Self- and Response Efficacy Information in Fear Appeals: A Meta-Analysis

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Bigsby ◽  
Dolores Albarracín

Abstract Fear appeals are designed to inspire intended and actual actions to avert a danger. Although prior meta-analyses report that the average effect of fear appeals is moderately positive, the role of efficacy information is not completely understood. Prior work and fear appeal theories have argued that the presence of both response and self-efficacy information improves fear appeal success but the individual impacts of each have not been properly estimated. A meta-analysis (k = 158, N = 19,736) was conducted to examine the individual and combined effects of response and self-efficacy information contained in fear appeals on behavioral intentions and behaviors. Estimating the impact of fear appeals relative to low and no fear controls, the meta-analysis showed that fear appeals had a stronger influence on behavioral outcomes when they included positive response efficacy information but did not vary as a function of including self-efficacy information or negative response efficacy information.

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natascha de Hoog ◽  
Wolfgang Stroebe ◽  
John B. F. de Wit

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.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hendrik Engelbrecht ◽  
Nynke van der Laan ◽  
Renske van Enschot ◽  
Emiel Krahmer

BACKGROUND Serious games for the training of prevention behaviors have been widely recognized as a potentially valuable tool for adolescents and young adults across a variety of risk behaviors. However, the role of agency, as a distinguishing factor from traditional health interventions, has seldomly been isolated and grounded in persuasive health communication theory. Fear appeals have different effects on intentions to perform a prevention behavior depending on the immediacy of the consequences. Looking into how to increase self-efficacy beliefs for health behavior with distant consequences is a first step to improving game-based interventions for adverse health outcomes. OBJECTIVE The current study investigated the effect of agency on self-efficacy and intention to drink less alcohol in an interactive digital narrative fear appeal. Further, the communicated immediacy of threat outcomes was evaluated as a potential moderator of the effect of agency on self-efficacy. METHODS An experimental study was conducted among university students (N=178). Participants were presented with a fear appeal outlining the consequences of alcohol abuse in an interactive narrative format. Participants either had perceived control over the outcome of the narrative scenario (high-agency) or no control over the outcome (low-agency). The threat was either framed as a short-term or long-term negative health outcome resulting from the execution of the risk behavior (drinking too much alcohol). RESULTS Self-efficacy and intention to limit alcohol intake were not influenced by the agency manipulation. Self-efficacy was shown to be a significant predictor of behavioral intention. Immediacy of the threat did not moderate the relationship between agency and self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS Although the agency manipulation was successful, we could not find evidence for an effect of agency or threat immediacy on self-efficacy. The implications for different operationalizations of different agency concepts is discussed, as well as the malleability of self-efficacy beliefs for long-term threats. The usage of repeated, versus single, interventions and different threat types (e.g., health and social threats) should be tested empirically to establish a way forward for diversifying intervention approaches.


2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 925-929 ◽  
Author(s):  
C V Minte-Vera ◽  
T A Branch ◽  
I J Stewart ◽  
M W Dorn

Meta-analysis is an important new tool for synthesizing scientific knowledge from many previous studies. In fisheries, meta-analyses can be used to obtain prior distributions or penalty functions for parameters used in stock assessment models. Two types of results are generally published in a meta-analysis: Type A, the updated results for each stock used in the meta-analysis, and Type B, the results that would best describe a new stock. Including these results in assessments for the individual stocks would result in double use of the data if the assessments include the input data used in the meta-analyses, which they typically would. To solve this problem, we recommend that an additional form of results should be reported in meta-analyses: Type C, the results for a new stock obtained by sequentially excluding each stock's data set and repeating the meta-analysis. Type C results should be used whenever the assessment input data overlap with the meta-analysis input data, avoiding the double use of data. We illustrate the impact of this reporting change on the results of a recent meta-analysis.


2019 ◽  
Vol IV (II) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
Farooq Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Nawaz Qaisar ◽  
Syed Ali Raza Hamid

The study examined the relationship between systematic interaction, fear appeals, and exercise intention using group-centered and participatory approaches. The longitudinal experimental design was used to understand the phenomenon of fear appeals (risk perception) for adopting sustained physical activities. The sample comprised two treatment conditions i.e. experimental group and control group to measure the impact of interventions for verification of the proposed conceptual model. The findings indicate that risk perception mediated the relationship between systematic interaction and exercise intention. Moreover, systematic interaction has a positive effect on risk perception and exercise intention. The findings conceptually advance the fear appeal theory with a new lens using a participatory paradigm to augment sustained behavior change. We advocate that use of systematic interaction adds value in expanding the scope of a theoretical base for marketing.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 1761-1774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Feast ◽  
Esme Moniz-Cook ◽  
Charlotte Stoner ◽  
Georgina Charlesworth ◽  
Martin Orrell

