2020 Jul;39(5):376-379. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2020.1745481. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. Still, the CFM introduces the notion that the emotion of fear influences how carefully persuasive messages are processed, which in turn has implications for the direction and endurance of persuasive effect. Effects of persuasive communication and group discussions on acceptability of anti-speeding policies for male and female drivers. Understanding Brain Circuits of Fear, Stress, and Anxiety, A message addressing the harmfulness of driving while drunk may have no effect on those who do not drive or drink, Breast cancer messages are typically directed toward women who have a larger personal risk of bodily harm than men (although men may be impacted by their concern for female loved ones), Public service announcements on the lethal dangers of young people going to college without having received a meningitis vaccination, Billboards indicating the harmfulness of sexually transmitted diseases and promoting safe, Videos of terrible accidents due to texting while driving. Once a moderate amount of fear is conveyed, there is no further benefit in adding more fear. However, despite anecdotal evidence that physicians communication may trigger fear in patients for the purpose of motivating behavior change or compliance, the intentional use of fear-based messages in the clinical context has not received attention in the academic literature. and transmitted securely. explains the conditions under which fear appeals are likely to succeed. For example. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! Such curvilinear patterns likely result from minimal fear in response to the beginning of a message, stronger fear when an individual sees the threat component of the message, and resolving fear after seeing the efficacy component. However, the resources listed below are helpful places to start exploring these topics as they are addressed in the academic literature. Given that persuasion research during this era was heavily influenced by motivational perspectives, it is not surprising that fear was conceptualized as an unpleasant, drive-like state, one that audiences were motivated to reduce. Indeed, Nabi and Prestin (2016) conducted experimental research to examine the influence of the structure of news stories that incorporated fear. The fear-arousal appeal. Further, current understanding of the role of individual differences as well as fears impact in contexts beyond direct persuasive messages, like news, entertainment, patient-provider dynamics, and social media, is likewise limited. Despite accumulating evidence that fear appeals could be persuasive, the field remained without a good explanation for the mechanisms of these message effects. As such, the emotional flow perspective suggests that the emotional shift from fear to hope may help to explain the conditions under which fear appeals are more likely to be effective. Horror movies use sound to frighten audiences. Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies For example, Nabi (1999) proposed the cognitive-functional model (CFM) to advance the literature on negative emotional appeals generally, including specific predictions regarding the role of fear in mediated persuasion. Indeed, though meta-analyses support a linear relationship between fear arousal and persuasive outcomes, recent methodologies suggest that shifts in experienced fear across a fear appeal, an inverted-U pattern of fear responses specifically, may also be a valid predictor of the persuasiveness of a fear appeal (Meczkowski, Dillard, & Shen, 2016). HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help Psychiatry for Better World: COVID-19 and Blame Games People Play from Public and Global Metal Health Perspective. Whereas some . A researcher searching for literature on fear, fear appeals, or the role of fear in message outcomes will likely find an astounding number books, journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and even essays to examine. Changes in Mental Health, Emotional Distress, and Substance Use Affecting Women Experiencing Violence and Their Service Providers during COVID-19 in a U.S. Southern State. SSM Popul Health. Additionally, Tannenbaum et al. 2022 Nov 22;10:991292. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.991292. Under this model, any behavior that effectively alleviates fear will then become automatically associated with relief from the aversive state, and that behavior will become a habitual response to threatening stimuli. Beginning with the very young, testing the influence of fear-based messages on children is a difficult area of empirical inquiry given the ethical implications of potential psychological trauma. Indeed, the Tannenbaum et al. Importantly, Witte and Allen (2000) did not find support for the EPPMs predicted threat by efficacy interaction. Symbols such as dying people, coffins, gravestones or skulls may be used. In such situations, they might also criticize the nature of the message and then use self-justification for not modifying their attitudes and behavior; especially, if they discuss the fear appeals with others (Goldenbeld, Twisk, & Houwing, 2007). Specifically, the CFM predicts that an individual experiencing message-relevant fear who is also uncertain as to whether the rest of the message will contain reassuring information (i.e., it may help alleviate fear, but full exposure is necessary to know for sure) would be most likely to carefully process the message. We contend that unintended negative outcomes can result from fear appeals that intensify the already complex pandemic and efforts to contain it. They can also sometimes be found through online scholarly search engines, such as Google Scholar, PubMed, or the American Psychological Associations PsycNET website. You could not be signed in, please check and try again. This relationship could indicate that individuals who are already in an anxious state of mind when presented with a fear appeal may be more accepting of the message than those who come to a message with less anxiety. Get the help you need from a therapist near youa FREE service from Psychology Today. We will refer to this as depicted fear to Epub 2020 Mar 26. Further, additional perspectives, like the cognitive functional model, ask how