ABSTRACT

Health advocacy messages can generate psychological reactance and lead to message rejection. Could we offset this negative outcome by providing more agency and interactivity to message receivers? Are individuals more likely to be receptive if health campaigns provided them an opportunity to comment on the advocacy messages? Will they be more likely to follow the advocated behavior if a lot of other receivers have expressed approval of those messages, i.e., will they follow the bandwagon and show lesser reactance? We investigated these questions by conducting a 2 (bandwagon cue: strong vs. weak) X 2 (comment action: presence vs. absence) X 2 (message threat: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment (N = 179) with an online health message. Findings suggest that strong bandwagon cues can reduce reactance and improve persuasion by eliciting bandwagon perceptions. Comment action is associated with a strong sense of agency, which positively predicts intention to follow the message recommendation. Technological affordances interact with threat level of the message and with each other in influencing users’ evaluation and acceptance of persuasive health messages.

摘要

健康宣传信息会产生心理反应并导致信息被拒绝。我们能否通过为消息接收者提供更多代理和交互性来抵消这种负面结果？如果健康运动为他们提供了对宣传信息发表评论的机会，个人是否更有可能接受？如果许多其他接收者表示同意这些信息，他们是否会更有可能遵循所倡导的行为，即他们是否会跟随潮流并表现出较小的反应？我们通过进行 2（流行提示：强与弱）X 2（评论动作：存在与缺席）X 2（消息威胁：高与低）受试者间实验来调查这些问题（N= 179) 带有在线健康信息。研究结果表明，强烈的潮流线索可以通过引发潮流感知来减少反应并提高说服力。评论行为与强烈的代理感相关，这积极地预测了遵循消息推荐的意图。技术可供性与信息的威胁级别相互作用，并在影响用户对有说服力的健康信息的评估和接受方面相互影响。