TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2012//
TI  - Reactions to threatening health messages
JO  - BMC public health
A1  - Ten Hoor, Gill A.
A1  - Peters, Gjalt-Jorn Y.
A1  - Kalagi, Janice
A1  - de Groot, Lianne
A1  - Grootjans, Karlijne
A1  - Huschens, Alexander
A1  - Köhninger, Constanze
A1  - Kölgen, Lizan
A1  - Pelssers, Isabelle
A1  - Schütt, Toby
A1  - Thomas, Sophia
A1  - Ruiter, Robert A.
A1  - Kok, Gerjo
SP  - 1011
EP  - 1011
VL  - 12
IS  - 1
N2  - BACKGROUND: Threatening health messages that focus on severity are popular, but frequently have no effect or even a counterproductive effect on behavior change. This paradox (i.e. wide application despite low effectiveness) may be partly explained by the intuitive appeal of threatening communication: it may be hard to predict the defensive reactions occurring in response to fear appeals. We examine this hypothesis by using two studies by Brown and colleagues, which provide evidence that threatening health messages in the form of distressing imagery in anti-smoking and anti-alcohol campaigns cause defensive reactions. METHODS: We simulated both Brown et al. experiments, asking participants to estimate the reactions of the original study subjects to the threatening health information (n = 93). Afterwards, we presented the actual original study outcomes. One week later, we assessed whether this knowledge of the actual study outcomes helped participants to more successfully estimate the effectiveness of the threatening health information (n = 72). RESULTS: Results showed that participants were initially convinced of the effectiveness of threatening health messages and were unable to anticipate the defensive reactions that in fact occurred. Furthermore, these estimates did not improve after participants had been explained the dynamics of threatening communication as well as what the effects of the threatening communication had been in reality. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the effectiveness of threatening health messages is intuitively appealing. What is more, providing empirical evidence against the use of threatening health messages has very little effect on this intuitive appeal.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1471-2458
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-1011
ID  - ref1
ER  -