A Psychophysiological Study of Processing HIV/AIDS Public Service Announcements: The Effects of Novelty Appeals, Sexual Appeals, Narrative Versus Statistical Evidence, and Viewer’s Sex

ABSTRACT

This study used self-reports and physiological measures—heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL)—to examine the effects of novelty appeals, sexual appeals, narrative versus statistical evidence, and viewer’s sex on cognitive and emotional processing of HIV/AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) among heterosexually active single college students. Novelty or sexual appeals differently affected self-reported attention and cognitive effort as measured by HR. High- rather than low-novelty HIV/AIDS PSAs, perceived as more attention-eliciting, did not lead to more cognitive effort. High- rather than low-sex HIV/AIDS PSAs, not perceived as more attention-eliciting, led to more cognitive effort as reflected by greater HR deceleration. Novelty or sexual appeals also affected self-reported emotional arousal and SCL differently. HIV/AIDS PSAs with high rather than low levels of novelty or sexual appeals led to greater self-reported arousal, but not greater SCL. Message evidence interacted with message appeals to affect cognitive effort. Participants exerted greater cognitive effort during high- rather than low-novelty narrative HIV/AIDS PSAs, and during low- rather than high-novelty statistical ones. The advantage of high over low sexual appeals was more obvious in statistical than in narrative HIV/AIDS PSAs. Males reported greater emotional arousal than females during high- rather than low-sex HIV/AIDS PSAs.

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the New York Institute of Technology.

Notes

¹ Descriptions of stimuli PSAs are available from the corresponding author upon request.

² Self-reported attention was initially measured by five statements adapted from previous studies. Reliability for the five statements was low (α = .59), but exclusion of the statement “After finishing the video, I found it easy to put it out of my mind” increased reliability to an acceptable level (α = .88).

³ Emotional arousal was initially measured by two statements: “The video affected me emotionally” and “I felt excited while watching the video.” As reliability for the two statements was not desirable (α = .65), the self-reported arousal was assessed by ratings on one statement, “I felt excited while watching the video.”

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant from the New York Institute of Technology.