Public response to various written appeals to participate in health screening. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sixty years of fear appeal research: Current state of the evidence
International Journal of Psychology, 2014
F ear arousal is widely used in persuasive campaigns and behavioral change interventions. Yet, experimental evidence argues against the use of threatening health information. The authors reviewed the current state of empirical evidence on the effectiveness of fear appeals. Following a brief overview of the use of fear arousal in health education practice and the structure of effective fear appeals according to two main theoretical frameworks-protection motivation theory and the extended parallel process model-the findings of six meta-analytic studies in the effectiveness of fear appeals are summarized. It is concluded that coping information aimed at increasing perceptions of response effectiveness and especially self-efficacy is more important in promoting protective action than presenting threatening health information aimed at increasing risk perceptions and fear arousal. Alternative behavior change methods than fear appeals should be considered.
Review of General …, 2007
This meta-analysis of studies of the persuasive impact of fear appeals evaluated the contribution of our stage model of the processing of fear-arousing communications relative to other fear appeal theories. In contrast to other theories, our stage model (a) specifies the cognitive processes underlying persuasion through fear-arousing communications, (b) proposes that threat-induced defensive processing does not interfere with the effectiveness of fear-arousing communications but actually contributes to it, and (c) predicts that vulnerability and severity manipulations have differential effects on measures of attitude as compared with intention and behavior. To evaluate these predictions, the authors expanded on previous meta-analyses by assessing the independent as well as joint effects of vulnerability to and severity of a risk, both on information processing and on measures of persuasion (attitude, intention, behavior). Overall, findings were consistent with the stage model. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. De Hoog, N., Stroebe, W., & De Wit, J.B.F. (2007). The impact of vulnerability to and severity of a health risk on processing and acceptance of fear-arousing communications: A meta-analysis. Review of General Psychology, 11(3), 258-285.
Effective and ineffective use of fear in health promotion campaigns
American Journal of Public Health, 1988
Health promotion campaigns are typically designed to elicit fear, yet the use of fear is often ineffective in achieving the desired behavior change. Campaigns which attempt to use fear as part of a punishment procedure are unlikely to succeed. Consistent with established principles of learning, fear is most likely to be effective if the campaign allows for the desired behavior to be reinforced by a reduction in the level of fear. This entails five requirements: 1) fear onset should occur before the desired behavior is offered; 2) the event upon which the fear is based should appear
Fear appeal effectiveness for familiar and unfamiliar issues
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of level of graphic threat (weak and strong) and the amount of information (low and high) on message effectiveness for an unfamiliar (a muscle disorder due to lack of physical exercise) vs a familiar (injuries as a result of traffic accidents due to drunk driving) issue. Design/methodology/approach -The method employed was experimental 2 (issue familiarity: unfamiliar, familiar issue) £ 2 (amount of information: low, high) £ 2 (graphic threat level: weak, strong) full factorial between-subjects design. Data are collected from a sample of 206 Belgians. Findings -It was found that a strong graphic threat message has a greater effect for an unfamiliar than for a familiar issue. For a familiar issue, adding information to a weak threat appeal increases perceived severity. For an unfamiliar issue, adding information to a strong graphic threat appeal has a similar effect. Perceived severity of threat, perceived probability of occurrence, evoked fear and perceived coping efficacy have a significant effect on the intention to adopt the recommended behavior. For an unfamiliar issue, perceived efficacy and perceived probability of occurrence primarily have the greatest impact on coping intention. For a familiar issue, perceived severity, evoked fear and perceived efficacy determine coping intention. Practical implications -The results substantially support the use of different message tactics for health threats that are either new or familiar for the target group. Originality/value -Most studies have limited themselves to studying the impact of threat strength on perceived threat and response efficacy, on evoked fear and on message acceptance. The present study adds the contextual and message elements, namely issue familiarity and amount of information provided, the link of which with threat appeal has -as far to the authors' knowledge never been studied before in one integrated analysis.
