Processing Messages About Disease Detection and Health Promotion Behaviors: The Effects of Anxiety

Abstract

A study was conducted to examine the effects of anxiety on the processing of messages that encourage the performance of disease detection and health promotion behaviors. It was hypothesized that under high-anxiety conditions messages about health promotion behaviors would be processed more than messages about disease detection behaviors and that this effect would reverse under lower levels of anxiety. To test this hypothesis, the participants were required to read information designed either to increase or to decrease anxiety about health. Following the anxiety manipulation, participants received a strong or weak message promoting the performance of either health promotion or disease detection behaviors. Then participants were required to indicate their attitudes about the behavior, their cognitive responses to the message, and their recall of the message. The results support the hypothesis.