Scare' em or disgust 'em: the effects of graphic health promotion messages.

Full Abstract

This study experimentally tested the effects of 2 types of content commonly found in anti-tobacco television messages-content focused on communicating a health threat about tobacco use (fear) and content containing disgust-related images-on how viewers processed these messages. In a 2 x 2 within-subjects experiment, participants watched anti-tobacco television ads that varied in the amount of fear and disgust content. The results of this study suggest that both fear and disgust content in anti-tobacco television ads have significant effects on resources allocated to encoding the messages and on recognition memory. Heart-rate data indicated that putting fear- or disgust-related content into anti-tobacco ads led to more resources allocated to encoding compared to messages without either feature. However, participants appeared to allocate fewer resources to encoding during exposure to messages featuring both fear and disgust content. Recognition was most accurate for messages that had either fear or disgust content but was significantly impaired when these 2 message attributes occurred together. The results are discussed in the context of motivated processing and recommendations about message construction are offered to campaign designers.

Author information

Author/s: Leshner, Glenn (G); Bolls, Paul (P); Thomas, Erika (E);

Affiliation: Department of Strategic Communication, School of Journalism, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. leshnerg(-atsign-)missouri.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Health communication (Health Commun), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jul; vol 24 (issue 5) : pp 447-58

Dates: Created 2009/08/06; Completed 2009/11/02;

PMID: 19657827, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/2/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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