Visit one of the web links below and review the health promotion 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). In his parallel process model (PPM), Leventhal argues that one of two responses to a fear appeal is likely. We contend that unintended negative outcomes can result from fear appeals that intensify the already complex pandemic and efforts to contain it. It presents a risk, presents the vulnerability to the risk, and then may, or may not suggest a form of protective action. a persuasive message that is designed to alter attitudes by producing fear in the recipient. Despite the wealth of research on the effects of fear-based messages, numerous limitations have been pointed out in the existing literature. Key elements: statement with values and philosophy related to the problem, description of target population to be served, specific services/intervention to be used and why, statement of desired public image Goal -Long-term direction for the program, overall intent or desired outcomes, written in general terms (no specifics) The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the 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. Given personality traits influence perceptions of events, and given emotions are based on such perceptions, personality traits could influence whether or not a fear appeal is likely to evoke fear, to what degree, and toward what end. Thus, it is reasonable to imagine that fear-evoking narrativeswhether in the media or told by parentsare effective vehicles for persuading children, perhaps even more so than didactic fear-based messages. However, this approach offers a limited understanding of the experience of fear throughout message exposure. Still, there is no data indicating that audiences will be worse off from receiving fear appeals in any condition.. The following study examines social facilitation of eating cues in anti-obesity fear appeals to determine . Maddux and Rogers (1983) argued that individuals who were high in both threat and efficacy perceptions would be motivated to protect themselves from the threat at hand and therefore the most likely to engage in adaptive, danger-control behaviors. Researchers now believe anxiety disorders and PTSD are whole brain conditions. The message is conveyed clearly that if students want to achieve their goals (e.g., getting a good job; gaining entry into college, or graduate/medical/law school), they cannot risk poor or sometimes even average grades. Further, current understanding of the role of individual differences as well as fears impact in contexts beyond direct persuasive messages, like news, entertainment, patient-provider dynamics, and social media, is likewise limited. Monitors, however, responded to both message types similarly. If the linear fear-persuasion hypothesis supported by the Mongeau (1998) and Witte and Allen (2000) meta-analyses, were the superior model of fear appeal effects, this value would be positive and significant. They can also sometimes be found through online scholarly search engines, such as Google Scholar, PubMed, or the American Psychological Associations PsycNET website. They also found that efficacy responses were included in 56% of the stories, but of these, only 23% made statements speaking to the effectiveness of such actions. A researcher searching for literature on fear, fear appeals, or the role of fear in message outcomes will likely find an astounding number books, journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and even essays to examine. 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 . Such curvilinear patterns likely result from minimal fear in response to the beginning of a message, stronger fear when an individual sees the threat component of the message, and resolving fear after seeing the efficacy component. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0039729. 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). 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). As the field of psychology shifted to emphasize cognition over motivation through the 1960s into the 1970s, the study of fear appeals followed suit, with the theories developed during this timeframe highlighting the cognitions associated with the experience of fear, as well as the link between those cognitions and attitude change. After decades of research, it is clear that fear can indeed motivate positive health behaviors and that exposure to information about threat susceptibility, severity, response efficacy, and self-efficacy is key to this process. Further, blunters were significantly more likely to actually obtain a mammogram in response to the more direct messages. Thus, the model proved unhelpful for both predicting responses to fear appeals as well as to fear appeal message design. The EFM then predicts that once an emotion is experienced, emotion-consistent information will be made accessible from memory. As OKeefe (2003) argues, it is important to differentiate between message features and message effects, and if researchers are to gain a deeper understanding of the mechanisms behind fear appeal effects and the specific role that the emotion of fear plays in this process, they need to clearly distinguish not only message features from their psychological effects but also emotional responses from cognitive ones. Given that fear-based messages, which may be perceived as a more manipulative message style, carry a higher likelihood of defensive processing and reactance, fear appeals may be a risky message strategy to use for this age group. The study of fear-based messages has a long and robust history. However, a moderate amount of fear could be just enough to motivate more adaptive actions to neutralize the threat. Fear, information and control during a pandemic. The emotional flow perspective suggests that the threat information results in fear arousal, and the efficacy information is associated with feelings of hope. As such, each theory or model does not always present a direct response to its immediate predecessor. More important, said Albarracin, there was no evidence in the meta-analysis that fear appeals backfired to produce a worse outcome relative to a control group. There are many messages that convey important information about potential harm; however, if the message is to have any effect, it should address issues that instill critical amounts of fear and be targeted to those who are the most susceptible to the risk. This may be because, unlike with public service announcements, audiences do not expect news stories to highlight a significant problem and then offer a clear and effective solution. PLoS One. Research has continued to rely heavily on the EPPM, and a special issue of the journal Health Communication in 2013 highlighted the contributions of this model to research over the past two decades. Most crucially, and from a practical standpoint, the controlled laboratory settings and forced message exposure used in many fear appeal studies may not translate to real-world settings. How 'fear appeals' and disinformation may be manipulating the public on COVID Communication by public health officials during a pandemic may involve an organized strategy that includes some. 2020 Oct;111:37-38. doi: 10.1016/j.pediatrneurol.2020.06.015. There can be feelings of disgust, anger, anxiety, or guilt. Nat Med. 