Effects of Responsibility Attribution and Message Source on Young Adults' Health Attitudes and Behaviors

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of message attributes on responses to health messages. The authors examined 3 variables--responsibility attribution (individual vs. social), source (personal blog vs. online magazine), and illness (stigmatized vs. nonstigmatized)--for effects on young adults' health-related attitudes and behaviors. Responsibility attributions influenced attitudes about individual responsibility for health but did not alter participants' behavioral intentions. Further, individuals exposed to a story from a health magazine exhibited stronger intentions to communicate about health than individuals exposed to a personal health blog. Although women's attitudes regarding social responsibility for health did not differ by illness type or responsibility attribution, men's attitudes did.

You Brought it on Yourself: The Joint Effects of Message Type, Stigma, and Responsibility Attribution on Attitudes Toward Medical Cannabis

“…As such, the medical cannabis literature echoes findings from previous studies that have found stigma to be associated with specific health conditions. Individuals suffering from a stigmatized health condition may be perceived as less intelligent, less deserving of sympathy, and less credible than people with nonstigmatized health conditions (Boiarsky, Rouner, & Long, ). Specifically, people living with HIV/AIDS suffer from a high level of stigmatization (Herek, Capitanio, & Widaman, ).…”

Factors Affecting the “Locus of Responsibility” in Cancer News: Focusing on the Role of Health Journalists’ Medical Expertise in South Korea

“…Malle (2004) reported that framings around specific incidents and individuals were more likely to result in audiences’ perceptions of attributions of responsibilities focusing on the characteristics of individuals. Boiarsky et al (2013) found that personal LOR stories significantly increased the public’s perception that individuals are responsible for given issues, whereas social LOR stories do not have the same effect. Major (2009) reported that thematic stories about lung cancer and obesity increased individuals’ attribution of social responsibility.…”

“…This trend is particularly manifest in the case of various health issues, including cancer. Even if the existing research has not yet fully clarified the ways news media contents influence audiences' attribution of responsibility (Boiarsky, Rouner, & Long, 2013;Major, 2009), it is nonetheless evident that news media play a critical role in shaping public perceptions and opinions of who is responsible for causing or solving social problems (Iyengar & Kinder, 1987;Semetko & Valkenburg, 2000). Most previous studies have found more news stories emphasizing personal-level responsibility than society-level responsibility for various health issues, including cancer (S. H. Kim & Willis, 2007;Seale, 2002;Wright, Sparks, & O'Hair, 2008).…”

An Online Experiment Evaluating the Effects of Social Endorsement Cues, Message Source, and Responsibility Attribution on Young Adults’ COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions

“…Second, researchers have examined young adults’ responses to different types of responsibility attribution in health messages, but they generated mixed results. For example, Boiarsky et al (2013) found that individual-responsibility messages generated a slightly greater effect on young adults than social-responsibility messages. Vorpahl and Yang (2018), however, found that attributing the causes of HPV transmission to “others” resulted in stronger persuasive outcomes than those emphasizing the responsibilities of “self.” More research is needed to explore the effects of responsibility attribution on this social group regarding COVID-19 vaccination.…”