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

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.

The Antecedents of Impulse Buying Behavior During Covid-19 Pandemic: Revealing the Role of Panic Buying, Government Stimulus, Perceived Scarcity, and Fear Appeals

COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world and changed people's shopping habits. This phenomenon causes much fear and induces panic behavior. In a highly uncertain situation, many people are more likely to engage in impulse buying behavior during this period. Our research aims to examine that impulse buying behavior during the pandemic. Hypothesis testing in this study uses the path analysis technique, which is processed using a computer with a program that has been developed by Preacher-Hayes, namely the Macros PROCESS technique. The research finds that panic buying, government stimulus, perceived scarcity, and fear appeal have a significant direct effect on impulse buying behavior. We went a step further to test the indirect effects. The indirect test supports our hypothesis by using fear appeal as mediating variable. The result indicates that fear appeal mediates between panic buying, whereas impulse buying behavior has no significant effect. Furthermore, fear appeal mediates between government stimulus, and scarcity of essential products has a significant effect on impulse buying behavior.

Uncovering milk formula advertisements on the Chinese social media platform Weibo (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED China is the largest and fastest-growing market of milk formula products and has a highly active digital media environment. Weibo is one of the most popular social media channels in China. The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes aims to prevent aggressive marketing practices to protect mothers and babies. The advent of Weibo presents new challenges for the promotion, protection, and support of breastfeeding in China. The study aims 1) Investigate the frequency of posting by popular milk formula brands on Weibo 2) Uncover common Weibo post themes and marketing techniques used by milk formula brands and companies. We examined the four most popular milk formula brands' official Weibo accounts: Biotime, Mead Johnson, YiLi-Prokido and Friso, each had more than 1.4 million followers. We developed a preliminary coding framework with coding categories based on previous studies. Initially, we coded one hundred original posts from each account using an iterative process of coding. The final set of ten coding categories were mutually exclusive. Totaling 2,667 original posts were coded and analyzed. Three categories had the highest proportions of original posts (65%) across the four accounts; they were: increase user engagement (939/2667, 35.2%), parenting advice (516/2667, 19.3%), and celebrity endorsement (327/2667, 12.3%). The remaining seven categories, including claims that milk formula is very close to breast milk, fear appeals of breastfeeding, sponsorship or title sponsor of event/TV reality shows, accounted for 35% of the total number of original posts. This study revealed that advertising practices were common, particularly prizes, parenting advice, and celebrity endorsement of milk formula products in milk formula brands' Weibo accounts. Therefore, monitoring and regulation to ban digital media advertising of milk formula in China are urgently needed.

Individual differences in COVID-19 mitigation behaviors: The roles of age, gender, psychological state, and financial status

The present study examined individual characteristics potentially associated with changes in mitigation behaviors (social distancing and hygiene) recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Analysis of online survey responses from 361 adults, ages 20–78, with US IP addresses, identified significant correlates of adaptive behavioral changes, with implications for preventive strategies and mental health needs. The extent to which individuals changed their mitigation behaviors was unrelated to self-rated health or concern regarding the personal effects of COVID-19 but was related to concern regarding the effects of the pandemic on others. Thus, mitigation behaviors do not appear to be primarily motivated by self-protection. Importantly, adaptive changes in mitigation behaviors increased with age. However, these changes, particularly those related to the frequency of close proximity encounters, appear to be due to age-related decreases in anxiety and depression. Taken together, the present results argue against over-reliance on ‘fear appeals’ in public health messages as they may increase anxiety and depression. Instead, the present findings argue for more appeals to people’s concern for others to motivate mitigation as well as indicating an immediate need to address individual mental health concerns for the sake of society as a whole.

The influence of valence shifts in fear appeals on message processing and behavioral intentions: A moderated mediation model

Newer approaches in health communication research indicate that understanding the flow of emotional experiences during exposure to fear appeals can clarify their persuasive effects. In a laboratory experiment, the impact of valence shifts during exposure to fear appeals on determinants of health-relevant behaviors were examined. Continuous response measurement allowed gathering real-time data about participants’ experiences of valence shifts during exposure. Among the results, a shift from negative to positive valence promoted efficacy perceptions but only for people being personally affected by the health issue. Perceived efficacy, in turn, increased intentions to put recommended behaviors into practice. This suggests that inducing positive valence shifts in health messages improves their effectiveness, especially for relevant target groups.

How Can E-Cigarette Fear Appeals Improve the Perceived Threat, Fear, Anger, and Protection Motivation of Young People

The lack of awareness regarding the risks of e-cigarettes and the misleading business propaganda caused an increase in the popularity of e-cigarettes among young people. The effective communication of the risks associated with e-cigarettes is an important part of current work to control their usage, and the use of fear appeals is an effective method to achieve good control. Based on the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) and Appraisal-Tendency Framework (ATF), this article presents a 2 × 2 control experiment to test the impact of fear appeals on the perception of risk, emotions, and behavioral motivation of young people aged 35 and less. A total of 333 valid samples of adolescents and young adults were included to investigate the different response paths to fear appeals among young people of different age, sex and smoking history. The results show that high-threat, high-efficacy fear appeals are able to: (1) significantly increase young people’s perception of the e-cigarette-associated threats, (2) trigger fear and anger amongst young people, and (3) stimulate their self-protection motivation. Fear appeals do not have an impact on young people’s perception of efficacy, regardless of their level of threat and efficacy. High fear appeals can also increase young people’s perception of threat, which in turn enhances their anger and protection motivation. Furthermore, while this type of fear appeal can enhance young women’s perception of efficacy, it cannot enhance the perception of e-cigarette risks in adolescents, young men and young smokers, regardless of their level of threat and efficacy. Young non-smokers have a higher perception of the risks involved in the use of e-cigarettes compared with young smokers.

