TY - JOUR
T1 - The effectiveness of empathy- versus fear-arousing antismoking PSAs
AU - Shen, Lijiang
N1 - Funding Information:
This research is supported by a pilot grant from the CDC Southern Center for Health Communication and Poverty and CDC Center of Excellence grant 1P01CD000242-01 to Vicki Freimuth. The author thanks Todd Lee Goen for his assistance in data collection, and Sean Hendricks for assistance in Medialab programming.
PY - 2011/7
Y1 - 2011/7
N2 - Building on a previous study (Shen, 2010), this paper investigates the effectiveness of fear-versus empathy-arousing antismoking PSAs and examines the roles of message-induced fear and state empathy in persuasion. Twelve professionally produced antismoking PSAs were used as stimuli messages in a 3 (message type: empathy, fear vs. control) × 4 (messages) mixed design study. The 260 participants were randomly assigned to each message type and watched four PSAs presented in a random sequence. Results from multilevel modeling analyses showed that empathy-arousing messages are potentially more effective than fear-arousing ones. Both fear and state empathy were found to have a positive direct effect on persuasion. However, fear also had a negative indirect impact on persuasion by activating psychological reactance, while state empathy also had a positive indirect effect by inhibiting psychological reactance. Implications for persuasion, health communication campaigns, and future research were discussed.
AB - Building on a previous study (Shen, 2010), this paper investigates the effectiveness of fear-versus empathy-arousing antismoking PSAs and examines the roles of message-induced fear and state empathy in persuasion. Twelve professionally produced antismoking PSAs were used as stimuli messages in a 3 (message type: empathy, fear vs. control) × 4 (messages) mixed design study. The 260 participants were randomly assigned to each message type and watched four PSAs presented in a random sequence. Results from multilevel modeling analyses showed that empathy-arousing messages are potentially more effective than fear-arousing ones. Both fear and state empathy were found to have a positive direct effect on persuasion. However, fear also had a negative indirect impact on persuasion by activating psychological reactance, while state empathy also had a positive indirect effect by inhibiting psychological reactance. Implications for persuasion, health communication campaigns, and future research were discussed.
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U2 - 10.1080/10410236.2011.552480
DO - 10.1080/10410236.2011.552480
M3 - Article
C2 - 21409669
AN - SCOPUS:79961154889
SN - 1041-0236
VL - 26
SP - 404
EP - 415
JO - Health Communication
JF - Health Communication
IS - 5
ER -