Abstract
The presentation of single cases as examples for larger phenomena has a long-standing tradition in journalism. However, their usage has been viewed rather critically within the scientific community, because they are employed in a highly selective manner. Consequently, over the course of the last three decades, communication scholars from different research traditions have concerned themselves with the question of how single-case information within media content affects audience judgments. Although most publications report exemplification effects of some sort, it remains unclear which types of exemplars are effective and whether they are capable of influencing both perceptual and personal judgments. Applying a multi-level meta-regression approach, we synthesize findings across different studies and investigate potential moderators. Our results suggest overall exemplification effects that seem to be most pronounced for first-level reality judgments, such as public opinion or frequency estimates, but that are limited in their robustness when controlling for interdependence of the measurements.
A tool to measure complexity in public health interventions: Its statistical properties and meta-regression approach to adjust it in meta-analysis