Effects of Scanning Health News Headlines on Trust in Science: An Emotional Framing Perspective

Rooted in the emotions-as-frames model (EFM), this research examines how hope, fear, and annoyance are evoked through health news headline scanning, and how these emotions influence perceptions of news and medical science institutions as well as health behavioral intentions. A sample of U.S. adults (N = 327) were assigned to one of four headline framing conditions expected to associate with different emotions (positive future frame-hope; threat frame-fear/anxiety; reversal frame-annoyance; and control-neutral) and then asked about their emotional states, trust in science and news, and health-related behavioral intentions. Overall, health news headlines generated more hope than any other emotion across all conditions, and positive future-framed headlines evoked more hope than other framed headlines. Felt hope, in turn, generated greater trust in news and science, higher expectations of medical breakthroughs and cures, and greater intention to engage in preventative health behaviors. Felt anxiety had marginal positive benefits whereas felt annoyance negatively impacted the outcomes of interest. Notably, felt emotion mediated the headline frame-outcome relationships in the positive future/hope condition. These findings offer some support for the EFM and demonstrate that scanning headlines imbued with specific emotional frames can influence important health-related outcomes through the emotions they evoke. We discuss both the theoretical and practical implication of these findings.

Emotional Shifts in Health Messages as a Strategy for Generating Talk and Behavior Change

Although talk generated by health messages can spread message content and promote positive behavior change, little is known about what message features may be more likely to prompt conversation. Given theoretical and research support for sequential emotional experiences to increase the intensity of emotion and the extent of engagement with the emotional content - both of which are expected to positively influence talk and persuasion - we examined whether shifts in emotion within a health message influenced these outcomes. In a longitudinal experiment, we compared the effects of two texting while driving prevention messages containing a shift in emotional valence (negative to positive and positive to negative) with two single-valence emotional messages (negative-only and positive-only) on talk and persuasion (N = 333). Results indicated that emotional shift messages generated more talk than single-valence messages because they elicited greater emotional intensity and deeper message processing. These variables also mediated the effect of emotional shift messages on persuasion both immediately following message exposure and one week later, though intentions to avoid texting while driving immediately after message exposure had a greater influence on beliefs and behavior at the one-week follow-up than talk. These findings suggest that talk may play a more important role in spreading message content and reinforcing message-generated change rather than creating change itself.

Can a Video a Day Keep Stress Away? A Test of Media Prescriptions

This research attempts to both replicate initial research on media prescriptions - the assignment of small doses of positively-valenced media for the purposes of reducing perceived stress - and, through the lens of the broaden-and-build theory, shed light on the process through which this effect might emerge. Two longitudinal data sets were collected, one with college students (N = 182) and one with U.S. adults (N = 197), in which participants were assigned to watch either comedic or inspiring media clips every day for 5 days. Findings indicated that both amusement and hope generated by media exposure reduced perceived stress over time. Specifically, inspiring media reduced perceived stress through its effect on felt hope for both samples, whereas comedic media reduced perceived stress via felt amusement for the general adult sample only. Further, as predicted, serial mediation through felt emotion and coping efficacy emerged for amusement in the student sample and for hope in the general sample. Given these data were collected during an inordinately stressful time in both the U.S. and the world with rising rates of COVID-19, a highly contentious political election, and tensions over racial inequity, these findings suggest that media, if harnessed appropriately, could be a useful tool in one's coping arsenal. A call for better understanding of the process through which media prescriptions have effect and their boundary conditions is advanced.

How Emotional Shifts Effect Youth Perceptions of Opioid Risk and Efficacy: Testing a Know the Truth Campaign Narrative

Integrating the extended parallel process model (EPPM) and the emotional flow hypothesis, we tested the persuasive effect of emotional shifts during exposure to a Know the Truth anti-opioid campaign narrative in a sample of middle-school students (n = 480). Testing two emotional flow sequences (threat to efficacy and efficacy to threat) of the Know the Truth narrative against a static (threat-only) emotional condition, we found that youth exposed to any emotional flow narrative reported higher levels of hope and lower levels of fear than those exposed to a threat-only narrative. We also found that a threat to efficacy narrative elicited higher levels of self-efficacy than an efficacy to threat emotional flow condition, suggesting that the emotional sequence influences self-efficacy, a well-established predictor of health behavior change. We conclude that the traditional threat to efficacy emotional flow may be superior to its inverse (efficacy to threat) when communicating with young people about opioid addiction. Implications for message design are discussed.

