ABSTRACT

HPV has long been constructed as a sex-specific virus. Boys and men largely perceive the virus as not related to themselves and thus develop a female-specific schema on HPV. The present study investigates message strategies for promoting HPV vaccination among heterosexual young men in the United States. Through an online experiment, this study examined the effects of reference point (self, other, vs. self-other) and message framing (gain vs. loss) on processing fluency, optimistic bias, and behavioral intentions. The findings showed a schema-matching pattern in facilitating information processing, and a schema-mismatching pattern in attenuating optimistic bias. Specifically, other-referencing messages that related the outcomes of getting vaccinated for HPV to the message recipients’ sexual partners promoted processing fluency and widened the self-other gap in perceived susceptibility to HPV, regardless of the message frame. By contrast, self-other-referencing messages that highlighted the outcomes regarding themselves and their sex partners enhanced processing fluency and mitigated optimistic bias. Moreover, the attenuation in optimistic bias increased the participants’ information seeking intentions and the likelihood that they would share the messages on social media. The implications for health message design are discussed from a schema-based, message-tailoring perspective.

摘要

HPV 长期以来一直被认为是一种性别特异性病毒。男孩和男人在很大程度上认为该病毒与他们自己无关，因此在 HPV 上形成了女性特有的图式。本研究调查了在美国异性恋年轻男性中促进 HPV 疫苗接种的信息策略。通过在线实验，本研究检验了参考点（自我、他人与自我-他人）和信息框架（获得与损失）对处理流畅性、乐观偏见和行为意图的影响。研究结果显示了促进信息处理的模式匹配模式，以及减弱乐观偏见的模式不匹配模式。具体来说，将接种 HPV 疫苗的结果与信息接收者的性伴侣联系起来的其他参考信息促进了处理的流畅性，并扩大了自我对 HPV 的感知易感性的差距，无论信息框架如何。相比之下，强调自己及其性伴侣结果的自我-他人参考信息提高了处理流畅性并减轻了乐观偏见。此外，乐观偏见的减弱增加了参与者寻求信息的意图以及他们在社交媒体上分享信息的可能性。从基于模式的消息定制角度讨论了对健康消息设计的影响。强调关于他们自己和他们的性伴侣的结果的自我-其他参考信息提高了处理的流畅性并减轻了乐观偏见。此外，乐观偏见的减弱增加了参与者寻求信息的意图以及他们在社交媒体上分享信息的可能性。从基于模式的消息定制角度讨论了对健康消息设计的影响。强调关于他们自己和他们的性伴侣的结果的自我-其他参考信息提高了处理的流畅性并减轻了乐观偏见。此外，乐观偏见的减弱增加了参与者寻求信息的意图以及他们在社交媒体上分享信息的可能性。从基于模式的消息定制角度讨论了对健康消息设计的影响。