Fear-Arousing Persuasive Messages

Boster, Franklin J.; Mongeau, Paul A.

doi:10.1080/23808985.1984.11678581

Cited by 172 publications

(185 citation statements)

References 65 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

161

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, we found no support for Hypothesis 2b which proposed that adaptive intentions would be lower for younger males. The absence of any significant effects for age is somewhat surprising given that there is considerable evidence that suggests that threat appeals are least effective with adolescents and young people (Boster & Mongeau, 1984;de Meyrick, 2001;Pechmann, Zhao, Goldberg, & Reibling, 2003). However, the results are consistent with Witte and Allen's (2000) finding that most individual difference variables such as age generally do not have any effect on the acceptance of fear appeal recommendations.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…Surprisingly, despite the frequency with which threat appeals are utilised in health advertising, a substantial body of literature spanning over five decades attests to contradictory findings regarding the manner in which fear is related to persuasion (for a range of reviews and empirical studies see, Bennett, 1996;Boster & Mongeau, 1984;Higbee, 1969;Janis, 1967;Janis & Feshbach, 1953;Elliott, 2003;Haefner, 1956;Insko, Arkoff, & Insko, 1965;King & Reid, 1990;Kohn et al, 1982;LaTour & Rotfeld, 1997;Leventhal 1970;Leventhal & Watts, 1966;Ray & Wilkie, 1970;Sternthal & Craig, 1981;Sutton, 1982;Sutton, 1992, Witte, Berkowitz, Cameron, & McKeon, 1998. More specifically, early fear-persuasion studies provided empirical support for a direct positive relationship between fear and persuasion (e.g., Higbee, 1969;Insko et al, 1965;Leventhal & Watts, 1966) as well as a direct negative relationship (e.g., Haefner, 1956;Janis & Feshbach, 1953).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Examining the effectiveness of physical threats in road safety advertising: The role of the third-person effect, gender, and age

Lewis

Watson

Tay

2007

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviou

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Threatening advertisements have been widely used in the social marketing of road safety.However, despite their popularity and over five decades of research into the fear-persuasion relationship, an unequivocal answer regarding their effectiveness remains unachieved. More contemporary "fear appeal" research has explored the extent other variables moderate this relationship. In this study, the third-person effect was examined to explore its association with the extent male and female drivers reported intentions to adopt the recommendations of two road safety advertisements depicting high physical threats. Drivers (N = 152) first provided responses on pre-exposure future driving intentions, subsequently viewed two advertisements, one antispeeding and one anti-drink driving, followed by measurement of their perceptions and postmanipulation intentions. The latter measure, post-manipulation intentions, was taken as the level of message acceptance for each advertisement. Results indicated a significant gender difference with females reporting reverse third-person effects (i.e., the messages would have more influence on themselves than others) and males reporting classic third-person effects (i.e., the messages would have more influence on others than themselves). Consistent with such third-person effects, females reported greater intention not to speed and not to drink and drive after being exposed to the advertisements than males. To determine the extent that third-person differential perceptions contributed to variance explained in post-manipulation intentions, hierarchical regressions were conducted. These regressions revealed that third-person scores significantly contributed to the variance explained in post-manipulation intentions, beyond the contribution of other factors including demographic characteristics, pre-exposure intentions and past behaviour. The theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed.2

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the effectiveness of physical threats in road safety advertising: The role of the third-person effect, gender, and age

Lewis

Watson

Tay

2007

Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviou

127

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Moderating effects of trait anxiety on fear appeal were previously suggested by e.g., Boster and Mongeau's (1984) and rejected by Witte and Morrison (2000). Our results support this moderating effect.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Fear Appeal in Traffic Safety Advertising: The moderating role of medium context, trait anxiety, and differences between drivers and non-drivers

Janssens

Pelsmacker

2007

PSYCHOL BELG

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The impact was investigated of the intensity of a fear appeal, the valence of the medium context, and the individuals' trait anxiety and personal relevance on the responses of 197 individuals to anti-speeding advertisements. A high level of fear attracts more attention. A negative valence context leads to a more positive anti-speeding attitude. The most important moderating effect of trait anxiety is that the attitude is more positive when low-anxiety individuals are exposed to high fear appeals in a context with negative valence than in a positive context. These results were largely replicated for drivers, but not for nondrivers for whom there was only an attention-getting effect of high fear appeal. Theoretical and practical implications for anti-speeding campaigning are discussed.Previous research on the responses to (various levels of) fear appeal are inconclusive. This may be due to potentially important moderating factors that have not been taken into account. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of high and low levels of fear appeal on the attention to an anti-speeding message and the attitude toward speeding, and to study the moderating role of positive and negative medium context, trait anxiety, and personal relevance.Witte (1994, p. 114) defined a fear appeal as "… a persuasive message that attempts to arouse the emotion fear by depicting a personally relevant and significant threat and then follows this description of the threat by outlining recommendations presented as feasible and effective in deterring the threat." Fear appeal can be weak or strong. A key element in the effectiveness of fear appeal is the type of processing that takes place. Two processes are commonly mentioned, i.e., a fear control process (maladaptive behaviour or message rejection) and a danger control process (adaptive behaviour or

show abstract

“…Although some meta-analyses have found that highinvolvement people react favorably to moderate levels of fear (Keller and Lehmann 2008), other research has indicated that highly motivated people may require only low levels of fear, whereas the uninvolved may require high levels (Keller and Block 1996). Overall, however, independent meta-analyses have concluded that, in general, higher levels of fear lead to greater persuasion (Boster and Mongeau 1984;Witte and Allen 2000).…”

Section: Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Graphic Visual Health Warnings Affect Young Smokers’ Thoughts of Quitting

Andrews

Netemeyer

Kees

et al. 2014

Journal of Marketing Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Two-thirds of adolescent and young adult smokers become lifetime smokers, and one-half of those lifetime smokers will die from this habit. The authors examine alternative persuasive pathways to thoughts of quitting taken by adolescent and young adult smokers when exposed to graphic visual health warnings on cigarette packages. For adolescent smokers, the authors find that graphic warnings and smoking frequency affect fear, and fear influences negative health beliefs about smoking, ultimately increasing thoughts of quitting. They also find that the graphic warning and a graphic warning smoking frequency interaction have incremental effects on quit thoughts beyond the effects of fear and negative health beliefs. Using a longitudinal design with a sample of young adult smokers, the authors find support for many of the adolescent smoker findings, particularly the incremental effects of graphicness and its interaction with smoking frequency. These similar results from diverse samples support the use of graphic visual warnings but suggest that effects are attenuated for those who smoke the most. The authors offer implications for countermarketing programs and public health policy.

show abstract

Fear-Arousing Persuasive Messages

Cited by 172 publications

References 65 publications

Examining the effectiveness of physical threats in road safety advertising: The role of the third-person effect, gender, and age

Examining the effectiveness of physical threats in road safety advertising: The role of the third-person effect, gender, and age

Fear Appeal in Traffic Safety Advertising: The moderating role of medium context, trait anxiety, and differences between drivers and non-drivers

How Graphic Visual Health Warnings Affect Young Smokers’ Thoughts of Quitting

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About