Effects of Risk-Focused and Recommendation-Focused Mental Imagery on Occupational Risk Communication

Abstract

This study examined the impact of mental imagery instructions in a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) safety document conveying risk and safety information to farmers. A sample of 314 farmers recruited from a large Southeastern state fair was randomly assigned to conditions in a 2 × 2 design. Participants received a NIOSH safety document about skid steer loader safety in which 2 types of mental imagery instructions were manipulated: (a) risk-focused (imagery vs. control) and (b) recommendation-focused (imagery vs. control). Results indicate that risk-focused imagery influenced perceptions of susceptibility to workplace accidents, whereas recommendation-focused imagery influenced attitudes toward engaging in safety behaviors, intentions to share safety information with others, and perceptions of the safety message. Further analyses indicated that ease of imagery partially mediated the relationship between the imagery manipulations and these outcomes. Other potential mechanisms for these effects are discussed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Jennifer L. Welbourne was employed at the Health Communication Research Branch, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, located in Morgantown, WV, during the initiation of this project. Sybil Ott is currently employed with the United States Department of Justice.

The authors would like to thank Vickie Lewis, Melissa Yancheski, and Chris Hawkins for their assistance with data collection, and Kimberly Clough-Thomas for her contributions to the graphical design of the messages used in this project. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Notes

¹This may be a key dimension on which these two strategies differ, given that Burnkrant and Unnava (1989) suggest that the impact of self-referencing on persuasion is due to increased processing ability that stems from the associations made between retrieved memories and information in the advertisement.