Title
H571: WEEK 3
PERCEIVED THREATH AND FEAR APPEALS
Fall 20141First assignment due next weekSeveral means 3 or
4Follow all instructions to the letter!Read the notes in the
syllabus about graduate-level writingLearn how to say a lot
succinctlyAlso learn how to separate out what is most importantIf
you need a figure, you can add a page.Remember to critique the
studies you reviewCross-sectional or longitudinalQuality of
measuresAppropriateness of conclusions given statistical
resultsPlease use APA format to the letterExcept I want
single-spaced, Calibri 11-point font).
DSC Chapter 5NCI- pages 12-14Carpenter 2000Brewer et al
2004Green & Witte 2006 Models Based on Perceived Threat and
Fear AppealsOutlineIntroduction to FEARThe Health Belief
ModelCarpenter, 2010The Protection Motivation TheoryBrewer et al.,
2004The Extended Parallel Processing ModelGreen & Witte,
2006FearWhat is FEAR?A chain reaction in the brain that starts when
faced with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of
chemicals that cause your heart to race, your breathing to escalate
and your muscles to energizeThe fight-or-flight responseCan we
harness the power of instinctual fear to change health risk
behaviors?If people feared certain disease outcomes, they might
take action to avoid themPerceptionsPeople perceive stimuli
differentlyPublic health related example?Why is this important to
public health professionals? Some view themselves as
invulnerable
Effective response = stimulus must be perceived as scary &
individual must believe they will be affected
ThreatPerceived threat = perception of a scary stimulus
(susceptibility/vulnerability)+perceived severityThis construct is
the inspiration for fear appealsFear appeals - persuasive messages
designed to scare people Terrible things that will happen if they
do not do what the message recommends
Health Belief Model (HBM)Two constructs have an independent
influence on health behavior: perceived threat + expected net gain
of adopting a health behaviorValue-expectancy model - likelihood of
action determined by gains in something that a person
values/desiresRelies on notions of perceived severity and perceived
susceptibilityPerceived severity If this negative health outcome
happened to me, how bad would it be?Perceived susceptibility How
likely am I to experience this negative health outcome?Health
Belief Model
Clear expected net gain unlikely to adopt a health protective
behaviorAchieved by: increase perceived value of benefits that can
be expected from the action decrease the perceived barriers to
performing an action or a combination of bothLikelihood of action:
endpoint that is essentially a measure of behavioral intentassesses
the degree of motivation a person may have to engage in a health
protective behavior
Health Belief ModelHealth Belief ModelPositive net gain achieved
by: increasing the perceived value of benefits that can be expected
from the actiondecreasing the perceived barriers to performing an
action combination of A & B Likelihood of action: a measure of
behavioral intentCues to action: events, symptoms, or reminders
provided by a credible source that encourage behaviorSelf efficacy:
added in 1988 - people will not try a new behavior unless they are
confident that they can perform the behavior Individual perceives
behavior as useful but does not feel capable of doing it, most
likely will not try it
Application of HBMWork in your Assignment 1 groups
The health belief model has been described as eloquently simple.
This simplicity, however, is also a limitation in that it fails to
capture many of the constructs represented in other/newer
theories.
