Framing health communication messages

Abstract

Health-promoting messages can be framed in terms of the gains associated with healthy behaviour or the losses associated with unhealthy behaviour.It has been argued that gain-framed messages promoting physical activity are more effective than loss-framed messages but empirical findings are inconsistent.Also, no previous studies investigated the effects of gain-and loss-framed messages in the context of a tailored intervention to promote physical activity.In this study, we provided participants (N = 787) with computer-generated tailored feedback concerning their physical activity levels.We investigated whether gainand loss-framed messages promoting physical activity affected information acceptance, attitude, intention and behaviour differently.The results showed that gain-framed messages resulted in stronger intentions to be physically active than loss-framed messages.This did not result in a significant increase in actual physical activity, however, as measured by a three-month follow-up assessment.For information acceptance and attitude, a non-significant advantage of gainframed messages was found.All effects had small effect sizes.These results suggest that, whereas gain-framed information might be more persuasive than loss-framed information when it comes to promoting physical activity, the differences between gain-and loss-framed messages are likely to be small. Chapter 3: Distinct Pathways to Persuasion: The Role of Affect in Message-Framing Effects 5Abstract: Health-promoting messages can be framed in terms of the gains that are associated with healthy behaviour (gain-framed) or the losses that are associated with unhealthy behaviour (loss-framed).In the present research, we examined the role of positive and negative affect in the persuasive effects of gain-and loss-framed health promoting information.Study 3.1 (N = 100) showed that gain-framed information resulted in higher levels of information acceptance than loss-framed information and this effect was mediated by positive affect.The results of Study 3.2 (N = 129) showed that gain-framed information resulted in higher levels of information acceptance and attitude, an effect that was again mediated by positive affect.In addition, loss-framed information resulted in more negative affect than gain-framed information and negative affect increased participants' intention to engage in the healthy behaviour.These results suggest that affect may be of great importance in the persuasion process and may be particularly helpful to explain the underlying mechanisms of message framing effects.The findings also suggest that gain-and loss-framed messages offer distinct pathways to persuasion. Chapter 5: The Influence of Self-Efficacy on the Effects of Framed Health Messages 10Abstract: Health-promoting messages can be framed in terms of the gains that are associated with healthy behaviour or the losses that are associated with unhealthy behaviour.In this study we examined the influence of self-efficacy to quit smoking on the effects of gain-and loss-framed anti-smoking messages in a randomized controlled trial among 539 adult smokers.Participants with high self-efficacy to quit smoking reported higher levels of motivation to quit smoking after receiving a loss-framed message than after receiving a gain-framed message or no message.For these participants receiving a gain-framed message did not result in a higher motivation to quit smoking than receiving no message.For participants with a low self-efficacy to quit smoking there were no differences in motivation to quit smoking between the gain-framed message condition, loss-framed message condition and control condition.Our results suggest that self-efficacy can moderate the effects of message framing on persuasion. Chapter 6: Self-Efficacy Moderates Message-Framing Effects: The Case of Skin-Cancer Detection 11Abstract: Health-promoting messages can be framed in terms of the gains associated with healthy behaviour or the losses associated with unhealthy behaviour.Studies show inconsistent results as to which type of framing is more effective.In this study we examined the influence of self-efficacy to perform skin selfexamination on the effects of gain-and loss-framed skin-cancer detection messages among 124 university students.For participants with high self-efficacy, a loss-framed message resulted in a higher intention to perform skin selfexamination than a gain-framed message.For participants with low self-efficacy, there were no differences in intention between the gain-and loss-framed message conditions.Our results suggest that self-efficacy levels play an important role in message-framing effects.For health communication strategies promoting the active detection of skin-cancer symptoms, messages stressing losses may be more effective than messages stressing gains, but only in persons with high selfefficacy.In addition, our results suggest that health promoting messages can be framed to match recipients' self-efficacy levels. Chapter 8: Investigating the Effects of Message Framing in High-and Low-Threat Information 14Abstract: Health-promoting messages can be framed in terms of the gains that are associated with healthy behaviour (gain-framed) or the losses that are associated with unhealthy behaviour (loss-framed).In the present research we examined whether the effect of message frame is different for low-versus high-threat information, hypothesizing that a gain frame might be more persuasive for lowthreat information whereas a loss frame might be more persuasive for high-threat information.Study 8.1 (N = 98) used framed information advocating physical activity and found that gain-framed information resulted in higher ratings of information acceptance, particularly when the information was of a low-threat nature.Study 8.2 (N = 99) used framed messages advocating a reduction in alcohol intake and found that gain-framed information resulted in more positive attitudes, but only when the information was of a low-threat nature.No advantage of loss frames was found in the high-threat condition.Results suggest that the effects of gain-and loss-framed messages are dependent on the nature of the information that is conveyed in the message.

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