Un enfoque psicofisiológico de los mensajes de miedo. Respuestas autónomas, subjetivas y conductuales a los mensajes de promoción de la salud.

Se diseñó un estudio para analizar los efectos que tienen las apelaciones al miedo sobre las respuestas psicofisiológicas, subjetivas y conductuales en la población diana. Para ello, se presentaron, a 98 mujeres de 49-50 años de edad, tres mensajes sobre el cáncer de mama promoviendo la realización de mamografía regularmente. Los mensajes fueron elaborados de manera similar a los utilizados por los programas de promoción de la salud. Los tres tenían la misma longitud, formato y estructura, pero variaban en determinadas claves que diferenciaban su carácter (Amenaza, Sorpresa y Estándar/control). Durante la exposición a estos mensajes, se registraron, de manera continua, las respuestas psicofisiológicas (frecuencia cardíaca y frecuencia de respuestas electrodérmicas inespecíficas). Después de ver los estímulos, se tomaron medidas de autoinforme y de personalidad (STAI y EPQ-A). Se encontraron respuestas significativas a los mensajes para todas las medidas psicofisiológicas. Independientemente del mensaje presentado, el patrón de respuesta psicofisiológica se relacionó significativamente con la conducta preventiva de detección del cáncer. A study was designed in order to analyze the effects of fear appeals on psychophysiological, subjective and behavioral responses on the target audience. Three messages on breast cancer, promoting regular mammography screening, elaborated in a similar way to those used by health promotion programs, were presented to ninety-eight women aged 49-50. Messages were of equal length, format and structure but varied in specific clues which distinguished their character (Threat, Surprise, and Standard/control). Psychophysiological reactions (heart rate and frequency of non- specific skin conductance responses) were recorded continuously during message exposure. Self-report measures and personality traits (STAI and EPQ-A) were obtained after viewing the stimulus. There were significant responses to the messages for all psychophysiological measures. The pattern of psychophysiological response, independent of the eliciting message, was significantly related to cancer preventive/detection behavior.

Fear Language in a Warning Is Beneficial to Risk Perception in Lower-Risk Situations

Objective The goal was to examine the effectiveness of fear language in the protective action recommendation of an emergency warning, which instructs people how to prepare and stay safe. Background Past work is limited because it has focused on describing the severity of the weather crisis, not improving the recommendation. Likewise, other research has examined fear appeals that overemphasize death, which leads to poor risk perceptions. Method In Experiment 1, the presence of fear language and second-person personal pronouns (i.e., “you”) in a recommendation was manipulated. Experiment 2 examined how fear language and a hurricane changing in intensity influenced risk perceptions across three decision points. Results Experiment 1 suggested that fear language was more influential than a pronoun on risk perceptions. Experiment 2 suggested that fear language in a protective action recommendation was most impactful in the case of a hurricane decreasing in intensity. Conclusion Protective action recommendations with fear language influence risk perceptions and behaviors. The magnitude of this influence is dependent on how people have categorized the hurricane (i.e., low vs. high risk). Application These results demonstrate that fear appeals in hurricane warnings can be useful, especially in cases when a low to medium risk event is still extremely dangerous. Likewise, these results demonstrate a need for caution, as fear appeals are not a “one size-fits-all” approach to increasing risk perceptions and should be used thoughtfully. Recommendations of when to use fear appeals in protective action recommendations are provided based on the present data.

The Role of Agency and Threat-Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals for the Prevention of Alcohol Abuse: An Empirical Study Among College Students (Preprint)

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.

Social marketing, shock advertising and risky consumption behavior

PurposeThe overall objective of this research is to “explore whether shock advertising has a long-lasting positive effect on the smoking cessation among smoking Jordanians in a country where smoking is a deep-rooted social norm.”Design/methodology/approachThis research is an exploratory qualitative research. A purposeful sampling technique was used to select participants from a mall intercept and randomly divided into groups of seven. Each group was interviewed in two different focus group sessions (four weeks apart). All focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis.FindingsA total of 41 participants took part in the focus group session. Most participants were smokers or second-hand smokers. “Three overarching themes were generated from the focus groups: previous anti-smoking campaign experience, shock advertising (SA) impact and drawbacks of SA. All participants reported that they have never been exposed to shocking adverts, and the shock appeal has never been applied in any of the anti-smoking or health awareness campaigns in Jordan. This research revealed that incorporating images of children with a mixture of emotional and fear appeals is effective in targeting Jordanian parents' negative consumptive behaviors, which may harm other individuals, especially children. Moreover, most participants commented that the effects of shock adverts would be very short term and would not likely change behaviors”.Originality/valueThis research contributes both “theoretically and practically to the value and effectiveness of shock advertising. This research area is overlooked in MENA countries, particularly Jordan”.