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). Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 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. Several theories have aimed to describe the effects of fear-based appeals on audiences, focusing largely on the cognitive correlates of fear (i.e., severity and susceptibility) and their subsequent impacts on persuasive outcomes. There are many messages that convey important information about potential harm; however, if the . Thus, highlighting both actual risk of health-threatening behavior, especially occasional ones, to enhance perceived severity, as well as boosting self-efficacy to protect oneself from harm, may be particularly important message goals to match the psychological profile of adolescents. Motivated attention refers to the degree of approach or avoidance response to the message based on the receivers initial emotional response; motivated processing refers to how motivated the message receiver is to process the message carefully; and message expectations pertain to the audiences degree of certainty that the message will offer reassurance or not. 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. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives. Moreover, it might be best directed toward individuals who are known and for whom the recommendations apply appropriately, rather than an ambiguous population. 2022 Nov 22;10:991292. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.991292. This paper provides an insight into the use of fear appeals to communicate a public health message. Generally, the findings reveal that fear appeals do work; however, more specific results were also discovered (Tannenbaum et al, 2015). doi: 10.4045/tidsskr.20.0346. "These appeals are effective at changing attitudes, intentions and behaviors. Further, many of the 12 propositions originally articulated within the EPPM have not been consistently tested. Hope this helps They found positive relationships with severity (r = .44), susceptibility (r = .30), response efficacy (r = .36), and self-efficacy (r = .36). Insincere behavior may be saying or doing what an individual believes others want to hear or to gain favor to reap future rewards. Thus, despite the sustained attention that fear-based messages have received in the past, many questions still remain for future research to address. The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). If the threat appraisals are more dominant than the efficacy appraisals, individuals will seek to diminish their aroused fear through maladaptive behaviors, such as denigrating the message source or rationalizing their unhealthy behaviors. Shoba Sreenivasan, Ph.D., and Linda E. Weinberger, Ph.D., are psychology professors at the Keck School of Medicine at USC. Socioemotional selectivity theory argues that the elderly and the terminally ill are more likely to pay attention to positive information than to negative information (Carstensen, Fung, & Charles, 2003). There are very few circumstances under which they are not effective and there are no identifiable circumstances under which they backfire and lead to undesirable outcomes, said Dolores Albarracin, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an author of the study, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin. 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. Fear appeals have three major components: the message, the audience, and the recommended behavior. As this study suggests, more nuanced methodological approaches are needed to better understand how individuals experience fear appeals over the course of message exposure. (2015) calculated an average weighted effect size comparing groups exposed to moderate fear versus those exposed to high depicted fear. Currently, scholars are considering how emotions in addition to fear influence the effect of fear appeals (e.g., emotional flow) and possible moderators of fear appeal effects. While meta-analyses support the claim that on the aggregate, fear-based messages are persuasive, researchers are still working to explain why fear appeals work and for whom they work best and under what conditions. Which can you control and which can you not? In addition, understanding how fear-based messages fit within the general context of other emotion-based messagesor how fear works with other emotions within the same messageis somewhat uncharted territory. Fifteen years later, Tannenbaum, Hepler, Zimmerman, Saul, Jacobs, Wilson et al. Fear appeals obviously aren't limited to comets. When people are aware of a threat, the aversive state of fear quickly follows. Men have long been silent and stoic about their inner lives, but theres every reason for them to open up emotionallyand their partners are helping. Fear and Understanding in the Time of COVID-19. Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of fear appeal effectiveness and theories. In such situations, they might also criticize the nature of the message and then use self-justification for not modifying their attitudes and behavior; especially, if they discuss the fear appeals with others (Goldenbeld, Twisk, & Houwing, 2007). However, the resources listed below are helpful places to start exploring these topics as they are addressed in the academic literature. Indeed, in a systematic review of the EPPM literature, Popova (2012) found that two of Wittes (1992) propositions, (a) when perceived efficacy is at a moderate level, perceived threat will have an inverted-U-shaped effect on message acceptance, and (b) when perceived efficacy is at a high level, there is a reciprocal relationship between perceived threat and fear, have yet to be empirically tested. The use of fear in public health campaigns has been controversial for decades. It is very important not to lose sight of this, she said. Fear, in turn, motivates protective behavior and a strong desire to escape the threat. One trait variable that has been studied for its contribution to fear arousal is trait anxiety, or the dispositional tendency toward experiencing anxiety and worry across situations. 