Tailoring Temporal Message Frames to Individuals' Time Orientation Strengthens the Relationship between Risk Perception and Behavioral Intention

Masculine men do not like feminine wording: The effectiveness of gendered wording in health promotion leaflets in the UK

Following mixed-methods sequential design and drawing on the message-audience congruence concept and homophily theory, across three studies in the UK, we examined the effect of gendered wording and endorser’s gender on the effectiveness of leaflets promoting walking. In Study 1, a mall-intercept study achieved 247 completed questionnaires. Results demonstrated that men and women indicated the highest behavioural intentions for communal wording presented by a male endorser. However, pairwise comparisons revealed that when the wording of the advert was agentic and the endorser was male, males indicated significantly higher scores of behavioural intentions compared with females. Attitude towards the ad for women was highest for communal wording/female endorser; for men it was for agentic wording/male endorser. In Study 2, consumers’ views towards the gendered content were explored in 20 semi-structured interviews. In study 3 we examined the impact of the respondent’s gender role identity on gendered content effectiveness. Overall, when controlled for level of gender role identity, only masculine males evaluated leaflets featuring communal wording negatively which suggests that wording matters only for masculine males, but not for other men and women. Theoretically, we identified that gender-based message-respondent congruence is not a necessary aspect of communications to be effective, except for one group: masculine males. Our study identified dominant gender role identity as a factor that explained respondents’ preferences for presented stimuli. Specifically, males who display masculine gender role identity differ in evaluations of communal wording from all other groups. Social and commercial marketers who target men and women with exercise-related services should consider the use of agentic wording endorsed by a male endorser when targeting masculine men to increase the likelihood of eliciting positive attitudes towards the communication. However, such distinctions should not be associated with differences in women’s evaluations or men who do not report masculine gender role identity.

The Effects of Anthropomorphism, Message Framing, and Voice Type on Unhealthy Sleep Behavior in Young Users: The Mediating Role of Risk Perception

Insufficient sleep is a severe social public health problem that can adversely affect the physical and mental health of young people. This study examined risk perceptions for unhealthy sleep behaviors and intentions for healthy sleep behaviors under different combinations of anthropomorphism, message framing, and voice type in cartoons. We used a three-factor between-subject experiment of two (anthropomorphism: anthropomorphic vs. non-anthropomorphic) × two (message framing: positive frame vs. negative frame) × two (voice type: cartoon child voice vs. adult female voice) design. We examined the effects of different audiovisual combinations of cartoon attitude, risk perception, and behavioral intention and the mediating role of risk perception. The research results show that (1) the integration of anthropomorphic design elements can positively impact users’ attitudes toward cartoons; (2) when the interface information is presented in a negative frame, anthropomorphism can more positively influence users’ attitudes toward cartoons than non-anthropomorphism; and (3) anthropomorphism, message framing, and voice type in cartoons significantly interact with risk perception. In addition, risk perception mediates the influence of anthropomorphism, message framing, and voice type on behavioral intention.

Parents and Mobile Devices, from Theory to Practice: Comparison between Perception and Attitudes to 0-5 Year Old Children's Use

Pediatrics associations recommend avoiding the use of mobile devices (MDs) in children aged 0–2 years and limiting them to one hour per day for children aged 3–5 years. This study aimed to explore public risk perception on MDs use by children aged 0–5 years and attitudes of parents to children’s use. Participants were recruited on a voluntary basis by social media using a self-administered survey. The study included 3115 participants, most of whom were parents of children aged under 5 years (n = 1901; 61%). Most of the respondents (74%) considered that MDs use could be harmful for children’s health. The awareness on a correct use did not always translate into avoiding MDs use as recommended, especially in parents of children aged 0–2 years. Half of the sample (54%) received or sought information on risks related to MDs use. The most consulted information sources were the web (78%), and pediatricians in only 22% of cases. Understanding the determinants of parents’ risk perception and behavior is necessary to design effective family-based interventions in order to guide parents to a moderate and more careful use of MDs by their children. To do so, public health actions must aim to strengthen awareness about conscious use of MDs.