Mental contrasting with implementation intentions as a technique for media-mediated persuasive health communication

ABSTRACT

Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII) is a self-regulation strategy that combines the strategies mental contrasting (MC) in which individualscontrast a desired future with the current reality with the strategy of forming implementation intentions (II), which involves making concrete if-then plans (implementation intentions, II) to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of the desired future. Numerous studies across behavioral domains have demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy in supporting people to adopt health-promoting behaviors or changing unhealthy behaviors. However, research on MCII has so far neglected the applicability of the concept in media-mediated persuasive health communication. This conceptual review aims to demonstrate and examine the potentials and effects of MCII as a technique to tailor media-mediated persuasive health messages and their dissemination through different media channels. In doing so, it draws on existing models of health behavior change, especially individuals’ threat and coping appraisals. Potential effects of MCII on these cognitive factors are discussed, and practical implications for health message design are outlined.

KEYWORDS:

• Persuasive health communication
• self-regulation
• goal achievement
• mental contrasting with implementation intentions
• health behavior change
• narrative health messages

Acknowledgement

We thank Prof. Dr. Marieke Adriaanse (Leiden University, Dept. of Health, Medical, and Neuropsychology) for her professional advice during the last revision of the manuscript. She contributed valuable suggestions that certainly added significant value to this work.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Desirability refers to an individual's cumulated beliefs about the pleasant quality of potential short-term and long-term outcomes resulting from attaining a set goal (Heckhausen, 1977). Consequently, a basic requirement for goal attainment is that it gets evaluated as desirable.

2 Cross and Sheffield (2019) stated that more empirical data are needed to determine if supplementing mental contrasting with implementation intentions substantially improves intervention effectiveness.

3 These aspects can include establishing a goal, elaborating on at least one obstacle, and pointing toward specific plans to overcome it.

Additional information

Funding

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