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9 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Background |
- Fear appeals are campaigns that try to invoke fear through showing the effect of the unhealthy behaviour - psychologist suggest we become desensitised, we feel it will happen to others and not use |
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Aim |
To investigate the consequences on emotions and behaviour of fear appeals in communication |
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Method/Design |
- Lab experiment - Participants shown fear arousing material - Data collected through questionnaires on emotional reactions and changes in dental practises |
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Approach |
Cognitive and Behavioural |
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Participants |
- 200 student in total, 50 in each group 1. high fear arousal 2. moderate fear arousal 3. minimal fear arousal 4. control |
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Procedure |
Group 1 - Pictures and descriptions of mouth disease, explanations of pain of gun disease and consequences like cancer Group 2 - Similar pictures and descriptions as group one, less disturbing and dramatic Group 3 - lecture about teeth cavities, but without referring to very serious consequences and using diagrams and x-rays Group 4 - lecture of same length but on the structure and functioning of the human eye Questionnaire given after lecture asking about emotional responses and follow up questionnaire about longer term effects of lecture one week later |
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Finding |
- Knowledge on dental hygiene did not differ between three groups, all lectures successfully taught the material - Strong fear appeal seen in more positive light, but more disliked - Strong fear appeal showed a new increase in conformity to dental hygiene of 8% - Moderate = 22% - Minimal = 36% - Control = 0% |
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Conclusion |
- Strong fear appeal created the most worry and was rated more interesting
- Overall effectiveness of a health promotion campaign is likely to be reduced by strong fear appeal - Fear appeals can be helpful in changing behaviours, but it is important that the level of fear is tailored to each audience |
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Evaluation |
+ Validity - IV was well defined and manipulated and therefore we can argue that the study was high in validity + Useful for increasing health behaviours in individuals, fear arousal may not be the msot effective way of promoting healthy living - Ethnocentrism - first year students only, difficult to generalise to wider populations - Reductionism - experiment has not considered the wider causes for the adoption of health behaviours - Generalisability - low because we cannot easily generalise the results to other fear appeals from example smoking. |
