The Social Status of Health Message Endorsers Influences the Health Intentions of the Powerless

Abstract

Message endorsers are often used to encourage at-risk populations to adopt health-related behaviors. This study examined how the social status of message endorsers and message recipients' state of power combined to influence recipients' health intentions. Individuals in low (versus high) states of power had greater intentions to enact health behaviors when those behaviors were endorsed by a high social status spokesperson. This effect was found when power was measured (Study 1) and manipulated (Studies 2 and 3), and when the behavior was endorsed by professionals from health (Studies 1 and 3) and nonhealth (Study 2) backgrounds.

NOTE

Notes

1. Power is typically conceptualized as both a situational state and a chronic, dispositional trait (Anderson and Galinsky 2006; Dubois, Rucker, and Galinsky 2012; McClelland 1975; Rucker, Galinsky, and Dubois 2012; Winter 1973).