The DOI matches its Crossref record; 202 of the 203 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 24 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
Appealing to fear: A meta-analysis of fear appeal effectiveness and theories
Open accessAbstract
Fear appeals are a polarizing issue, with proponents confident in their efficacy and opponents confident that they backfire. We present the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis investigating fear appeals' effectiveness for influencing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. We tested predictions from a large number of theories, the majority of which have never been tested meta-analytically until now. Studies were included if they contained a treatment group exposed to a fear appeal, a valid comparison group, a manipulation of depicted fear, a measure of attitudes, intentions, or behaviors concerning the targeted risk or recommended solution, and adequate statistics to calculate effect sizes. The meta-analysis included 127 articles (9% unpublished) yielding 248 independent samples (NTotal = 27,372) collected from diverse populations. Results showed a positive effect of fear appeals on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, with the average effect on a composite index being random-effects d = 0.29. Moderation analyses based on prominent fear appeal theories showed that the effectiveness of fear appeals increased when the message included efficacy statements, depicted high susceptibility and severity, recommended one-time only (vs. repeated) behaviors, and targeted audiences that included a larger percentage of female message recipients. Overall, we conclude that (a) fear appeals are effective at positively influencing attitude, intentions, and behaviors; (b) there are very few circumstances under which they are not effective; and (c) there are no identified circumstances under which they backfire and lead to undesirable outcomes.
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“these results are presented in Appendix A and are consistent with the results based on the combined measure.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Outcomes (Effect Size Calculation)
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In the paper
“The average weighted effect size comparing outcomes for treatment to comparison groups was d = 0.29 with a 95% CI of [0.22, 0.35].”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Average Effect Size and Between-Effects Variability
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In the paper
“The results support this hypothesis: Fear appeals were more effective when they included efficacy statements (95% CI: [0.31, 0.55]) than when they did not (95% CI: [0.13, 0.29]).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
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In the paper
“Moderation analyses based on prominent fear appeal theories showed that the effectiveness of fear appeals increased when the message included efficacy statements, depicted high susceptibility and severity, recommended one-time only (vs. repeated) behaviors, and targeted audiences that included a larger percentage of female message recipients.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Abstract
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In the paper
“Moderation analyses based on prominent fear appeal theories showed that the effectiveness of fear appeals increased when the message included efficacy statements, depicted high susceptibility and severity, recommended one-time only (vs. repeated) behaviors, and targeted audiences that included a larger percentage of female message recipients.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Abstract
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In the paper
“Further, the current meta-analysis used a substantially larger meta-analytic database than prior analyses, thus providing us with more precision to test relevant hypotheses.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > A Message-Behavior-Audience Framework of Fear Appeals
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In the paper
“Moderation analyses based on prominent fear appeal theories showed that the effectiveness of fear appeals increased when the message included efficacy statements, depicted high susceptibility and severity, recommended one-time only (vs. repeated) behaviors, and targeted audiences that included a larger percentage of female message recipients.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Abstract
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In the paper
“In the entire database (k = 248), 21 samples included more than two experimental groups exposed to varying levels of depicted fear.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Potential Moderators
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesA result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Moderation analyses based on prominent fear appeal theories showed that the effectiveness of fear appeals increased when the message included efficacy statements, depicted high susceptibility and severity, recommended one-time only (vs. repeated) behaviors, and targeted audiences that included a larger percentage of female message recipients.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Abstract
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In the paper
“There was also significant heterogeneity among effect sizes Q(247) = 1,287, I2 = 85.11, p < .0001.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Average Effect Size and Between-Effects Variability
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- Probably not a substantial claim. 25
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- The quote only partly states this claim. 1
The sources with a verdict support this claim; the rest weren’t checked yet, have no full text we could read, or their verdicts aren’t rated yet.
