Regular ArticleThe Influence of Message Framing on Intentions to Perform Health Behaviors
Abstract
Prospect Theory proposes that people prefer taking risks to options that are certain when considering losses and prefer certainty to risk when considering gains (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). As a result, individuals are expected to be persuaded to take risks when exposed to negatively framed messages. For instance, Meyerowitz and Chaiken (1987) demonstrated that exposure to negatively framed information promotes breast self-examination. However, the influence of message framing on other health behaviors has been inconsistent. Two studies examined the moderating effect of involvement with the health issue and type of target behavior on the influence of message framing on intentions to perform health behaviors relevant to preventing or detecting skin cancer. In our samples, women as compared to men were more concerned about sun tanning and skin cancer and therefore were considered to be more involved with this health issue. In Experiment 1, exposure to negatively framed versus positively framed messages differentially influenced the intentions of female (high involvement) and male (low involvement) subjects to obtain a skin cancer detection examination. In Experiment 2, women who read positively framed pamphlets were more likely than those who read negatively framed pamphlets to request sunscreen with an appropriate sun protection factor (a prevention behavior).
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Does messaging matter? A registered report on appearance-versus health-based message framing in exercise appeals targeted towards women
2024, Psychology of Sport and ExerciseProspect theory proposes that message framing differentially impacts the likelihood of engaging in health-related behaviors. Specifically, gain-framed messages that highlight the benefits of engaging in a behavior are more effective at promoting preventative behaviors than loss-framed messages highlighting the costs associated with a lack of engagement. Research suggests that gain-framed messages may more successfully reduce psychological reactance compared to loss-framed messages, which in turn, may promote behavioral change. However, reactance as a mechanism has been largely overlooked in the literature and support for this hypothesis is mixed. These conflicting results may be due to additional factors, such as outcomes of the targeted behavior (health vs. appearance) and goal orientation. Therefore, the present study examined whether message framing (gain- vs. loss-framing) and the fit between a health message’s outcomes of focus (i.e., health vs. appearance) and an individual’s goal orientation predict psychological reactance, and in turn, cognitive and behavioral outcomes related to exercise.
This study employed a randomized trial with four experimental groups composed of insufficiently active women. Specifically, participants were randomized to view a loss- or gain-framed video emphasizing either health- or appearance-related outcomes.
Counter to expectations, there were no between-group differences on exercise-related attitudes and intentions immediately post-intervention, or self-reported behavior at 1-week post intervention. However, when health outcomes were emphasized, loss-framed messages generally elicited more reactivity than gain-framed messages. This finding was not replicated for the appearance conditions. Appearance messages also generally elicited more reactance than health messages. Meanwhile, reactance did not predict changes in exercise-related attitudes, intentions, or self-reported behavior, and the relationship between messaging content and reactance was generally not moderated by goal orientation.
For young inactive women, receiving messages geared towards appearance-related risks of inactivity (e.g., weight gain) tended to produce more reactivity than messages geared towards health-related risks of inactivity (e.g., weakened immune system). However, this did not change exercise-related attitudes, intentions, or self-reported behaviors. Health gain-framed education regarding exercise may be an important part of a comprehensive intervention toolkit, but is likely not enough in and of itself to support or hinder exercise engagement, regardless of framing or emphasized outcomes.
Nudging smokers away from lighting up: A meta-analysis of framing effect in current smokers
2023, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental EconomicsShould smoking cessation messages be framed in terms of gains or losses? While the risk-framing hypothesis suggests a persuasive advantage for gain-framed messages, empirical evidence so far has been mixed. In defense of the risk-framing hypothesis, researchers have suggested that the diversity of results in this literature stream can be attributed to differences in issue involvement. The present study examined these predictions by employing a meta-analysis (14 studies) comprising of a Correlated and Hierarchical Effects model with Robust Variance Estimation. There was a small persuasive advantage in favour of gain-framed messages (g = 0.104, SE = 0.049), but this contrast was not statistically significant (p = 0.070, CI95 = -0.011, 0.218). This finding is robust to the values of correlation between sampling errors of the effect sizes, influential outliers, and publication bias. Moreover, issue involvement proxied through nicotine dependence did not moderate the relative persuasiveness of gain and loss-framed messages in encouraging smoking cessation. The conclusion remains unchanged regardless of how nicotine dependence is measured and before and after controlling for study and participant characteristics. These results strongly cast doubt on the applicability of the risk-framing hypothesis that continues to guide research and public-health campaigns.
Differential effects of analytical versus emotional rhetorical style on review helpfulness
2023, Journal of Business ResearchThis paper examines the interaction effect of analytical versus emotional rhetorical styles and overall ratings on the perceived helpfulness of product reviews on an e-commerce platform. Hypotheses derived from signaling theory regarding the nonlinear and interactive effects of these variables are tested using a zero-inflated negative binomial model with fixed effects. The results from the estimation of the model using a large sample of reviews from a hedonic and a utilitarian category suggest that analytical and emotional rhetorical devices have mutually opposing effects on helpfulness. While an analytical writing style increases the number of helpfulness votes a review receives, both positive and negative emotional tones reduce it. Further, readers perceive polarized ratings as more helpful, and an analytical style strengthens this effect while an emotional style weakens it. The results are consistent with signaling theory and suggest that an objective and analytical style serves as a strong signal about unobserved quality while an emotional style conflicts with the quality signal and reduces a review’s helpfulness.
Attitudes toward ambiguous situations resemble the domain-specificity of attitudes toward risk
2022, Personality and Individual DifferencesIndividual differences in attitudes toward uncertainty have long been studied as a general propensity in how people respond to uncertain situations. However, there has been increasing evidence that people may react to certain kinds of uncertainty, such as risk, heterogeneously across different life domains. The present research examined people's attitudes toward uncertainty, especially ambiguity that is present in different everyday life situations. Two studies (N = 594) were carried out to examine people's responses to ambiguity across life domains and general trait attitudes toward uncertainty. Using network analysis, we found that affective attitudes toward ambiguous situations demonstrated a domain-specific pattern that corresponded to the domain-specific pattern of risk attitudes. Affective responses toward ambiguous situations also strongly correlated with risk taking tendency in each domain. Furthermore, the associations between general trait attitudes toward uncertainty and affective responses to ambiguous situations varied across domains, and such variation could not be explained by differences in perceived uncertainty across domains. Overall, the results suggest that attitudes toward ambiguity in everyday life situations are domain-specific and such domain-specificity is mainly driven by domain-specific attitudes toward risk.
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