To select promising health messages, formative research has often relied on perceived message effectiveness (PME) scales assessing either of two related constructs, message perceptions (persuasive potential) and effects perceptions (potential for behavioral impact). We sought to examine their incremental criterion validity within a comparative framework. Participants were 703 U.S. adult smokers (ages \(\ge\) 21) who received anti-smoking or comparable control (littering) messages on their cigarette packs for 3 weeks. Structural equation models examined both PME constructs as simultaneous correlates of outcomes from the UNC Tobacco Warnings Model. Message perceptions demonstrated incremental criterion validity with attention, an early behavioral antecedent (\(\beta\) = 0.82, p < .001). Effects perceptions demonstrated incremental criterion validity with later behavioral antecedents (range \(\beta\) = 0.74–0.87, all p < .01) and quitting behaviors (\(\beta\) = 0.36–0.66, all p < .001). Formative research on anti-smoking messages may benefit from focusing on effects perceptions to characterize potential for behavior change.

为了选择有希望的健康信息，形成性研究通常依赖于感知信息有效性 (PME) 量表来评估两个相关结构中的任何一个，即信息感知（说服潜力）和效果感知（行为影响的潜力）。我们试图在比较框架内检查它们的增量标准有效性。参与者是 703 名美国成年吸烟者（年龄\(\ge\)  21），他们在 3 周的时间里在他们的烟盒上收到了反吸烟或类似的控制（乱扔垃圾）信息。结构方程模型将两种 PME 结构作为 UNC 烟草警告模型的结果的同时相关性进行检查。信息感知证明了注意力的增量标准有效性，这是一个早期的行为先决条件（\(\beta\)  = 0.82, p  < .001)。效果感知证明了后来行为前因（范围\(\beta\)  = 0.74–0.87，所有p  < .01）和戒烟行为（\(\beta\)  = 0.36–0.66，所有p  < .001）的增量标准有效性. 对反吸烟信息的形成性研究可能会受益于关注效果感知以表征行为改变的潜力。