In the paper
“based on a well-established body of literature in persuasion demonstrating that aspects of a message’s source can influence the persuasiveness of the message (Briñol & Petty, 2009; Kumkale et al., 2010; Pornpitakpan, 2004; Wilson & Sherrell, 1993), the source of a fear appeal communication should be an important moderator for fear appeal effectiveness.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Briñol & Petty, 2009 source
- Supportedcites Kumkale et al., 2010 source
The Discussion’s ‘Identification, Selection, and Integration of Attitude-Relevant Information’ section states that a message’s source can influence attitudes. The ‘Applied Implications’ section further reports that using a credible source can aid persuasion, particularly when recipients are forming attitudes. (LLM, conf=0.94)
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Pornpitakpan, 2004 source
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In the paper
“As can be seen in Table 4, none of these methodological factors moderated fear appeal effectiveness – within each factor, 95% CIs for each factor level overlap for all levels of all factors.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Moderator Tests
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In the paper
“The majority of samples (k = 170) included only one type of dependent measure (attitudes, intentions, or behaviors), but some samples included two types (k = 61) or all three (k = 17).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Outcomes (Effect Size Calculation)
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In the paper
“Based on the 71 samples that included such manipulation checks, fear appeals were generally successful at inducing experienced fear, such that treatment groups reported more fear than comparison groups, d = 1.00 (95% CI: [0.83, 1.18]), Q(70) = 697, I2 = 90.67, p < .0001.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Average Effect Size and Between-Effects Variability
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In the paper
“Of the 430 reports considered for inclusion in this meta-analysis, 127 met our inclusion criteria (9% unpublished), providing 248 statistically independent samples with a total N of 27,372 participants in the treatment and comparison groups combined.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Review and Inclusion Criteria
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- Rests on an assumption: The 248 samples included in the meta-analysis are statistically independent.
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In the paper
“The moderate depicted fear groups (total N = 1,626) were not included in other analyses”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Potential Moderators
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedn = 1,626Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
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In the paper
“Many fear appeals explicitly mention death (89 of the 248 studies in our meta-analysis)”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > The Recommended Behavior > Mentioning death, self-esteem relevance, and time delays
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In the paper
“Results showed a positive effect of fear appeals on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, with the average effect on a composite index being random-effects d¯ = 0.29.”
- Also stated in: § Abstract · plain
“Overall, we conclude that (a) fear appeals are effective at positively influencing attitude, intentions, and behaviors”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
- Also stated in: § Abstract · plain
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The meta-analysis included 127 papers (9% unpublished) yielding 248 independent samples (NTotal = 27,372) collected from diverse populations.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Abstract
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
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In the paper
“The combined effect size was d = −0.05 with a 95% CI of [−0.34, 0.24] and Q(20) = 154 (I2 = 92.89, p < .0001).”
- Also stated in: § Tests of message content hypotheses · plain
“Therefore, outcomes did not differ for groups exposed to moderate versus high depicted fear.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
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- Also stated in: § Tests of message content hypotheses · plain
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In the paper
“Cronbach’s alpha for the composite measure was .87, indicating that the three types of measures are highly internally consistent.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Outcomes (Effect Size Calculation)
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In the paper
“the number of samples with multiple attitude, intention, and behavior measures was respectively k = 18, k = 24, and k = 12”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Outcomes (Effect Size Calculation)
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it. It may state two separate claims as one.
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In the paper
“Separate meta-regressions for each of these three variables revealed that none were related to fear appeal effectiveness: b = −0.0029 (SE = 0.0022, p = .18, 95% CI: [−0.0072, 0.0013]), b = −0.0046 (SE = 0.0039, p = .23, 95% CI: [−0.0122, 0.0030]), and b = 0.0000 (SE = 0.0002, p = .91, 95% CI: [−0.0003, 0.0003]), respectively for publication year, average age of sample, and sample size.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Moderator Tests
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In the paper
“However, it is worth noting that fear appeals were effective for both types of recommended behaviors, and they were simply more effective for one-time behaviors.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of the recommended behavior hypotheses
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In the paper
“The results did not support these predictions, as fear appeals were equally effective when they mentioned death and recommended a self-esteem hindering behavior (95% CI: [−0.41, 0.18]), did not mention death and recommended a self-esteem hindering behavior (95% CI: [0.00, 0.96]), mentioned death and recommended a self-esteem enhancing behavior (95% CI: [0.11, 0.67]), or did not mention death and”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of the recommended behavior hypotheses
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In the paper
“The 95% CIs confirmed this prediction and indicated that fear appeals high on both moderators had positive effects for attitudes (95% CI: [0.05, 0.38]), intentions (95% CI: [0.23, 0.47]), and behaviors (95% CI: [0.24, 0.63]).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