messages that evoke emotions other than fear might influence persuasive outcome, with growing attention to the role of specific emotions, such as guilt, anger, and hope. Paul Mongeau also addresses the history and current state of the fear appeal literature in his chapter of the second edition of The Sage Handbook of Persuasion: Developments in Theory and Practice. Further, there is evidence that campaigns targeting adolescents risky health behaviors are at high risk for failure due to the likelihood of reactance, or resistance to having behavioral choices controlled by others. The protection motivation theory is an attitude-based model. doi: 10.4045/tidsskr.20.0346. Research has continued to rely heavily on the EPPM, and a special issue of the journal Health Communication in 2013 highlighted the contributions of this model to research over the past two decades. Insincere behavior may be saying or doing what an individual believes others want to hear or to gain favor to reap future rewards. Thus, it may be that blunters may respond better to shorter, more direct fear appeals whereas monitors may be more willing to engage with longer or more detailed fear-inducing messages. However, trait anxiety has been linked to other outcomes of fear appeals. Rather, the research on provider communication has focused on how the use of empathic communication by physicians may help reduce existing anxiety in their patients. More important, said Albarracin, there was no evidence in the meta-analysis that fear appeals backfired to produce a worse outcome relative to a control group. eCollection 2023 Mar. If a person focuses on managing the threat they perceive in the environment, Leventhal argues that danger-control processes are engaged to manage the threat. With a smaller set of studies (between 17 and 33), the authors also analyzed the relationship between fear appeal manipulations in the message content and cognitions. Bookshelf Given that fear appeals are designed to evoke powerful emotional responses, it is reasonable to surmise that such messages may be the source of social sharing, both through interpersonal discussion and social media posting or commenting. FOIA There has been sporadic attention in the literature to the individual differences that may determine the types of audiences who will be more or less persuaded by a fear appeal. Although the lions share of research on the persuasive influence of fear focuses on persuasive advertisements, other media messages may be considered as possible conduits of influence via fear arousal. Fear produces a significant though small amount of change across the board. Despite the wealth of research on the effects of fear-based messages, numerous limitations have been pointed out in the existing literature. (2015, October 22). The site is secure. Though conceptually appealing, the PPM did not specify when individuals were more likely to rely on fear-control or danger-control processes. There is some difference in opinion as to whether fear appeals are productive or counterproductive. A fear appeal, in health promotion, is when health promoters, trying to inspire change in behavior from high risk to lowered risk, place emphasis of a health message on the use of gruesome fear content or try to arouse fear responses in the audience (Witte, 1992). Although these meta-analyses seem to converge on a small but significant relationship between fear and persuasion-related outcomes, the mechanisms of fear appeal effects are still not entirely clear. Fear can be such a powerful tool that campaigns have been developed focusing on fear appeals. Fear appeals are messages that try to persuade people about the potential harm that may happen to them if they do not accept the messages recommendations (Tannenbaum et al., 2015). I believe that most current approaches to anxiety fall short because they are predicated on the medical model, which views anxiety as an illness. At a methodological level, many studies of fear appeals fail to measure the emotion of fear itself as an outcome, instead analyzing only threat and efficacy cognitions. Print 2020 Jun 30. Two decades later, Howard Leventhals work provides helpful summaries of those who came before as well as his own conceptualization of the parallel process model. The results replicated previous meta-analyses, demonstrating a significant positive relationship between fear appeal manipulations and attitudes, intentions, and behaviors (average weighted d = .29). The social scientific study of fear in persuasive messages traces back to Carl Hovlands research program in the 1950s, which incorporated the persuasive influence of fear among other questions of attitude change and message design. In addition, understanding how fear-based messages fit within the general context of other emotion-based messagesor how fear works with other emotions within the same messageis somewhat uncharted territory. For example, the core relational theme of fear is imminent threat. However, if a person focuses on controlling the emotion of fear, fear control processes are engaged, which ultimately result in maladaptive outcomes, such as avoidance, denial, and reactance. While these types of messages are commonly used in political, public health and commercial advertising campaigns (e.g., smoking will kill you, Candidate A will destroy the economy), their use is controversial as academics continue to debate their effectiveness. Although not specifically documented, the pervasiveness and endurance of cautionary tales in childrens literature suggest that such narratives are believed to be influential; and in light of the growing evidence of the persuasive influence of narratives on adults (Green, 2006; Green & Brock, 2000), there is reason to believe such stories do, indeed, have the desired influence on children. Some individuals, known as monitors, tend to experience more anxiety and prefer more, rather than less, information about health threats; whereas blunters instead avoid information related to threats. Witte and Allen (2000), in their meta-analysis, did not find a significant relationship between trait anxiety and post-message attitudes, intentions, or behaviors. The term fear is reserved for referencing the emotion experienced by audiences in response to fear appeal messages. Fear appeals are often used in public health service announcements and health