Increasing the Persuasiveness of Fear Appeals: The Effect of Arousal and Elaboration

Investigates conditions under which messages that prompt low and high levels of fear are likely to be effective. A low level of fear should be ineffective, due to insufficient elaboration of the harmful consequences of engaging in the destructive behavior. Appeals arousing high levels of fear should be ineffective, because elaboration on the harmful consequences interferes with processing of the recommended behavior change. Support for these expectations was found using 97 smokers presented with communication advocating smoking cessation. Elaboration-enhancing interventions (self-reference and imagery processing) increased the persuasiveness of a low-fear appeal by prompting elaboration on the harmful consequences of smoking, whereas the 2 elaboration-suppressing interventions (reference to others and objective processing) increased the persuasiveness of a high-fear appeal by decreasing the extent to which consumers deny harmful consequences.