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In the paper
“When fear appeals mentioned death, they were equally effective for outcomes that occurred the same day (95% CI: [0.04, 0.27]), between one and fourteen days after fear appeal exposure (95% CI: [0.21, 1.37]), or more than fourteen days later (95% CI: [0.19, 0.51]).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of the recommended behavior hypotheses
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“The paucity of existing research addressing source characteristics and subjective experience led us to not include these as aspects of the current review framework, but they would be welcome additions in the future.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
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In the paper
“As mentioned, organizing the existing literature under this framework highlights the relative dearth of research addressing the behavior and audience aspects of the model relative to the message aspect.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
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In the paper
“Although most empirical studies simply do not measure participants’ subjective states, such measures could be very informative to test a variety of interesting questions.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
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In the paper
“Similarly, when fear appeals did not mention death, they were equally effective for outcomes that occurred the same day (95% CI: [0.25, 0.44]), between one and fourteen days after fear appeal exposure (95% CI: [−0.29, 0.33]), or more than fourteen days later (95% CI: [0.03, 0.88]).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of the recommended behavior hypotheses
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In the paper
“The 95% CIs indicated that fear appeals that were only high in depicted susceptibility had positive effects for intentions (95% CI: [0.15, 0.59]) and behaviors (95% CI: [0.01, 0.88]) but not attitudes (95% CI: [−0.51, 1.47]).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
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“A number of the hypotheses that we substantiated are relatively agnostic concerning mechanisms, and this is a serious gap in the current fear appeal literature.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
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In the paper
“Further, many fear appeals are delivered in the form of public service announcements, and thus there is relatively little variation across existing studies on this dimension.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
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In the paper
“The 95% CIs indicated that fear appeals that were only high in depicted severity had positive effects for attitudes (95% CI: [0.06, 0.37]) and intentions (95% CI: [0.20, 0.39]) but not behaviors (95% CI: [−0.08, 0.42])”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
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“Specifically, the bulk of prior research on fear appeals has investigated questions about the message’s content – indeed, of the prior meta-analyses on fear appeals, all of them addressed questions related to the message’s content while overlooking questions related to the recommended behavior and audience.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > A Message-Behavior-Audience Framework of Fear Appeals
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In the paper
“We also conducted moderated meta-regressions to analyze all moderator variables; the results were the same as the 95% CI analyses and are thus not presented here.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Moderator Tests
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In the paper
“We conducted all analyses using random- and fixed-effects analyses. As both types of analyses produced comparable results, we present the random-effects analyses.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results
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In the paper
“When a study included more than one potential comparison groups, we opted to compare the highest depicted fear condition with the lowest depicted fear condition, prioritizing them in the following order: No message comparison group, neutral message comparison group, and low depicted fear comparison group.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Review and Inclusion Criteria
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In the paper
“As most studies did not specifically measure this variable, we designed a conservative coding scheme to ensure we could include the maximum number of reports in this analysis while avoiding misclassifications.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Potential Moderators
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In the paper
“Specifically, to ensure that the test concerned high depicted fear versus moderate depicted fear, we only included studies with at least three levels of depicted fear.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
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In the paper
“Thus, the present research represents the first meta-analytic test for nine of the 16 hypotheses and the first meta-analytic test for any hypotheses related to the behavior and audience aspects of our framework.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > The Present Research
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In the paper
“Of the 16 fear appeal hypotheses discussed, only seven have been tested in prior meta-analyses, and all of them fall under the message aspect of our framework (Table 1).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > The Present Research
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In the paper
“This finding may have implications for practitioners using fear appeals - i.e., once a message depicts moderate fear, there is no value in depicting additional fear, but depicting additional fear will not lead to negative effects.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
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In the paper
“Studies were included if they measured one or more of the following variables as an outcome in both the treatment and comparison groups: Attitudes, intentions, or behaviors.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Review and Inclusion Criteria
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In the paper