Uplifting Fear Appeals: Considering the Role of Hope in Fear-Based Persuasive Messages

Fear appeal research has focused, understandably, on fear as the primary emotion motivating attitude and behavior change. However, while the threat component of fear appeals associates with fear responses, a fear appeals' efficacy component likely associates with a different emotional experience: hope. Drawing from appraisal theories of emotion in particular, this article theorizes about the role of hope in fear appeals, testing hypotheses with two existing data sets collected within the context of sun safety messages. In both studies, significant interactions between hope and self-efficacy emerged to predict behavioral intentions. Notable main effects for hope also emerged, though with less consistency. Further, these effects persisted despite controlling for the four cognitions typically considered central to fear appeal effectiveness. These results, consistent across two samples, support the claim that feelings of hope in response to fear appeals contribute to their persuasive success. Implications for developing a recursive model of fear appeal processing are discussed.

Could Watching TV Be Good for You? Examining How Media Consumption Patterns Relate to Salivary Cortisol

This research explores whether media diet influences health, not through its effects on cognition and behavior but rather through its effects on biomarkers of stress, which are implicated in a host of acute and chronic illnesses. Two hundred and forty young adults completed assessments of their media consumption habits followed at least 2 days later by measures of the stress-related hormone cortisol. Results suggest that frequency of consuming different media and genres may decrease cortisol under certain conditions and increase them under others. Further, the patterns of results were wholly different from those found for perceived stress. The implications of these findings for health-related media effects and theoretical development are discussed.

Unrealistic Hope and Unnecessary Fear: Exploring How Sensationalistic News Stories Influence Health Behavior Motivation

In light of the inherent conflict between the nature of science (slow, subject to correction) and the nature of news (immediate, dramatic, novel), this study examines the effect of emotional health news coverage on intentions to engage in protective health behaviors. One hundred seventy-seven students read news stories designed to evoke either fear or hope about human papillomavirus (HPV) followed by different levels of response efficacy information regarding an impending HPV vaccine. Results indicated no main effects for emotion frame or response efficacy, but a significant interaction suggested that emotionally-consistent presentations (fear/low efficacy; hope/high efficacy) boosted intentions to engage in protective actions relative to emotionally-inconsistent, sensationalized presentations (fear/high efficacy, hope/low efficacy). Consistent with the emotion-as-frame perspective, this effect was moderated by perceived knowledge about HPV prevention. Effects of the sensationalized story constructions on trust in health news were also evidenced. Implications for the role of emotional health news coverage in priming prior knowledge about preventative health behaviors, along with future research directions, are discussed.

Laughing in the Face of Fear (of Disease Detection): Using Humor to Promote Cancer Self-Examination Behavior

This research examines the possible benefit of using humor to reduce anxiety associated with performing cancer self-examination behaviors. In Study 1, 187 undergraduates read a humorous public service announcement (PSA) script promoting either breast or testicular self-exams. Results suggest that perception of humor reduced anxiety about self-exams, which, in turn, related to more positive self-exam attitudes. Simultaneously, humor perception associated with greater message processing motivation, which, in turn, associated with more supportive self-exam attitudes. Self-exam attitudes also positively associated with self-exam intentions. These results were largely replicated in Study 2. Further, self-exam intentions predicted self-exam behavior 1 week later. However, consistent with past research, the humorous and serious messages did not generate differences in subsequent self-exam behavior, though the intention-behavior relationship was stronger and significant for those exposed to the humorous versus the serious messages. In light of these findings, and given that humor has the advantage of attracting and holding attention in real message environments, the use of carefully constructed humor appeals may be a viable message strategy to promote health detection behaviors.

Emotional flow in persuasive health messages

Overwhelmingly, the literature on the persuasive influence of emotions has focused on individual emotions, fear in particular, though some recent attention has been given to mixed emotions in persuasive appeals. Building on this newer wave of research, this article argues that instead of focusing on singular emotional states or collections of emotions evoked by a message, it might prove valuable to explore the flow, or evolution, of emotional experience over the course of exposure to a health message. The article offers a brief introduction to the concept of emotion, followed by a review of the state of the literature on the use of emotion in health messages. The concept of emotional flow is then introduced along with a consideration of how it has been tacitly incorporated into the study of emotional health messages. Finally, the utility of the concept of emotional flow is elaborated by articulating the ways in which it might be harnessed to facilitate the creation of more effective health messages, individually as well as across campaigns. The article concludes with an agenda for future research.

