Fear Appeal
Fear appeals want to change attitudes or behavior. Such appeals belong to the subgroup of emotional appeals. Fear appeals are a form of persuasion. They are used, among other things, in advertising and prevention .
definition
Fear appeals are persuasive messages that inform the recipient that values relevant to him (such as life, health, property, etc.) are threatened. Messages (verbal and / or non-verbal) contained in a fear appeal can trigger fear in the recipient and cause changes in attitude or behavior. This change can result from emotions (e.g. fear) and / or from cognitive insight (i.e. rational); it can be temporary or permanent.
Carl I. Hovland , who is also responsible for the Yale approach to changing attitudes , defined fear appeals in 1964 as content-influencing communication that alludes to or describes unfavorable consequences resulting from failure to follow the advice given by the communicator.
Effect of fear appeals
Fear appeals
- contain messages about negative consequences of behavior (1.),
- recommend or demand changes in attitude or behavior (2.),
- recommend or demand to implement the appeal message, d. H. to do or not to do certain things (3.),
- can generate fear in the recipient and at the same time show him ways (see 2. and 3.) to minimize this fear.
The effect of the appeal message depends, among other things, on
- the specific threat or danger,
- the manner of the message, the strength of the fear appeal,
- the probability of occurrence of the event,
- situational factors
- as well as from the recipient (personality traits, feasibility of an effective protective measure).
Theories on the mode of action of fear appeals
There are several models that explain how fear appeals work. The drive theories (e.g. Freud, Hovland, Janis, McGuire) encompass a number of theories . The common understanding of the theories is that humans are essentially controlled by a more or less large number of endogenous drives or basic needs . The model of parallel reactions developed by H. Leventhal (1970) distinguished between the process of fear control and danger control. In Leventhal's view, the personality characteristics of the recipient of the message and situational characteristics are also important.
RW Roger's original theory of protective motivation (1975) included three variables specifying the characteristics of fear appeals. The variables include the strength of the specific threat or danger and the likelihood of occurrence of the event as well as the existence of an effective protective measure (recommendation to avert the damage). Linking the three variables is the central construct of the theory. In 1983 Rogers added a fourth variable to this theory: the assessment of coping behavior.
The Elaboration Likelihood Model by Richard Petty and John T. Cacioppo (1986) describes the effects of a persuasive message on the recipient's attitude towards the subject of the message.
Fear Appeal Research
In the 1950s, research into the effects of fear appeals began, focusing in particular on the dangers of unhealthy behavior. Hovland, Janis & Kelley (1953) and Irving Janis and Seymour Feshbach (1953) dealt with the consequences of inadequate dental care. The greatest change in behavior occurred with weak fear appeals. The recommendations for regular dental care were followed most often when the fear that arose was least.
The effect of fear appeals is now being researched and critically questioned in psychology and the social sciences . In meta-analyzes, short-term effects from fear appeals were demonstrated. Fear appeals research has not yet been able to demonstrate a lasting or long-lasting effect of fear appeals. There is therefore no binding advice on the use of fear appeals, because there are many variables such as the strength of the fear appeals, personality traits (concern, personal relevance of the topic, self-responsible attitude, etc.), the way the message is sent and situational factors (e.g. distraction or getting used to repetition too often) determine whether a fear appeal is effective. Research has found that fear appeals that point to major consequences (AIDS, etc.) or indicate a new, as yet little-known threat are more powerful. Incredible messages or very strong appeals to fear lead to negative effects on the recipient (so-called boomerang effect).
In addition to the research results, everyday experiences also show that pure fear appeals are only of limited effectiveness. They may initially create an uncomfortable state of tension when the person becomes aware of the contradiction between their beliefs and their actual behavior. The person may not try to reduce the state of tension by changing their behavior, but rather by denying the threat.
Example of driver behavior
Awareness and advertising campaigns that encourage drivers to adopt a safety-conscious driving style have increasingly used the “shock strategy” in recent years. In some very explicit images, the consequences are z. B. the consumption of alcohol or the lawn in the hope that this motivates the target group (often young men) to change their behavior. An evaluation of the research showed that the desired effect is unlikely to occur. Young men in particular are not influenced by such images (women are more likely to be). In particular, such campaigns remain ineffective if the addressees are not simultaneously informed about ways in which they can avoid the presented hazard (i.e., desired driver behavior is modeled). Many drivers also believe that the hazard presented does not affect them, so that an increasingly shocking presentation is not necessary, but an approach that makes it clear to the drivers that the risk is high for them.
See also
literature
- Irving Janis & S. Feshbach: Effects of fear-arousing communications , Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48: 78-92, (1953)
- Irving Janis: Effects of fear arousal on attitude change; recent devel opments in theory and experimental research , in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Berkowitz L (ed), New York: Academic Press, 166–224, (1967)
- Klaus Jonas: The Value-Expectation-Approach in Fear Appeal Research . Dissertation at the Eberhard Karls University, Bölk printing house, Tübingen 1987
- Hans-Bernd Brosius , Andreas Fahr : Advertising effect on television. Chapter 8: Effects of Fear Appeals . Reinhard Fischer Verlag, Munich 1996, pp. 188-227
- Jürgen Bengel, Jürgen Barth: Warning notices for alcohol and cigarettes - reception and processing . In: Journal of Medical Psychology . Volume 6, 1997, pp. 5-14
- Jürgen Bengel, Jürgen Barth: Prevention through fear? (Status of Furchtappellforschung) , Federal Center for Health Education, Research and Practice in Health Promotion, Volume 4, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-9805282-8-6
- Jürgen Barth: Tobacco prevention through fear - The effect of fear-inducing media in young people . Waxmann Verlag, 2000, ISBN 978-3-89325-885-7
- Manuela Neurauter: Who is afraid of fear appeals ?: Persuasion and emotion in print advertising . Innsbruck contributions to cultural studies, Innsbruck 2005
- Katja Gelbrich, Eva-Maria Schröder: Advertising Effect of Fear Appeals - State of Research , Technical University of Ilmenau, Ilmenauer Schriften zur Betriebswirtschaftslehre, Pro Wiwi Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-940882-07-3 , PDF version ,
- Martin Pittner, Sabine Rothmair, Natalie Zoebl: Fear appeals in advertising - Don't drink and drive! , Facultas, 2010, ISBN 3-7089-0479-6
Web links
- Uni Basel, Furchtappelle (PDF; 773 kB)
- University of Zurich, Fear Appeal Theories and Investigations (PDF)
- Nikolaus Jackob : Fear Appeals as an Instrument of Health Communication. Fachjournalist magazine, No. 13, 2004 (PDF; 220 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Barth and Bengel: Prevention through Anxiety (BZgA) , 1998, p. 51, PDF ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Diana Zwahlen: Effect of fear appeals in advertising messages , p. 3, Uni Bern page no longer available , search in web archives: (PDF)
- ↑ Klaus Moser: Wirtschaftspsychologie, p. 99, Springer, 2007, ISBN 3-540-71636-X
- ↑ Johanna Hartung: Social Psychology , p. 77, Kohlhammer, 2006, ISBN 3-17-019175-6
- ^ I. Lewis, B. Watson, R. Tay, KM White: "The role of fear appeals in improving driver safety. A review of the effectiveness of fear-arousing (threat) appeals in road safety advertising ". In: International Journal of Behavioral and Consultation Therapy . Vol. 3, No. 2, 2007, pp. 203–222 ( PDF of the journal; 2.79 MB ).