“whereas messages with high depicted susceptibility positively influenced intentions and behaviors but not attitudes.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > The Content of Fear Appeals > Depicted susceptibility and severity
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites de Hoog et al., 2007
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
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- Not matched
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In the paper
“Therefore, fear appeals have a significant and positive effect on outcomes. That is, relative to participants in comparison groups, participants in treatment groups (i.e., those exposed to relatively high levels of depicted fear) had attitudes, intentions, and behaviors that were more in line with the position advocated by the fear appeal.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Average Effect Size and Between-Effects Variability
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In the paper
“However, to our knowledge, this is the largest and most valid test of the linear and curvilinear hypotheses to date.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The rank correlation was r = −.02, p = .67. Thus, there is no evidence of retrieval or inclusion bias.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Distribution of Effect Sizes
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Begg & Mazumdar, 1994 source
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“As can be seen in the figure, the distribution appears quite symmetric with smaller variability toward the top of the plot.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Distribution of Effect Sizes
Load-bearingStrength:hedged· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one. The quote only partly states this claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The results clearly support the weak efficacy hypothesis and disconfirm the strong efficacy hypothesis. Thus, fear appeals are effective with or without efficacy statements, but the inclusion of efficacy statements is associated with increased effectiveness.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“The linear and curvilinear models have been tested in prior meta-analyses, and the linear model has consistently been supported by existing data, whereas the curvilinear model has not (e.g., Witte & Allen, 2000).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > The Content of Fear Appeals > Amount of depicted fear
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Witte & Allen, 2000 source
Load-bearingStrength:boosted· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“This decision allowed for a more stringent test of TMT hypotheses, and provided an even distribution of death versus non-death conditions, which avoids the potential confound of death messages always being about more severe topics than non-death messages.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Potential Moderators
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Studies were included if they contained an experimental research design in which a treatment group was exposed to a message designed to induce fear (i.e., a fear appeal).Studies were included if they contained a comparison group.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Review and Inclusion Criteria
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Specifically, messages with high depicted severity positively influenced attitudes, intentions, and behaviors”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > The Content of Fear Appeals > Depicted susceptibility and severity
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites de Hoog et al., 2007
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
- Not matched
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Overall, all results should be interpreted as the effect of exposure to messages designed to depict relatively high levels of fear compared to conditions designed to depict relatively lower levels of fear (including no fear).5”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Review and Inclusion Criteria
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
In the paper
“As can be seen from Figure 3, the effect sizes followed a straight line and generally fell within the 95% confidence interval of the normality line, and thus there is no evidence of retrieval or inclusion bias.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Distribution of Effect Sizes
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites Wang & Bushman, 1999
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
- Not matched
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Studies were excluded if they did not contain appropriate statistics (e.g., F ratios, means and standard deviations, frequencies, or exact p values) for calculating an effect size representing the difference of outcomes for treatment versus comparison groups.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Review and Inclusion Criteria
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Further, the distribution of effect sizes appears to be roughly continuous and normal, which indicates a lack of inclusion bias.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Distribution of Effect Sizes
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Although some meta-analytic examinations have found positive effects of fear appeals on some outcomes (Witte & Allen, 2000), others have found null effects (de Hoog et al., 2007) or even negative effects (Peters et al., 2012).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Abstract
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Witte & Allen, 2000 source
- Not matchedcites de Hoog et al., 2007
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matchedcites Peters et al., 2012
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Agreement for all variables was good: Categorical variables had average κ = .93 (SD = .06, minimum = .80), and continuous variables had average r = .92 (SD = .12, minimum = .73).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Coding of Potential Moderators
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Studies were included if they experimentally manipulated depicted fear across groups.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Methods > Review and Inclusion Criteria
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Second, drawing on our previous distinction between fear appeals and fear, the subjective experience of the message recipient should be an important aspect of fear appeal communications.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✗ Checkable: fails✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may be too vague to check against evidence. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Finally, the lack of subjective fear measures makes it difficult for researchers interested in the effects of fear (rather than fear appeals) to investigate relevant hypotheses meta-analytically.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Limitations