Facebook friends with (health) benefits? Exploring social network site use and perceptions of social support, stress, and well-being

There is clear evidence that interpersonal social support impacts stress levels and, in turn, degree of physical illness and psychological well-being. This study examines whether mediated social networks serve the same palliative function. A survey of 401 undergraduate Facebook users revealed that, as predicted, number of Facebook friends associated with stronger perceptions of social support, which in turn associated with reduced stress, and in turn less physical illness and greater well-being. This effect was minimized when interpersonal network size was taken into consideration. However, for those who have experienced many objective life stressors, the number of Facebook friends emerged as the stronger predictor of perceived social support. The "more-friends-the-better" heuristic is proposed as the most likely explanation for these findings.

The effects of reality-based television programming on diet and exercise motivation and self-efficacy in young adults

Grounded in social cognitive theory, this research examines the effects of reality entertainment programming and embedded commercials on viewers' perceived motivations and efficacy to exercise and consume a healthy diet as well as on food preference. In a 3 (program type) × 2 (advertisement type) study design, 253 female undergraduates were randomly assigned to watch an episode of a health-oriented reality program, a non-heath-oriented reality program, or a health-themed sitcom in which commercials for either healthy or unhealthy foods were embedded. Results indicated that perceived realism of the health-oriented reality program generated greater confidence to eat more healthily and exercise, as well as greater motivation to exercise. Additionally, program viewing differentially affected motivations to eat healthily and to exercise, but only when type of advertisement (high vs. low calorie food ads) was taken into consideration. Finally, women who watched the health-oriented reality program were more likely to choose a healthy snack at the conclusion of the experiment than those exposed to other programs, thus supporting the assertion that reality programming may potentiate positive health behaviors. The role of the embedded advertisements in altering the interpretation and health impact of the programming is also discussed.

Comparing the effects of entertainment and educational television programming on risky sexual behavior

Entertainment-education (E-E) may offer an effective way to reduce risky behavior by modeling healthy behaviors. Although there is some empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of the E-E strategy, much of this research has been conducted in countries with different media landscapes than that of the United States and controlled experiments in this context are rare. Moreover, empirical tests of the relative effectiveness of E-E messages and other message formats are needed. In this study, 437 undergraduates participated in a three-wave panel experiment in which they viewed one of three programs (E-E, education, or entertainment). Safer sex intentions and behaviors were measured several days before, immediately following, and 2 weeks after exposure. Results demonstrate that effects of exposure to this E-E program vary depending on gender and past experience with sexual intercourse. In particular, females and those who had not initiated sexual intercourse showed the strongest effects. Discussion of theoretical implications and suggestions for future research are provided.

Subjective knowledge and fear appeal effectiveness: implications for message design

This research investigates the role of perceived health knowledge on the effectiveness of fear-based persuasive appeals. Undergraduates (N = 263) read a strong fear, weak fear, or efficacy-only message encouraging breast or testicular self-examination. As expected, results indicated that men high in subjective knowledge were less reactant and more persuaded by the efficacy-only message whereas those low in subjective knowledge did not evidence this pattern. Contrary to expectation, women high in subjective knowledge had comparable reactions to each of the 3 messages. Implications for fear appeal theory and message design are discussed.

Predicting intentions versus predicting behaviors: domestic violence prevention from a theory of reasoned action perspective

A central assumption of many models of human behavior is that intention to perform a behavior is highly predictive of actual behavior. This article presents evidence that belies this notion. Based on a survey of 1,250 Philadelphia adults, a clear and consistent pattern emerged suggesting that beliefs related to domestic violence correlate with intentions to act with respect to domestic violence but rarely correlate with reported actions (e.g., talking to the abused woman). Numerous methodological and substantive explanations for this finding are offered with emphasis placed on the complexity of the context in which an action to prevent a domestic violence incident occurs. We conclude by arguing that despite the small, insignificant relationships between beliefs and behaviors found, worthwhile aggregate effects on behavior might still exist, thus reaffirming the role of communication campaign efforts.