Engaging Audience on Social Media: The Persuasive Impact of Fit Between Humor and Regulatory Focus in Health Messages

ABSTRACT

Drawing upon construal level theory and regulatory fit literature, this research examined the effect of fit between humor and regulatory focus on audience engagement with health information on social media. The results of two studies showed that incongruity humor (vs. aggressive humor) induced greater social proximity between the source and the viewer, and humor type interacted with regulatory focus of a message to impact audience engagement. Specifically, incongruity humor paired with a prevention-focused message (vs. a promotion-focused message) resulted in greater content endorsement and health information engagement, whereas aggressive humor combined with a promotion-focused message (vs. a prevention-focused message) led to greater content endorsement. Results further identified processing fluency as a mediator of the fit effect on audience engagement. This research offers important theoretical and practical implications for public health interventions on social media.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Three-way ANCOVA analyses including the control condition were also conducted and results are available on the OSF: https://bit.ly/3MNtCPS.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.