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“based on a well-established body of literature in persuasion demonstrating that aspects of a message’s source can influence the persuasiveness of the message (Briñol & Petty, 2009; Kumkale et al., 2010; Pornpitakpan, 2004; Wilson & Sherrell, 1993), the source of a fear appeal communication should be an important moderator for fear appeal effectiveness.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
Strength:boosted· not yet calibratedCausal:correlational· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Rather, fear appeals consistently work, and through our meta-analysis we were able to identify various factors that can enhance their effectiveness to make them work even better.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
In the paper
“Although some of the theories investigated do discuss mechanism to some degree (e.g., EPPM; Witte, 1992), our updated review of the literature is consistent with conclusions from prior reviews that these mechanisms are often under-studied and are in need of additional research (e.g., Popova, 2012).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Popova, 2012 source
Strength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✗ Load-bearing: fails✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. The paper’s conclusions may not depend on it.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Specifically, to test hypotheses related to TMT, studies were coded as either containing the word death or not.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Limitations
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, meta-analyses are a correlational research design, and thus many of the moderator analyses we conducted should be interpreted with this in mind.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesProbably not a substantial claim. It may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“However, some studies did not include full texts for fear appeal messages, and thus it is possible that some messages did contain the word death but were nonetheless coded as not containing this word (however, studies were only coded as containing the word death if a portion of the message’s text was available that showed this word).”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Limitations
Strength:hedged· not yet calibratedCausal:conditional· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes? Load-bearing: unclear✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“The present meta-analysis only included experimental studies that compared treatment and comparison groups, and thus internal validity is good when considering the effects of relatively high versus low depicted fear.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Future Directions
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
A conclusion the paper draws from its own results — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“Thus, when testing all three hypotheses, fear appeals generally had positive effects on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors when they were high in depicted severity and/or susceptibility.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > Results > Tests of message content hypotheses
Tests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
What the paper did — it cites no source for this, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“First, as discussed in the introduction, the present results concern fear appeals rather than fear. That is, our meta-analysis did not compare people who were subjectively afraid to people who were subjectively unafraid, but rather we compared groups that were exposed to more or less fear inducing content.”
§ Appealing to fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories > General Discussion > Limitations
Load-bearingStrength:plain· not yet calibratedTests✓ Asserted: passes✓ Checkable: passes✓ Load-bearing: passes✓ Based: passesIt may state two separate claims as one.
The paper relies on this without support.
The 248 samples included in the meta-analysis are statistically independent.
“providing 248 statistically independent samples”
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Results from a comprehensive meta-analysis by Tannenbaum et al. [35] showed that fear appeals are particularly effective at positively influencing attitudes, intentions, and behaviour under specific circumstances.”
From Misinformation lingers in memory: Failure of three pro-vaccination strategies (2017) · cites this paper as [35]
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“To assess whether participants abided by New Zealand’s lockdown rules, participants were asked to indicate from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) whether they abided by the five rules (e.g., “I ensure I maintain the 2-meter rule when out in public”) (Table 3).”
BackgroundInfluentialFear of COVID 19 Infection Across Different Cohorts: A Scoping Review
Quadros, S., Garg, S., Ranjan, R., Vijayasarathi, G., & Mamun, M. A. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychiatry · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.708430 · Cited by 184
Can Emotions Capture the Elusive Gain-Loss Framing Effect? A Meta-Analysis
Nabi, R. L., Walter, N., Oshidary, N., Endacott, C. G., Love‐Nichols, J., Lew, Z., & Aune, A. (2019) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/0093650219861256 · Cited by 178
Efficacy, Action, and Support for Reducing Climate Change Risks
Bostrom, A., Hayes, A. L., & Crosman, K. M. (2018) · Risk Analysis · doi:10.1111/risa.13210 · Cited by 187
“Consistent with EPPM, we find that concern is positively associated with both efficacy and perceived harms.”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialInfluencing climate change attitudes in the United States: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Rode, J. B., Dent, A. L., Benedict, C. N., Brosnahan, D., Martinez, R. L., & Ditto, P. H. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101623 · Cited by 164
Fall, E., Izaute, M., & Chakroun, N. (2017) · Psychology and Health · doi:10.1080/08870446.2017.1401623 · Cited by 152
“According to fear appeal theory (Tannenbaum et al., 2015), it would seem that the threat introduced by the ‘susceptibility’ HBM concept was not enough to prompt action, maybe because the recommended solution (influenza vaccination) was not sufficiently obvious or accessible for students.”
