This paper provides a philosophical discussion of moderators and person-specific differences (referred to as “hedges”) in research on media effects. It is shown that while, historically, the reliance on hedges has been regarded as a sign of theoretical sophistication (the “hedges-as-progress-perspective”), it has left the field behind in a maze of epistemological problems. The paper therefore urges to reinterpret the role of hedges as a sign of theoretical resilience instead of sophistication (the “hedges-as-protection-perspective”). This shift is shown to have substantive implications for how one describes and evaluates media effects research—not just its history, but also its current state and its ambitions going into the future.

中文翻译：

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迷失在迷宫中？关于媒体效应研究中差异和个体水平敏感性的哲学问题


本文对媒体效应研究中的调节因素和个人特定差异（称为“对冲”）进行了哲学讨论。结果表明，虽然从历史上看，对对冲的依赖一直被视为理论成熟度的标志（“对冲即进步的观点”），但它却使该领域陷入了认识论问题的迷宫。因此，本文敦促将对冲的作用重新解释为理论弹性而不是复杂性的标志（“对冲作为保护的观点”）。事实证明，这种转变对人们如何描述和评估媒体效果研究具有实质性影响——不仅是它的历史，还有它的现状和对未来的雄心壮志。