A meta-analysis of fear appeals: Implications for effective public health campaigns
2000
The fear appeal literature is examined in a comprehensive synthesis using meta-analytical techniques. The meta-analysis suggests that strong fear appeals produce high levels of perceived severity and susceptibility, and are more persuasive than low or weak fear appeals. The results also indicate that fear appeals motivate adaptive danger control actions such as message acceptance and maladaptive fear control actions such as defensive avoidance or reactance. It appears that strong fear appeals and high-efficacy messages produce the greatest behavior change, whereas strong fear appeals with low-efficacy messages produce the greatest levels of defensive responses. Future directions and practical implications are provided. Although considerable laboratory research has shown that fear appeals (persuasive messages that arouse fear) motivate behavior change across a variety of behaviors, public health researchers and practitioners continue to contend that fear appeals backfire. 1-3 Given these conflicting viewpoints, 4-6 the purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review and update of the fear appeal research. The focus in this work will be on the empirical analysis and synthesis of more than 100 fear appeal articles. This analysis updates Sutton's 7 and Boster and Mongeau's 8 (and Mongeau's 9 limited update) fear appeal meta-analyses and examines several variables previously unexamined in meta-analyses (such as threat and efficacy interactions and fear control outcomes). An update of previous work is needed because there has been a tremendous increase in the number of fear appeal articles in the past dozen years.
Fear appeals to promote better health behaviors: an investigation of potential mediators
Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 2021
Background: Fear appeals are widely used in health communication, despite conflicting views on their effectiveness. Unresolved issues include possible mediation mechanisms and the effect of defensive reactions aimed at controlling a perceived danger. Methods: The present study compared the impact of three versions of an existing online course on how to prevent noncommunicable diseases. Participants, recruited in South America via a crowdsourcing platform, were divided randomly between three versions of the course-'threat only'/'threat plus coping information'/'coping information plus threat' (reverse order). We then asked them to complete a questionnaire measuring perceived efficacy, perceived threat, defensive reactions, and intention to change unhealthy behaviors. Results: Using a serial parallel mediation model to test the course's impact on our dependent variables did not reveal any significant differences between the three versions. Perceived efficacy was positively associated with intention to change behavior, as well as with lower suppression, lower reappraisal, and greater denial. Suppression was the only defensive reaction to be associated with intention to change behavior: greater suppression was linked to less intention to change. Conclusions: Our results open interesting perspectives for research into defensive reactions.
Fear appeal messages affect accessibility of attitudes toward the threat and adaptive behaviors
Communication Monographs, 2004
Fear appeals have long been used in persuasive messages to motivate people to perform adaptive behaviors. This research explored the influence of a fear appeal message concerning breast cancer on attitude accessibility. Messages advocating the efficacy of breast self-examinations increased the accessibility of attitudes toward the adaptive behavior. Further, the accessibility of participants' attitudes toward the adaptive behavior predicted behavioral intentions to perform breast self-examinations. Attitudes toward the threat became less accessible after exposure to a high fear-arousing message, however. Analyses suggest that defensive reactions to the fear-inducing message mediate the influence of the message on the accessibility of the attitudes toward breast cancer. Implications of these findings for models of fear appeals are discussed.
Fear and Threat Appeals When and How Are Threat Appeals Effective ?
2002
Health communication strategies are at the core of both mass media campaigns and public health interventions conducted at the community level concerning the prevention of HIV/AIDS. They are often nested in complex contexts that prevent us from being able to identify the persuasive impact of a specific message. The authors attempt to account for an array of factors contributing to the persuasiveness of messages about HIV. The aim is to synthesize the psychological literature on persuasion and thus provide a conceptual framework for understanding message effects in HIV communications. This discussion concerns fear appeals, message framing, tailoring, cultural targeting, and additional factors pertaining to the message, source, and channel of the communication. Whenever possible, recommendations for further research are formulated.