Int J Environ Res Public Health. Further, at a more general level, fear-based messages that alert children to the importance of making self-protective decisions while they are still developing their schemas for health-related behaviors, such as regular teeth brushing or healthy eating, may result in the creation of sustainable habits that eventually result in improved health across the lifespan. Printed from Oxford Research Encyclopedias, Communication. As with previous models, though EPPM offers an appealing explanation for when fear appeals may be more or less persuasive, research has not supported all of the EPPMs key predictions. As the United States faces out-of-control spikes from Covid-19, with people refusing to take recommended, often even mandated, precautions, our public health announcements from governments,. For example, we may learn that taking too much over-the-counter pain medication can cause liver damage; nevertheless, we continue to take more than we should when the pain is great. Yet, little attention has been paid to this issue. For example, in a study of fear appeals about condom use and AIDS prevention, Witte and Morrison (2000) found that whereas trait anxiety was not related to threat perceptions, efficacy perceptions, or behavior, participants low in trait anxiety reported greater defensive avoidance than did those high in trait anxiety. Presenting a fear appeal more than doubles the probability of change relative to not presenting anything or presenting a low-fear appeal, said Albarracin. Fear appeals, also known as scare tactics, have been widely used to promote recommended preventive behaviors. Though the four cognitions identified in the PMT proved important to persuasive outcomes in response to fear appeals, the specific relationships among them as asserted by the theory were not fully supported by empirical evidence. Keywords: Fear appeals, risk, health communication, meta-analysis Fear appeals are persuasive messages that attempt to arouse fear by emphasizing the potential danger and harm that will befall individuals if they do not adopt the messages' recommendations (Dillard, 1996; Maddux & Rogers, 1983). Indeed, the more intense the emotional experience or the greater the emotional disruption, the more likely it is to be socially shared and shared repetitively over an extended period of time (Rim, 2009). Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies There is also the possibility that arousing fear could result in a defensive response or risk denial; particularly, among those who are most susceptible to the threat (Ruiter, Kessels, Peters, & Kok, 2014). Once evoked, fear manifests itself physically in multiple ways, including changes in facial expressions (e.g., wide-open eyes and raised eyelids) and the body (e.g., increased heart rate) (hman, 2008). Therefore, they can be quite useful to practitioners. Designing Health Messages: Approaches from Communication Theory and That is, too little fear or too much fear would push individuals toward maladaptive behaviors that quickly reduce the aversive state, such as problem minimization or source derogation, without offering true protection from the threat. Fear is the ultimate form of emotional baggage. With a smaller set of studies (between 17 and 33), the authors also analyzed the relationship between fear appeal manipulations in the message content and cognitions. The contributors demonstrate the necessity of basing message design decisions on appropriate theories of human behavior and communication effectiveness by synthesizing and integrating knowledge and insights from theory and research in communication and health behavior change. Although the lions share of research on the persuasive influence of fear focuses on persuasive advertisements, other media messages may be considered as possible conduits of influence via fear arousal. The results replicated previous meta-analyses, demonstrating a significant positive relationship between fear appeal manipulations and attitudes, intentions, and behaviors (average weighted d = .29). One emotion that often affects attitudes and behavior is fear. The use of fear appeals to communicate a public health message They also confirmed prior findings that fear appeals are effective when they describe how to avoid the threat (e.g., get the vaccine, use a condom). Recent research, however, is beginning to more carefully consider how the emotions associated with health messages promote information-sharing behaviors. It further asserts that the ordering or shifts in emotional states in response to changing message content may be critical to understanding persuasive outcomes. As such, message components of fear appeals include threat and efficacy. Researchers now believe anxiety disorders and PTSD are whole brain conditions. Accessibility They found fear appeals to be effective, especially when they contained recommendations for one-time only (versus repeated) behaviors and if the targeted audience included a larger percentage of women. Loners come in many varieties, some of them perectly healthy. In order to motivate students to perform well academically, teachers and counselors will emphasize the importance of exams, papers, and classroom participation. A review of the literature on more general gender differences in fear may also help explain potential gender differences in responses to fear appeals. For example, Myrick and Oliver (2015) found that feeling fearful after watching a YouTube public-service announcement about skin cancer was a positive predictor of intentions to share the video with others. 2022 Nov 22;10:991292. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.991292. For example. found that this dynamic approach offered evidence in support of a curvilinear relationship between fear and persuasion. If fear is used to motivate attitudinal and behavioral change, it should be used judiciously. How Blame and Shame Can Fuel Depression in Rape Victims, Getting More Hugs Is Linked to Fewer Symptoms of Depression, Interacting With Outgroup Members Reduces Prejudice, Practice Improves the Potential for Future Plasticity, How Financial Infidelity Can Affect Your Gray Divorce. How 'fear appeals' and disinformation may be manipulating the public on Book chapters that discuss fears role in communication and media processes and effects also provide helpful overviews of the state of the literature as well as suggestions for future research directions. Specifically, the CFM predicts that an individual experiencing message-relevant fear who is also uncertain as to whether the rest of the message will contain reassuring information (i.e., it may help alleviate fear, but full exposure is necessary to know for sure) would be most likely to carefully process the message. (2015) also found that studies with messages that included efficacy statements had larger effects (d = .43) than did those that did not include efficacy statements (d = .21), with the outcome being an average weighted effect size encompassing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Psychological Bulletin, 141, 11781204. As health professionals develop health communication for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we implore that these communication approaches do not include fear appeals. Further, many of the 12 propositions originally articulated within the EPPM have not been consistently tested. Despite accumulating evidence that fear appeals could be persuasive, the field remained without a good explanation for the mechanisms of these message effects. Fear, in turn, motivates protective behavior and a strong desire to escape the threat. Communication, collaboration and cooperation can stop the 2019 coronavirus. Effects are most apparent in women and for one-time behaviors, says study. "These appeals are effective at changing attitudes, intentions and behaviors. The use of fear appeals to discourage adolescents from engaging in risky health behaviors, such as smoking and drug use, is well-documented and unsurprising, given that adolescents are often assumed to perceive themselves as less vulnerable to risk. In an early test of this model, Janis and Feshbach (1953) examined the connection between fear arousal and the persuasiveness of dental-hygiene messages. The following study examines social facilitation of eating cues in anti-obesity fear appeals to determine . Print 2020 Jun 30. 