How Fear Appeal Approaches in COVID-19 Health Communication May Be Harming the Global Community

Stolow, Jeni; Moses, Lina M.; Lederer, Alyssa M.; Carter, Rob

doi:10.1177/1090198120935073

Cited by 130 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…First, the results showed that public health education significantly reduced the fear of COVID‐19 among nurses through health education. This outcome is in line with that reported by Stolow, Moses, Lederer, and Carter (2020). The result is an extension of that depicted by Bibi (2019), whereby awareness of basic health issues, such as hypertension, cholesterol, and cardiovascular disease, can reduce the risk of one’s vulnerability towards these diseases.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Impact of public health education on undue fear of COVID‐19 among nurses: The mediating role of psychological capital

Mubarak¹,

Safdar²,

Faiz³

et al. 2020

Int J Mental Health Nurs

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This study looked into the mechanism through which health education can reduce the fear of being infected with COVID‐19 because health education helps individuals to improve their knowledge and attitudes towards a disease. The spread of COVID‐19 has escalated the level of fear among public and nurses. Nevertheless, the mechanism that contributes to minimize the fear towards this pandemic remains unexplored. A cross‐sectional survey was adopted to test the relationships among public health education, psychological capital, and fear of COVID‐19. In total, 243 responses were obtained via online survey from nurses. The results revealed that public health education can reduce one’s fear of COVID‐19. Psychological capital emerged as a strong explanatory mechanism for the phenomenon. Drawing on spillover theory, public health education seems to reduce fear of COVID‐19 with the mediating role of psychological capital. Limitations and future directions are at the end of this paper. The study outcomes revealed that organizations should focus on educating nursing staff to overcome fear of COVID‐19. One way to induce positivity among nursing staff is by holding trainings.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Impact of public health education on undue fear of COVID‐19 among nurses: The mediating role of psychological capital

Mubarak¹,

Safdar²,

Faiz³

et al. 2020

Int J Mental Health Nurs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, research on fear appeals suggests that such appeals are only effective under ideal conditions (e.g., when self‐efficacy is high among message recipients, which is rarely the case; Kok, Peters, Kessels, Ten Hoor, & Ruiter, 2018), and are very likely to cause an array of unintended consequences (e.g., rejection of the threatening health message; Ruiter, Kessels, Peters, & Kok, 2014). The evidence against fear appeals is so strong, in fact, that Stolow, Moses, Lederer, & Carter, 2020 urged health professionals to not use fear appeals in COVID‐19 health communication, noting that “The world's health depends on it” (p. 534). Unfortunately, the TMHM‐P offers no rebuttal to these critiques of fear appeals.…”

Section: Terror Management Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Live free and die: Expanding the terror management health model for pandemics to account for psychological reactance

Dimoff

Dao

Mitchell

et al. 2021

Social & Personality Psych

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According to the terror management health model (TMHM), life‐threatening health conditions have the potential to make people think about death, which triggers anxiety and motivates people to engage in defensive behaviors that may or may not facilitate health. This model has been used to explain health‐defeating reactions to the COVID‐19 pandemic (e.g., intentional nonadherence to mitigation guidelines) and to inform recommendations for current and future public health campaigns. Unfortunately, these recommendations do not account for psychological reactance, an aversive motivational state known to undermine persuasive messages. For this reason, we argue that the TMHM for pandemics is incomplete in its current form and should be expanded to account for reactance processes. We also highlight two reactance‐reducing strategies (inoculation messages and restoration postscripts) that could potentially increase the efficacy of the public health messages proposed by the TMHM for pandemics. We conclude with a discussion of how psychological reactance theory can augment the TMHM more broadly. Overall, we hope to illustrate both the utility and feasibility of considering more than one theoretical approach when designing empirically supported public health messages.

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“…Safety measures for COVID-19 meant shifting norms and behaviors, such as abandoning hand shaking and adopting masks, had to be incorporated quickly and tailored to the unique needs of each audience. The organizations informing these cases studies created multimedia activities adapted to local culture(s) and applied positive message framing with actionable solutions, ideas supported by research (Brusse et al, 2017;Stolow et al, 2020).…”

Section: Takeaway #2: Considering Lessons Learned From These Ee Case mentioning

confidence: 99%

Entertainment-Education Campaigns and COVID-19: How Three Global Organizations Adapted the Health Communication Strategy for Pandemic Response and Takeaways for the Future

Riley

Sangalang

Critchlow

et al. 2020

Health Communication

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COVID-19 created a substantial set of challenges for health communication practitioners in the process of planning, implementing, and evaluating entertainment-education (EE) campaigns. EE is a theory and evidence-based communication strategy that employs entertainment media for educational messaging. Here, we briefly review EE campaigns in response to previous health emergencies and present three cases of EE responses to the COVID-19 pandemic from leading global organizations (PCI Media, BBC Media Action, and Sesame Workshop). Responses ranged from adaptation and redistribution of existing content to creating new content under social-distancing restrictions and utilizing transmedia. These cases demonstrate that EE initiatives responding to future pandemics may be well served by starting with existing infrastructure to quickly build capacity, support, and trust; working with partners to tailor programs to the local context; and continuing to focus on good storytelling while simultaneously considering evolving media formats and theory.

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How Fear Appeal Approaches in COVID-19 Health Communication May Be Harming the Global Community

Cited by 130 publications

References 18 publications

Impact of public health education on undue fear of COVID‐19 among nurses: The mediating role of psychological capital

Impact of public health education on undue fear of COVID‐19 among nurses: The mediating role of psychological capital

Live free and die: Expanding the terror management health model for pandemics to account for psychological reactance

Entertainment-Education Campaigns and COVID-19: How Three Global Organizations Adapted the Health Communication Strategy for Pandemic Response and Takeaways for the Future

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