Fear appeal messages affect accessibility of attitudes toward the threat and adaptive behaviors

Abstract

Fear appeals have long been used in persuasive messages to motivate people to perform adaptive behaviors. This research explored the influence of a fear appeal message concerning breast cancer on attitude accessibility. Messages advocating the efficacy of breast self‐examinations increased the accessibility of attitudes toward the adaptive behavior. Further, the accessibility of participants' attitudes toward the adaptive behavior predicted behavioral intentions to perform breast self‐examinations. Attitudes toward the threat became less accessible after exposure to a high fear‐arousing message, however. Analyses suggest that defensive reactions to the fear‐inducing message mediate the influence of the message on the accessibility of the attitudes toward breast cancer. Implications of these findings for models of fear appeals are discussed.

Keywords:

• Fear Appeals
• Attitude Accessibility
• Attitude–Behaviour Relationship
• Defense Processing

Notes

David R. Roskos‐Ewoldsen (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1990) is the Reese Phifer Professor of Communication Studies and Professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama. H. Jessy Yu (Ph.D., University of Alabama, 1997) is at the Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan. Nancy Rhodes (Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 1991) is a Research Scientist with the Institute for Communication Research at the University of Alabama. Correspondence to: David Roskos‐Ewoldsen, University of Alabama, Box 870172, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487‐0172, USA; Email: [email protected]

Cognitive models other than network models can explain attitude accessibility. For example, connectionist models can account for the findings of research on attitude accessibility (Franks, Roskos‐Ewoldsen, Bilbrey, & Roskos‐Ewoldsen, 1999).

Two studies have recently found that fear appeals did not increase elaborative message processing (Dillard, Plotnick, Godbold, Freimuth, & Edgar, 1996; Hale, Lemieux, & Mongeau, 1995). Nevertheless, these studies are not inconsistent with the hypothesis. Hale et al. (1995) only manipulated the noxiousness of the threat. Efficacy and susceptibility were not manipulated. Other studies that found that fear appeal messages increased elaborative processing manipulated susceptibility to the threat which is manipulated in this experiment. No studies that have explored the influence of efficacy appeals on elaborative message processing. Dillard et al. (1996) found that elaborative processing of fear appeals did not influence judgments of the persuasability of the message. Consequently, it is difficult to ascertain whether the fear appeal messages used in that study (AIDS public service announcements) influenced attitude change or behavioral intentions.

Copies of the messages can be obtained from the first author.

Nine participants expressed negative attitudes toward breast self‐exams on both the paper‐and‐pencil measure of attitudes and in the response time task. The data were reanalyzed without these participants and the pattern of results did not change.

One participant expressed a positive attitude toward breast cancer on both the paper‐and‐pencil measure of attitudes and in the response time task. The data were reanalyzed without this participant and the pattern of results did not change.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David R. Roskos‐Ewoldsen

David R. Roskos‐Ewoldsen (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1990) is the Reese Phifer Professor of Communication Studies and Professor of Psychology at the University of Alabama. H. Jessy Yu (Ph.D., University of Alabama, 1997) is at the Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan. Nancy Rhodes (Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 1991) is a Research Scientist with the Institute for Communication Research at the University of Alabama. Correspondence to: David Roskos‐Ewoldsen, University of Alabama, Box 870172, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487‐0172, USA; Email: [email protected]