BackgroundChanging Behavior Using the Model of Action Phases
Keller, L., Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2020) · The Handbook of Behavior Change · doi:10.1017/9781108677318.006 · Cited by 147
Contact-tracing apps and alienation in the age of COVID-19
Rowe, F., Ngwenyama, O. K., & Richet, J. (2020) · European Journal of Information Systems · doi:10.1080/0960085x.2020.1803155 · Cited by 137
Hamann, K. R. S., Wullenkord, M. C., Reese, G., & van Zomeren, M. (2023) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/10888683231178056 · Cited by 180
“…of the effects of fear appeals on behavior, indicating that fear appeals increase problem-focused behavior when efficacy is high (see Jugert et al., 2016; Tannenbaum et al., 2015; Witte & Allen, 2000) and decrease it when efficacy is low as part of a defensive response (Witte & Allen, 2000).”
BackgroundThe Future of Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Opioids
Pardo, B., Taylor, J., Caulkins, J. P., Kilmer, B., Reuter, P. H., & Stein, B. D. (2019) · RAND Corporation eBooks · doi:10.7249/rr3117 · Cited by 139
Stroebe, W., vanDellen, M. R., Abakoumkin, G., Lemay, E. P., Schiavone, W. M., Agostini, M., Bélanger, J. J., Gützkow, B., Kreienkamp, J., Reitsema, A. M., et al. (2021) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0256740 · Cited by 139
“Two large meta-analyses on the effectiveness of fear-arousing communications have provided empirical support for the role of perceived threat and perceived behavioral effectiveness in predicting health behaviors from both experimental and observational studies [4, 9].”
BackgroundGuidelines for communicating about bats to prevent persecution in the time of COVID-19
MacFarlane, D., & Rocha, R. (2020) · Biological Conservation · doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108650 · Cited by 139
“the real health-risks arising from such behaviours (Lu et al., 2016; Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
Chan, M. S., Winneg, K. M., Hawkins, L., Farhadloo, M., Jamieson, K. H., & Albarracín, D. (2018) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.007 · Cited by 124
“A fear appeal refers to a persuasive message intended to arouse danger or threat perceptions to facilitate preventive motivation and protective behaviors (Earl et al., 2009; Rogers and Deckner, 1975; Tannenbaum et al., 2015) .”
Self-citationThe contagion of mortality: A terror management health model for pandemics
Courtney, E. P., Goldenberg, J. L., & Boyd, P. (2020) · British Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjso.12392 · Cited by 124
“…defences, as defined by the TMHM, mirror behavioural health responses investigated in the context of research on fear appeals (e.g., Hunt & Shehryar, 2011), converging with the TMHM to predict responses to personally relevant, fear-arousing threats (e.g., mortality; see Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundChen, L., Wang, X., & Peng, T. (2018) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/11515 · Cited by 128
Ettinger, J., Walton, P., Painter, J., & DiBlasi, T. (2021) · Climatic Change · doi:10.1007/s10584-021-02975-8 · Cited by 146
“This was an important first step in the analysis because, as Witte (1992) describes, fear appeal studies should examine whether their messages evoked their intended emotional responses.”
BackgroundMessage Framing in Vaccine Communication: A Systematic Review of Published Literature
Penţa, M. A., & Băban, A. (2017) · Health Communication · doi:10.1080/10410236.2016.1266574 · Cited by 127
“video, online or through some other new media technologies? This question was also raised for fear appeals (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundMah, A. Y. J., Chapman, D. A., Markowitz, E. M., & Lickel, B. A. (2020) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102282 · Cited by 137
Persuasion, Emotion, and Language: The Intent to Persuade Transforms Language via Emotionality
Rocklage, M. D., Rucker, D. D., & Nordgren, L. F. (2018) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797617744797 · Cited by 124
“For example, the elicitation of fear can increase persuasion ( Janis & Feshbach, 1953; Sternthal & Craig, 1974; Tannenbaum et al., 2015), and models of persuasion, such as the elaborationlikelihood model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986), have been used to predict and demonstrate that both positive and negative emotions enhanc…”
MethodToward A Bifurcated Theory of Emotional Deterrence
Pickett, J. T., Roche, S. P., & Pogarsky, G. (2018) · Criminology · doi:10.1111/1745-9125.12153 · Cited by 94
Perseverative Cognition and Health Behaviors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Clancy, F., Prestwich, A., Caperon, L., & O'Connor, D. B. (2016) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2016.00534 · Cited by 110
“It might also be that worry, triggered by fear-appeals, has the capacity to promote some health behaviors, thereby, contributing to the observed mixed findings (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