2020 Summer;32(2):221-228. doi: 10.24869/psyd.2020.221. That is because threat perceptions are necessary to elicit fear but efficacy perceptions are necessary to promote protection motivation. A fear appeal, then, can be defined as a message that intends to evoke fear in audiences by demonstrating the existence of a threat and then detailing ways to avoid that threat (Witte, 1994). The fear-as-acquired drive model (often referred to as the drive model) argues that stimuli that evoke fear result in a drive to avoid the unpleasant emotional state (Hovland, Janis, & Kelly, 1953). To aid health professionals in redirecting away from the use of fear appeals, we offer a phased approach to creating health communication messages during the COVID-19 crisis. Although the predicted interaction between threat and efficacy appraisals lies at the heart of the EPPM, the full model includes 12 propositions detailing numerous intricate relationships between the different types of cognitions, fear, and message effectiveness (Witte, 1992). National Center for Biotechnology Information Some recent studies have examined the structure of health news in ways that speak to the link between emotional arousal, most notably fear, and persuasive outcomes. In essence, different types of audiences with different predispositions are likely to respond differently to fear appeals. Health 366 (know these terms) Flashcards | Quizlet Hovland, Janis, and Kelly noted that habituated behaviors can be adaptive in that they target the threat itself and aim to reduce or eliminate it. Evidence from a meta-analysis of fear appeals found that appeals targeting female-dominated audiences are more effective than those targeting male audiences, likely because women tend to be more prevention focused in that they are more sensitive to avoiding negative outcomes than to seeking positive outcomes (Tannenbaum et al., 2015). However, trait anxiety has been linked to other outcomes of fear appeals. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a single article for personal use (for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice). The study of fear-based messages has a long and robust history. Further, blunters were significantly more likely to actually obtain a mammogram in response to the more direct messages. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Although this approach suggests that patient anxieties may be reduced through the presentation of efficacy-related information, which is consistent with fear-appeal messaging, there are large gaps in this area of research that would benefit from additional attention. There are many messages that convey important information about potential harm; however, if the . These include distrust in public health authorities, skepticism of health messaging, a lack of uptake in recommended behaviors, and a plethora of other unintended consequences. As such, the emotional flow perspective suggests that the emotional shift from fear to hope may help to explain the conditions under which fear appeals are more likely to be effective. a mask. This paper provides an insight into the use of fear appeals to communicate a public health message. WASHINGTON Fear-based appeals appear to be effective at influencing attitudes and behaviors, especially among women, according to a comprehensive review of over 50 years of research on the topic, published by the American Psychological Association. For example. Symbols such as dying people, coffins, gravestones or skulls may be used. As such, fear is an emotion that frequently attracts the attention of scholars and message designers who hope to persuade audiences to change their behavior in light of potential threats to well-being and public safety. Although these meta-analyses seem to converge on a small but significant relationship between fear and persuasion-related outcomes, the mechanisms of fear appeal effects are still not entirely clear. Fear-based appeals effective at changing attitudes, behaviors after all Social Facilitation in Fear Appeals Creates Positive Affect but More than 92 million benzodiazepine prescriptions are yearly dispensed in the US, yet little is known about the experiences of those taking them. Since the 1950s, social scientists have studied the potential effects of fear-arousing messages on audiences. Although the distinction between the two has not been studied empirically, and the word anxious is frequently included among the emotion words used to assess fear responses to persuasive appeals, it is useful to recognize that the experience of fear and anxiety are distinguishable, with fear carrying the potential for more adaptive action. fear appeal has been used when the message producer intended to inform the public about the severe consequences that unhealthy behavior or a disease may induce, thus expressing a causal . That is, adolescents may not perceive themselves to be less vulnerable to risk as much as they actually perceive a range of health-threatening behaviors as less risky than they actually are, compared to their adult counterparts. Fear Appeals | Psychology Today However, this approach offers a limited understanding of the experience of fear throughout message exposure. Psychiatry for Better World: COVID-19 and Blame Games People Play from Public and Global Metal Health Perspective. The Effects of Fear Appeals and Message Format on - ResearchGate 2020 Oct;111:37-38. doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2020.06.015. 2020 Jun 22;140(10). Clearly, fear appeals do not only provoke fear reactions. As such, adaptive outcomes are likely. The .gov means its official. Ethical Considerations on the Use of Fear in Public Health Campaigns Although these meta-analyses focus on different variables used across different fear-appeal theories, together they provide helpful evidence for any theory that utilizes the variables each meta-analysis addressed. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. The other two perceptions related to the target behavior: the effectiveness of the target behavior for avoiding the threat (response efficacy) and the ability of the individual to enact the target behavior (self-efficacy). | It is to this literature we now turn. Beginning with the very young, testing the influence of fear-based messages on children is a difficult area of empirical inquiry given the ethical implications of potential psychological trauma. A fear appeal is a persuasive message that attempts to arouse fear in order to divert behavior through the threat of impending danger or harm. However, fear appeals should not be seen as a panacea because the effect is still small. To help settle the debate, Albarracin and her colleagues conducted what they believe to be the most comprehensive meta-analysis to date.

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