FEAR AROUSAL AND PERSUASION

Abstract

This study was designed to re-examine the validity of the defensive avoidance hypothesis in the study of fear-arousing communications.In the present study, three independent variables were used-that is, fear, efficacy of coping behavior, and source credibility. And, it was hypothesized that recipients would be motivated for defensive avoidance if they received a high fear-arousing communication recommending noneffective coping behavior from a low credible source. The subjects were 342 female college students and they were each randomly assigned to one of the eight experimental groups and one control group. Experimental groups were exposed to fear-arousing communications which dealt with the threat of syphilis and therefore recommended a blood test as their coping behavior. They were asked to respond to questionnaires immediately after having been exposed to them.Results were as follows.(1) High fear arousal, effective coping behavior, and high credible source produced greater attitude change than low fear arousal, noneffective coping behavior, and low credible source did, respectively.(2) When a source had high credibility, the relationships between fear and attitude change were positive in either of high and low efficacy conditions.(3) When a source had low credibility, in the high efficacy condition a positive relationship was found between fear and attitude change, but in the low efficacy condition a neutral relationship was found.The results in the present experiment generally supported the defensive avoidance hypothesis.

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