ResultLove or Loss: Effective message framing to promote environmental conservation
Jacobson, S. K., Morales, N. A., Chen, B., Soodeen, R., Moulton, M. P., & Jain, E. (2018) · Applied Environmental Education & Communication · doi:10.1080/1533015x.2018.1456380 · Cited by 117
“However, messages that focus on dismal information, such as the increasing number of species facing extinction or catastrophic impacts of climate change (Ceballos et al., 2015; IPCC, 2014), may actually discourage positive behavior change and action (CRED, 2009; Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundHavnes, I. A., Jørstad, M. L., Innerdal, I., & Bjørnebekk, A. (2020) · International Journal of Drug Policy · doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102876 · Cited by 106
A Priest, a Rabbi, and a Minister Walk into a Bar: A Meta-Analysis of Humor Effects on Persuasion
Walter, N., Cody, M. J., Xu, L. Z., & Murphy, S. T. (2018) · Human Communication Research · doi:10.1093/hcr/hqy005 · Cited by 103
Nikopoulou, V. A., Holeva, V., Parlapani, E., Karamouzi, P., Voitsidis, P., Porfyri, G.-N., Blekas, A., Papigkioti, K., Patsiala, S., & Diakogiannis, I. (2020) · International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction · doi:10.1007/s11469-020-00414-w · Cited by 114
Changing Behavior Using the Health Action Process Approach
Schwarzer, R., & Hamilton, K. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108677318.007 · Cited by 114
Hopium or empowering hope? A meta-analysis of hope and climate engagement
Geiger, N., Dwyer, T. F., & Swim, J. K. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1139427 · Cited by 107
Zombie leadership: Dead ideas that still walk among us
Haslam, S. A., Alvesson, M., & Reicher, S. D. (2024) · The Leadership Quarterly · doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2023.101770 · Cited by 100
The Effectiveness of Abstract Versus Concrete Fear Appeals in Information Security
Schuetz, S. W., Lowry, P. B., Pienta, D., & Thatcher, J. B. (2020) · Journal of Management Information Systems · doi:10.1080/07421222.2020.1790187 · Cited by 101
Climate change helplessness and the (de)moralization of individual energy behavior.
Salomon, E., Preston, J. L., & Tannenbaum, M. B. (2017) · Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied · doi:10.1037/xap0000105 · Cited by 114
“Efficacy and fear are effective individually (e.g., Bandura, 1982; Leventhal, Watts, & Pagano, 1967), but together, fear of negative outcomes and the efficacy to prevent them are a particularly powerful combination in motivating behavioral change (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundSelf-citationFinnegan, W. (2022) · Environmental Education Research · doi:10.1080/13504622.2022.2120963 · Cited by 97
“Studies of public health campaigns utilising fear appeals have identified an important relationship between threat and efficacy when it comes to message effectiveness, and this may also be true of emotionally-mediated climate education (Peters, Ruiter, and Kok 2013; Tannenbaum et al. 2015).”
BackgroundCunningham, M. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01639 · Cited by 93
“Published experiments comprised 66.3% (411/620) of their population of studies and unpublished studies comprised 33.7%.”
MethodInfluentialGeiger, N., Swim, J. K., Gasper, K., Fraser, J., & Flinner, K. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101649 · Cited by 91
Hamilton, K., Price, S., Keech, J. J., Peden, A. E., & Hagger, M. S. (2017) · International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.12.013 · Cited by 92
“efficacy messages built into the campaigns are most effective in addressing behaviours that are less common (Tannenbaum et al., 2015; Wakefield et al., 2010), such as avoiding driving through floodwater.”
BackgroundThe Psychology of Framing: How Everyday Language Shapes the Way We Think, Feel, and Act
Flusberg, S. J., Holmes, K. J., Thibodeau, P. H., Nabi, R. L., & Matlock, T. (2024) · Gothic.net · doi:10.1177/15291006241246966 · Cited by 120
What arguments on vaccinations run through YouTube videos in Italy? A content analysis
Covolo, L., Ceretti, E., Passeri, C., Boletti, M., & Gelatti, U. (2017) · Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics · doi:10.1080/21645515.2017.1306159 · Cited by 89
“A large meta-analysis showed that fear appeal was effective in influencing attitudes, intentions and behaviors in different health communication contexts.(31) However, a recent randomized trial(32) showed that different interventions, some based on narrative and images of dramatic consequences of measles on children,…”
BackgroundMorss, R. E., Cuite, C. L., Demuth, J. L., Hallman, W. K., & Shwom, R. (2018) · International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction · doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.01.023 · Cited by 89
“329; see also [18]) or, more briefly, “threatening or fear-arousing persuasive messages” ([17], p.”