ACTIVITY: Create two lists. List 1: include at least 7 health
issues that are highly predisposed to being addressed by the health
belief model. List 2: include at least 7 health issues that would
not work well at if they were addressed by the HBM. Trade your
final lists with another group. Discuss your lists, and engage each
other about the choices you made and why. Protection Motivation
Theory (PMT)Perceived threat + analysis of rewards and costs for
engaging in either maladaptive or adaptive responsesFaced with
fear-arousing stimuli: adopt positive, adaptive responses to avoid
the threat ORchoose maladaptive, negative behaviors that ignore
risk
Processes: threat appraisal & coping appraisal
Protection Motivation TheoryThreat appraisal: assessment of
seriousness of a health threat by estimating probability and
severity of a negative outcome if no action is takenIntrinsic and
extrinsicRewards are positive consequences for a maladaptive
behavioral responseExample?Considering the severity and
vulnerability of negative outcomes reduces attractiveness of
rewardsProtection Motivation TheoryCoping appraisal: response
efficacy of the recommended behavior, an evaluation of how
effective the behavior will be in protecting the individual from
harmFactors in costs of the adaptive response and perceived
self-efficacy to accomplish the behaviorIndividuals past
experiences, environmental factors, personality variables may also
affect behaviorProtection Motivation Theory
Protection Motivation TheoryMaximize the desired effect:
severity, vulnerability, response efficacy and self-efficacy should
be addressed PMT is an effective predictor and model of adaptive
responses to fear-based messagesUse of PMT can improve efficacy of
health awareness campaigns and should be taken into account when
designing messagesExtended Parallel Process Model (EPPM)How do
individuals respond to fear-arousing communications?Communication
theory more than a behavioral theoryIf a fear appeal elicits a
perceived threat, EPPM posits that individuals will either: accept
a fear appeal message and engage in a danger control process OR
reject a message and engage in a fear control processExtended
Parallel Process ModelDanger control process means individual will
engage in strategies to avert the threat This is what health
messages hope to achieveFear control process characterized
by:individuals belief that they are either unable to engage in
recommended response OR believe the response to be ineffective
(individual is coping by controlling the fear rather than the
threat)Extended Parallel Process ModelPositive outcomes of
protection motivation, message acceptance, and danger control -
predicted by certain types of message processing
Negative outcomes of defensive motivation, message rejection,
and fear control - predicted by other types of message
processing
Message components, or the content of the message, influence the
ways messages are processedMessage components are theoretical
building blocksExtended Parallel Process ModelPerceived threat
(susceptibility and severity) + Perceived efficacy (self-efficacy
and response efficacy) = message components in the theory
Extent variables - used successfully in message designTheorized
to impact individuals message processingIf message communicates a
high threat over which the person has low perceived efficacy, then
what? Person may use defensive avoidance and the message will
likely failExtended Parallel Process ModelDefensive avoidance -
blocking further thoughts or feelings about the health threat or
avoiding further exposure to information about the topic coping
mechanism to deal with fear
Successful fear appeal- increases sense of perceived threat AND
sense of efficacy to successfully engage in recommended
responseBrewer et al., 2004Investigated bi-directional causation
between risk perceptions and protective behaviorThe behavior
motivation hypothesisperceptions of personal risk cause people to
take protective actionThe risk reappraisal hypothesis when people
take actions thought to be effective, they lower their risk
perceptionsThe accuracy hypothesisrisk perceptions accurately
reflect risk behaviorTwo important methodological issuesNeed for
careful measurement precisely definedNeed for longitudinal data
(not just cross-sectional)Brewer et als 3 Hypotheses
Brewer et al., 2004 Results
Avian Flu ActivityWork in your Assignment 1 groups
Imagine that Avian flu becomes a virus that is now transmitted
easily from person-to-person contact. In addition to getting
vaccines into large numbers of people quickly, a host of other
behavioral challenges are suddenly apparent (hand washing, wearing
masks, etc.).
ACTIVITY: Select either the PMT or the EPPM to create an
intervention to prevent the flu. Explain the details of your
intervention. How does your intervention use the PMT or the EPPM?
Why did you choose the theory you did? Effective fear messages have
to include ways of avoiding the fear!Examples: Effective?
Ineffective?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRPJFuzdzkY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ZBzMOV9Js
Age of AIDS movie clip- Uganda
campaignhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/generic.html?s=frol02s46bq90&continuous=1Summary:
fear messagesFear appeals appear to be effective when they:depict a
significant and relevant threat (to increase perceptions of
severity and susceptibility) ANDoutline effective responses that
appear easy to accomplish (to increase perceptions of response- and
self-efficacy)Low-threat fear appeals appear to produce little, if
any, persuasive effectsThus, regardless of which theoretical model
is advocated, the advice to message designers is: Promote high
levels of threat and high levels of efficacy to promote attitude,
intention, and behavior changes
