF] Bertrand | Systematic review of the effectiveness of mass communication programs to change HIV/AIDS-related behaviors in developing countries[END_REF][START_REF] Myrhe | HIV/AIDS communication campaigns: Progress and prospects[END_REF]Palmgreen, Noar, & Zimmerman, 2007). And it is all the more a current challenge since the latest surveys in France have showed an "AIDS normalization process" resulting in a relaxation of preventive behaviors and a degradation of the image of the condom [START_REF] Beltzer | Les connaissances, attitudes, croyances et comportements face au VIH/SIDA en France[END_REF]. Given this context, this study may be somewhat useful for the designers of preventive ads who are concerned about discursive strategies which facilitate the cognitive elaboration of the message.

F

  Participants were 87 female students aged 20 to 22 years old, and were randomly divided up in the 2 (argumentative orientation: low making vs. high marking) x 2 (disease: known vs.

Gr. 1 ;

 1 F(1,83) = 3.81; p <.06 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 1.73). The participants' intention to purchase the condom does not differ significantly whether they know the disease referred to in the message or not (M = 4.51 vs. 4.10; F(1,85) = 2,71; p = .11), and the same pattern of results is observed as regards the intention to use it (M = 3,91 vs. 3,55; F(1,85) = 2,42; p = .12).

  4.05; F(1,85) = 87.09; p <.0001), whatever their knowledge of the disease [Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 40.23; p <.0001 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 46.95; p <.0001]; "emphasize the seriousness of the current situation for the women" (M = 5.61 vs. 3.95; F(1,85) = 84.46; p <.0001), whatever their knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 38.35; p <.0001 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 46.24; p <.0001); "give the women a more sense of responsibility" (M = 5.89 vs. 3.88; F(1,85) = 112.74; p <.00001), again whatever the knowledge of the disease (Gr.3 vs. Gr.1; F(1,83) = 54.65; p <.0001 & Gr.4 vs. Gr.2; F(1,83) = 58.10; p <.0001). The participants approve each of these propositions to the same extent whether they know the disease or not (F<1).

Table 2

 2

	here

Table 1

 1 Goodman, K. S.(1967). Reading: A psycholinguistic guessing game. Journal of the ReadingSpecialist, 6, 126-135. Goodman, K. S., & Gollasch, F. V. (1980). Word omission: Deliberate and non-deliberate.Reading ResearchQuarterly, 16, 6-31. Grice, H. P. (1975). Logic and conversation. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts (pp. 41-58). New York: Academic Press. Grice, H. P. (1989). Studies in the Way of Words. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Haugtvedt, C. P., & Petty, R. E. (1992). Personality and persuasion: Need for cognition moderates the persistence and resistance of attitude changes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(2), 308-319. Haugtvedt, C. P., Petty R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1992). Need for cognition and advertising: Understanding the role of personality variables in consumer behaviour. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 1(3), 239-260. Haugtvedt, C. P., & Priester, J. R. (1997). Conceptual and methodological issues in advertising effectiveness: An attitude strength perspective. In W. D. Wells (Ed.), Measuring advertising effectiveness. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Smith, F. (1971). Understanding reading: A psycholinguistic analysis of reading and learning to read. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. Mean (M) & standard deviation (SD) in function of the marking of argumentative orientation and the knowledge of the disease

	o r
	P
	e
	e r
	R
	e
	v i e
	w

Haugtvedt, C. P., & Strathman, A. J. (1990)

. Situational product relevance and attitude persistence. Advances in Consumer

Research, 17,[766][767][768][769]

Table 3

 3 Mean (M) & standard deviation (SD) in function of the marking of argumentative orientation and the knowledge of the disease

	Low marking	High marking
	Known	Unknown	Known	Unknown
	disease	disease	disease	disease
	To alert women
	about the risks
	they incur (a)

Table 5

 5 Author's communicative intention

		To alert women	To emphasize the	To give women a
		about the risks …	seriousness …	sense of responsibility
		.12	-.19	-.09
	Group 1 (n = 21)	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		-.07	.03	.05
	Group 2 (n = 20)	n.s.	n.s.	n.s.
		-.67	-.44	-.46
	Group 3 (n = 23)	p <.001	p <.04	p <.04
		-.56	-.61	-.44
	Group 4 (n = 23)	p <.01	p <.01

p <.04

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/commresearch Communication Research

The "unknown" disease was in fact a fictitious one and we have checked that all the subjects in this condition declared they did not know it.

Low marking

High marking

Known

The higher the mean is, the stronger the intention to purchase the condom is.

(b) The higher the mean is, the stronger the intention to use the condom is.

Table 2

Mean

The higher the mean is, the more "necessary", the more "relevant", and the more "essential" the marketing of the condom is judged.

(b) The higher the mean is, the more favourable the attitude towards the marketing of the condom is (after addition of the scores observed for each scale).