Sequencing the Threat and Recommendation Components of Persuasive Messages Differentially Improves the Effectiveness of High and Low Distressing Imagery in an Anti-Alcohol Message in Students

Objectives Distressing imagery is often used to improve the persuasiveness of mass‐reach health promotion messages, but its effectiveness may be limited because audiences avoid attending to content. Prior self‐affirmation or self‐efficacy inductions have been shown to reduce avoidance and improve audience responsiveness to distressing messages, but these are difficult to introduce into a mass‐reach context. Reasoning that a behavioural recommendation may have a similar effect, we reversed the traditional threat‐behavioural recommendation health promotion message sequence. Design 2 × 2 experimental design: F actor 1, high‐ and low‐distress images; F actor 2, threat‐recommendation and recommendation‐threat sequences. Methods Ninety‐one students were exposed to an identical text message accompanied by high‐ or low‐distress imagery presented in threat‐recommendation and recommendation‐threat sequences. Results For the high‐distress message, greater persuasion was observed for the recommendation‐threat than the threat‐recommendation sequence. This was partially mediated by participants’ greater self‐exposure to the threat component of the message, which we attribute to the effect of sequence in reducing attentional avoidance. For the low‐distress message, greater persuasion was observed for the threat‐recommendation sequence, which was not mediated by reading time allocated to the threat. Conclusions Tailoring message sequence to suit the degree of distress that message developers wish to induce provides a tool that could improve persuasive messages. These findings provide a first step in this process and discuss further steps needed to consolidate and expand these findings