ABSTRACTBackground:Behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia (BPSD) are important predictors of institutionalization as well as caregiver burden and depression. Previous reviews have tended to group BPSD as one category with little focus on the role of the individual symptoms. This review investigates the role of the individual symptoms of BPSD in relation to the impact on different measures of family caregiver well-being.Methods:Systematic review and meta-analysis of papers published in English between 1980 and December 2015 reporting which BPSD affect caregiver well-being. Paper quality was appraised using the Downs and Black Checklist (1998).Results:Forty medium and high quality quantitative papers met the inclusion criteria, 16 were suitable to be included in a meta-analysis of mean distress scores. Depressive behaviors were the most distressing for caregivers followed by agitation/aggression and apathy. Euphoria was the least distressing. Correlation coefficients between mean total behavior scores and mean distress scores were pooled for four studies. Irritability, aberrant motor behavior and delusions were the most strongly correlated to distress, disinhibition was the least correlated.Conclusions:The evidence is not conclusive as to whether some BPSD impact caregiver well-being more than others. Studies which validly examined BPSD individually were limited, and the included studies used numerous measures of BPSD and numerous measures of caregiver well-being. Future research may benefit from a consistent measure of BPSD, examining BPSD individually, and by examining the causal mechanisms by which BPSD impact well-being by including caregiver variables so that interventions can be designed to target BPSD more effectively.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shinichi Nakagawa ◽  
Malgorzata Lagisz ◽  
Rose E O'Dea ◽  
Joanna Rutkowska ◽  
Yefeng Yang ◽  
...  

‘Classic’ forest plots show the effect sizes from individual studies and the aggregate effect from a meta-analysis. However, in ecology and evolution meta-analyses routinely contain over 100 effect sizes, making the classic forest plot of limited use. We surveyed 102 meta-analyses in ecology and evolution, finding that only 11% use the classic forest plot. Instead, most used a ‘forest-like plot’, showing point estimates (with 95% confidence intervals; CIs) from a series of subgroups or categories in a meta-regression. We propose a modification of the forest-like plot, which we name the ‘orchard plot’. Orchard plots, in addition to showing overall mean effects and CIs from meta-analyses/regressions, also includes 95% prediction intervals (PIs), and the individual effect sizes scaled by their precision. The PI allows the user and reader to see the range in which an effect size from a future study may be expected to fall. The PI, therefore, provides an intuitive interpretation of any heterogeneity in the data. Supplementing the PI, the inclusion of underlying effect sizes also allows the user to see any influential or outlying effect sizes. We showcase the orchard plot with example datasets from ecology and evolution, using the R package, orchard, including several functions for visualizing meta-analytic data using forest-plot derivatives. We consider the orchard plot as a variant on the classic forest plot, cultivated to the needs of meta-analysts in ecology and evolution. Hopefully, the orchard plot will prove fruitful for visualizing large collections of heterogeneous effect sizes regardless of the field of study.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kopasker

Existing research has consistently shown that perceptions of the potential economic consequences of Scottish independence are vital to levels of support for constitutional change. This paper attempts to investigate the mechanism by which expectations of the economic consequences of independence are formed. A hypothesised causal micro-level mechanism is tested that relates constitutional preferences to the existing skill investments of the individual. Evidence is presented that larger skill investments are associated with a greater likelihood of perceiving economic threats from independence. Additionally, greater perceived threat results in lower support for independence. The impact of uncertainty on both positive and negative economic expectations is also examined. While uncertainty has little effect on negative expectations, it significantly reduces the likelihood of those with positive expectations supporting independence. Overall, it appears that a general economy-wide threat is most significant, and it is conjectured that this stems a lack of information on macroeconomic governance credentials.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selahattin Kanten ◽  
Pelin Kanten ◽  
Murat Yeşiltaş

This study aims to investigate the impact of parental career behaviors on undergraduate student’s career exploration and the mediating role of career self-efficacy. In the literature it is suggested that some social and individual factors facilitate students’ career exploration. Therefore, parental career behaviors and career self-efficacy is considered as predictors of student’s career exploration attitudes within the scope of the study. In this respect, data which are collected from 405 undergraduate students having an education on tourism and hotel management field by the survey method are analyzed by using the structural equation modeling. The results of the study indicate that parental career behaviors which are addressed support; interference and lack of engagement have a significant effect on student’s career exploration behaviors such as intended-systematic exploration, environment exploration and self-exploration. In addition, it has been found that one of the dimensions of parental career behaviors addressed as a lack of engagement has a significant effect on career self-efficacy levels of students. However, research results indicate that student’s career self-efficacy has a significant effect on only the self-exploration dimension. On the other hand, career self-efficacy has a partial mediating role between lack of engagement attitudes of parents and career exploration behaviors of students.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089484532110124
Author(s):  
Graham B. Stead ◽  
Lindsey M. LaVeck ◽  
Sandra M. Hurtado Rúa

The relationship between career adaptability and career decision self-efficacy was examined due to its importance for clients in the career development and career decision-making process. Multivariate meta-analyses using 18 studies with a total population of 6,339 participants were employed. Moderator variables important to this relationship were country of participants, mean age, and career adaptability measures. Estimated correlations between career adaptability subscales and career decision self-efficacy measures ranged from .36 to .44. Findings are discussed in relation to career research and counseling.


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