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. There is some difference in opinion as to whether fear appeals are productive or counterproductive. Health persuasion through emoji: How emoji interacted with information source to predict health behaviors in COVID-19 situation. Given that fear appeals are designed to evoke powerful emotional responses, it is reasonable to surmise that such messages may be the source of social sharing, both through interpersonal discussion and social media posting or commenting. In discussions of fear appeals and fear appeal effects, it is important to draw the distinction between a message componentsomething inherent to the messagethat may result in a fear response, and the experience of fear itself by the message receiver. As such, message components of fear appeals include threat and efficacy. Y ou probably still remember public service ads that scared you: The cigarette smoker with throat cancer. Goldenbeld, C., Twisk, D., & Houwing, S. (2008). Rather, the research on provider communication has focused on how the use of empathic communication by physicians may help reduce existing anxiety in their patients. 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. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help and transmitted securely. If fear is used to motivate attitudinal and behavioral change, it should be used judiciously. In place of focusing solely on the persuasive effects of fear, theorizing since the 1990s has shifted to understanding the role of other emotionswhether evoked by messages designed to produce fear or designed to simply be emotionalon persuasive outcomes. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 11, 207-220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2007.11.001, Ruiter, R. A., Kessels, L. T, E., Peters, G. Y., & Kok, G. (2014). The practice of fear appeals has its warranted critics; especially, if applied unethically. official website and that any information you provide is encrypted Communication, collaboration and cooperation can stop the 2019 coronavirus. A second more general approach to considering the influence of discrete emotions, including fear, on persuasive outcome is the emotions-as-frames perspective, which argues that an audience members emotional state provides a lens through which individuals pay attention to and process message information (Nabi, 2003). Arne hmans chapter on fear and anxiety in the third edition of the Handbook of Emotions provides a helpful overview of the biological and psychological underpinnings of the study of fear and its influence on cognition and behavior. explains the conditions under which fear appeals are likely to succeed. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. Fear produces a significant though small amount of change across the board. Since the 1950s, researchers have addressed strategic fear appeal effects, continually refining answers to the questions of when, why, and for whom they are persuasive. For example. How can peoples attitudes and behavior be changed? Fear alone does not change behavior. American Psychological Association. Most directly relevant, Goodall, Sabo, Cline, and Egbert (2012) conducted a content analysis of print and electronic news coverage of the H1N1 virus from a fear appeal perspective, looking for the appearance of threat and efficacy information within the news coverage. Finally, given the expectation that emotional experience directs information processing and information accessibility, the EFM predicts that decision-making and action will be heavily influenced by these emotion-driven processes. National Library of Medicine Preparing for your first therapy session beforehand can help manage anxiety. Their results indicated that most stories (86%) referenced threat and of these, 94% did so in the first third of the story. Many of us are reluctant to change our perceptions or habits, even though we know we would be happier and healthier. Exerting effort may be preferred to doing nothing at all. 2023 Feb 7;20(4):2896. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20042896. Jakovljevic M, Jakovljevic I, Bjedov S, Mustac F. Psychiatr Danub. 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. There is growing evidence in multiple media contexts, including health messages (e.g., Dunlop, Wakefield, & Kashima, 2010) that the emotionality of media messages, regardless of valence, is associated with their diffusing through social networks. Rooted in appraisal theories of emotions (e.g., Lazarus, 1991), the EFM argues that when a message contains information that is relevant to an emotions core relational theme, or the essential perception that underlies an emotional experience, that particular emotion is aroused. Although fear may predispose audiences to engage in defensive motivations, it also prompts consideration of efficacy potential. Additionally, researchers have investigated the effects of fear in other message contexts, from news media to user-generated digital content. Loners come in many varieties, some of them perectly healthy. Still, the CFM introduces the notion that the emotion of fear influences how carefully persuasive messages are processed, which in turn has implications for the direction and endurance of persuasive effect. Participants read news stories designed to evoke either fear or hope about the human papilloma virus (HPV) and with different levels of response efficacy information regarding the impending HPV vaccine. 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. For example, after viewing fear appeal messages on drinking and driving, some people who drink and drive may respond by claiming that their drinking does not affect their driving skills, and thus the message does not apply to them. The physical expression of fear not only represents the bodys readiness to protect itself, but it also serves a social function by warning others of nearby threats and alerting them that help may be needed.
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