Fear Appeals

loss framed

present costs of not adopting behavior

extended parallel process model

Fear appeals should both contain: 1) threat info (severity & susceptibility) 2) recommended action (+ efficacy info.)

Why are fear appeals difficult?

- arouse too little fear/not relevant to audience - arouse too much fear & backfire - "illusion of invulnerability" (or optimistic bias)

main responses to fear appeals

1) no response 2) danger control (avert threat by doing recommended action) 3) fear control (not sure how to respond, manage fear)

What are the two ways in which threat appraisal can go?

1) not perceived as serious or relevant 2) perceived as serious and relevant to individual

fear appeal

a persuasive communication that tried to scare people into changing their attitudes by conjuring up negative consequences (some threat) that will occur if they do not comply with message recommendations

self-efficacy info

arguments that the individual can do the recommended action

gain framed

emphasize benefits of adopting new behavior

response efficacy

how effective is the recommended action