Use of fear appeals assumes that when people are emotionally confronted with the negative effects of their behaviour they will change that behaviour. That reasoning is simple and intuitive, but only true under specific, rare circumstances. Risk perception theories predict that if people will experience a threat, they want to counter that threat. However, how they do so is determined by their coping efficacy level: if efficacy is high, they may change their behaviour in the suggested direction; if efficacy is low, they react defensively. Research on fear appeals should be methodologically sound, comparing a threatening to a non-threatening intervention under high and low efficacy levels, random assignment and measuring behaviour as outcome. We critically review extant empirical evidence and conclude that it does not support positive effects of fear appeals. Nonetheless, their use persists and is even promoted by health psychology researchers, causing scientific insights to be ignored or misinterpreted.

使用恐惧呼吁的前提是，当人们在情感上面对其行为的负面影响时，他们将改变这种行为。该推理简单直观，但仅在特定的罕见情况下才是正确的。风险感知理论预测，如果人们会遇到威胁，他们想应对该威胁。但是，他们的操作方式取决于他们的应对功效水平：如果功效高，他们可能会朝建议的方向改变行为；如果疗效低下，他们会做出防御反应。关于恐惧诉求的研究应该在方法上合理，将在高和低疗效水平下的威胁性干预与非威胁性干预进行比较，随机分配并衡量行为作为结果。我们批判性地审查了现有的经验证据，并得出结论，它不支持恐惧呼吁的积极影响。尽管如此，它们的使用仍然存在，甚至被健康心理学研究人员所推动，导致科学见解被忽略或误解。