behavior change campaigns. "These appeals are effective at changing attitudes, intentions and behaviors. Int J Environ Res Public Health. The EPPM represented a merger of the PPM and the PMT, but it also recognized the importance of the emotion of fear itself in understanding message effects. Moreover, Richard Lazaruss discussion of fear in his 1991 book Emotion and Adaptation offers a useful overview of the emotion from the perspective of cognitive appraisal theory and social psychology more generally. Although it is applied more in the context of news than persuasion, the EFM has the potential to assist in understanding how fear-based messages might generate persuasive influence by emphasizing how emotion-relevant information is more likely to be attended to later in the message and how post-message behaviors are likely to be consistent with emotional motivations. Generally, the findings reveal that fear appeals do work; however, more specific results were also discovered (Tannenbaum et al, 2015). Therefore, they can be quite useful to practitioners. Simply frightening people without giving them an effective way to avoid or deal with the situation is not a very influential means for behavioral motivation. When people are aware of a threat, the aversive state of fear quickly follows. However, far more research is needed to confirm this finding and to explore other ways in which monitoring and blunting, and indeed other individual differences, suggest implications for fear-based messaging. public health messages that emphasise the consequences of failing to engage in a particular health behaviour) have two components (1) perceived threat and (2) perceived efficacy. Longitudinal work on fear appeal exposure and responses, as well as research on the influence of more prevalent use of fear appeals versus other message strategies, could help confirm or dismiss these possibilities. National Library of Medicine The .gov means its official. Socioemotional selectivity theory argues that the elderly and the terminally ill are more likely to pay attention to positive information than to negative information (Carstensen, Fung, & Charles, 2003). A fear appeal is a persuasive message that attempts to arouse fear in order to divert behavior through the threat of impending danger or harm. A fear appeal, then, can be defined as a message that intends to evoke fear in audiences by demonstrating the existence of a threat and then detailing ways to avoid that threat (Witte, 1994). In essence, different types of audiences with different predispositions are likely to respond differently to fear appeals. The authors note that scientific studies of fear-based campaigns around the world draw mixed conclusions: some reject the approach; others conclude that "the stronger the fear appeal the better." 180 on Fear. (2015) calculated an average weighted effect size comparing groups exposed to moderate fear versus those exposed to high depicted fear. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. Still, meta-analyses across a range of fear- appeal studies have helped clarify the direction and magnitude of fears influence on persuasive outcomes and associated cognitions. Two years later, in their meta-analysis of 98 studies, Witte and Allen (2000) likewise found a moderately positive relationship between fear appeals and experienced fear (r = .30). Keywords: Fear appeals, risk, health communication, meta-analysis Fear appeals are persuasive messages that attempt to arouse fear by emphasizing the potential danger and harm that will befall individuals if they do not adopt the messages' recommendations (Dillard, 1996; Maddux & Rogers, 1983). Nat Med. Some recent studies have examined the structure of health news in ways that speak to the link between emotional arousal, most notably fear, and persuasive outcomes. Care, however, should be taken not to stigmatize or exhibit bias regarding the audience; doing so could possibly backfire. Online ahead of print. In order to fully support or reject tenets the original EPPM, additional research is needed. There are multiple explanations for this need to share, including the need to verbalize experiences to help make sense of them, to help validate the self or confirm that people are still themselves despite this event, and to allow groups to develop collective social knowledge of emotional experiences. a mask. However, the participants in this high-fear condition were actually less likely than those who saw milder images about tooth decay to improve their brushing and flossing habits in a post-test one week after exposure to the initial fear appeal. However, fear appeals should be used cautiously, since they may backfire if target audiences do not believe they are able to effectively avert a threat [ 21] p. 605. More recently, scholars have adopted a more nuanced approach, noting that messages that include both threat components and efficacy components, and thus are well-categorized as fear appeals, can evoke other emotions in addition to fear and that these other emotions have unique influence on persuasive outcomes. There are very few circumstances under which they are not effective and there are no identifiable circumstances under which they backfire and lead to undesirable outcomes, said Dolores Albarracin, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an author of the study, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin. Effects are most apparent in women and for one-time behaviors, says study. Would you like email updates of new search results? For example, fear appeals begin with threat information followed by efficacy information. Recent research, however, is beginning to more carefully consider how the emotions associated with health messages promote information-sharing behaviors. PMC A student interested in the historical roots of fear appeal theorizing could start with seminal pieces from Carl Hovlands Yale research group, including the 1953 book by Hovland, Janis, and Kelly titled Communication and Persuasion: Psychological Studies of Opinion Change, as well as later journal articles reporting empirical data related to fear appeals. APA's membership includes more than 122,500 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. bridgerton fanfiction daphne sick, what does purple hair mean on a woman,
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