DESCRIPTION: The effectiveness of interventions designed to promote cancer
prevention and early detection behaviors often depends on the persuasiveness
of a public service announcement, brochure, print advertisement, educational
program, or communication from a health professional. Appeals aimed at
persuading individuals to perform a particular health behavior can be framed
in different ways. In particular, information can be framed to emphasize
relevant gains or losses. Gain-framed messages present the benefits that
are accrued through adopting the behavior. Loss-framed messages convey the
risks of not adopting the requested behavior. Although these two kinds of
messages convey essentially the same information, in certain circumstances,
one may be much more persuasive than the other.
The fundamental goal of the research program described in this application
is to investigate the role of framing in developing maximally persuasive
messages promoting cancer prevention and early detection behaviors. In the
context of implementing and evaluating circumscribed interventions to
promote pap testing and screening mammography, those variables that
determine the situations in which gain-framing is more persuasive than
loss-framing and vice-versa are investigated. This program of research
explores three such variables: (a) whether the goal of the behavior
targeted for change is prevention or early detection, (b) whether the
message frame is operationalized in terms of avoiding or attaining desirable
or undesirable outcomes associated with the relevant health behavior, and
(c) whether the individual is highly involved with or cares little about the
relevant health domain. Moreover, two variables that may mediate the impact
of framed messages on behavior are considered: (a) changes in perceptions
of risk and (b) the arousal of emotion. Identification of mediating
mechanisms will allow the findings from this program of research to be
generalized to persuasion attempts in other cancer domains.
Three experiments are proposed. Experiments 1 and 2 involve interventions,
respectively, to promote pap testing for the prevention and early detection
of cervical cancer and screening mammography for the early detection of
breast cancer. Experiment 3 is also a mammography intervention but recruits
a sample of largely minority women served by a community health clinic. The
three studies, as a group, address themselves to five hypotheses regarding
the influence of message framing on persuasion and behavior change.
Error Notice
The database may currently be offline for maintenance and should be operational soon. If not, we have been notified of this error and will be reviewing it shortly.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
- The DCCPS Team.
