Narrative Based Fear Appeals Manipulating Grammatical Person And Message Frame To Promote Hpv Awareness And Responsible Sexual Conduct

The utility of narrative as a persuasive mechanism has been increasingly investigated in recent years especially within the context of health behaviors. Although many studies have noted the effectiveness of narrative-based persuasive appeals, conceptual inconsistencies have made it difficult to determine what specific aspects of narrative messages lead to the most effective persuasive outcomes. In the present study, 145 female college students were randomly assigned to read one of four narrative health messages about a female freshman college students experiences with the human papillomavirus (HPV). Two elements of the narrative message structure were manipulated: the message frame (gain framed vs. loss framed), and the grammatical person of the text (first-person vs. third-person).The messages were presented via the medium of an online blog. After reading a narrative participants responded to a brief questionnaire designed to measure perceptions of threat regarding HPV contraction, perceptions of efficacy regarding HPV prevention, and intentions to get the Gardasil vaccine. Participants exposed to loss framed messages reported higher levels of perceived threat (susceptibility and severity) than participants exposed to gain framed messages although participants in the gain framed message conditions reported higher levels of perceived self-efficacy. Significant correlations were also found between levels of reported character identification and the two threat variables. No effects were found for grammatical person