The Influence of Self- and Other-Oriented Persuasive Messages on the Intention to Engage in Health-Oriented Behavior Change

Although there is research investigating the influence of self- and other-oriented persuasive messages on health-oriented behavior change, little exists on the influence of these messages on mask-wearing behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, much of the research on persuasive health messages uses advertisements and other textual presentations of these persuasive messages, and little research exists on vocal presentations. This study examined how the vocal presentation of these self- and other-oriented persuasive messages can influence an individual’s self-reported likelihood of engaging in mask-wearing. Analyses showed that hearing a self-oriented persuasive message led participants to give reasons to wear a mask that dealt with the protection of themselves, while other-oriented persuasive messages led participants to give reasonings for wearing a mask that dealt with the protection of others. This indicates that the manipulation of argument type was perceived by participants and their reasoning for wearing a mask was systematically affected by the argument type they were presented with. Even though argument type was shown to impact reasoning for mask wearing, follow up analyses did not indicate that argument type systematically effected participant responses regarding their behavioral intention and their perceptions of persuasiveness of the given message. These findings suggest that further research is needed to learn about how verbally presented self- and other-oriented messages impact the intention to engage in health behaviors such as mask-wearing