Maina, B. W., Ushie, B. A., & Kabiru, C. W. (2020) · Reproductive Health · doi:10.1186/s12978-020-00938-3 · Cited by 88
“On the contrary, a meta-analysis of fear appeal effectiveness found that instilling fear was an effective strategy at positively influencing attitude, intentions, and behaviours [44].”
BackgroundSharot, T., Rollwage, M., Sunstein, C. R., & Fleming, S. M. (2022) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/17456916221082967 · Cited by 99
“We further speculate that when fear appeals work (Tannenbaum et al., 2015), it is because they can generate positive internal-and external-belief outcomes.”
BackgroundSiciliani, L., Wild, C., McKee, M., Kringos, D. S., Barry, M. M., Barros, P. P., Maeseneer, J. D., Murauskienė, L., & Ricciardi, W. (2020) · Health Policy · doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.02.015 · Cited by 87
“Finally, it may be possible to use fear appeals selectively, but only when designed to promote positive emotions, including a powerful message.[40]”
BackgroundThe Role of Guilt in Influencing Sustainable Pro-Environmental Behaviors among Shoppers
Muralidharan, S., & Sheehan, K. B. (2017) · Journal of Advertising Research · doi:10.2501/jar-2017-029 · Cited by 86
Alshurideh, M. T., Kurdi, B. H. A., Hussien, A. A., & Alshaar, H. (2017) · Journal of Marketing Communications · doi:10.1080/13527266.2017.1322126 · Cited by 84
“It was used to change behaviours such as smoking (Sutton and Eiser 1984; Leventhal and Watts 1966), safety of driving (Tannenbaum et al. 2015), alcohol and drug abuse (King and Reid 1990; Treise and Schumann 1992) and recently the unsafe sexual practices associated with the transmission of AIDS…”
MethodTV News and COVID-19: Media Influence on Healthy Behavior in Public Spaces
Scopelliti, M., Pacilli, M. G., & Aquino, A. (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph18041879 · Cited by 90
Riet, J. V. ‘., Cox, A. D., Cox, D. S., Zimet, G. D., de Bruijn, G., van den Putte, B., de Vries, H., Werrij, M. Q., & Ruiter, R. A. C. (2016) · Health Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/17437199.2016.1176865 · Cited by 85
“Although different health behaviours are very hard to compare, meta-analyses can go some way to rectifying this problem by synthesising the results for a large number of different prevention and detection behaviours (e.g., Peters, Ruiter, & Kok, 2013; Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundHogg, T. L., Stanley, S. K., O’Brien, L. V., Watsford, C. R., & Walker, I. A. (2024) · Journal of Environmental Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102249 · Cited by 116
Kassavou, A., & Sutton, S. R. (2017) · Health Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/17437199.2017.1365617 · Cited by 85
“and perceived response efficacy or if the intervention messages include efficacy statements (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
Jung, H., & Albarracín, D. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.2007538118 · Cited by 76
Self-citationAnsari‐Moghaddam, A., Seraji, M., Sharafi, Z., et al. (2021) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-021-11134-8 · Cited by 73
Protection Motivation Theory in Information Systems Security Research
Haag, S., Siponen, M. T., & Liu, F. (2021) · ACM SIGMIS Database the DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems · doi:10.1145/3462766.3462770 · Cited by 77
Olsen, S. J., Schirmer, H., Wilsgaard, T., Bønaa, K. H., & Hanssen, T. A. (2018) · European Journal of Preventive Cardiology · doi:10.1177/2047487318778088 · Cited by 72
Perry, S. L. (2023) · Sociological Theory · doi:10.1177/07352751231153664 · Cited by 75
“Flowing from this, the second stable condition is that voter persuasion in competitive races is heavily tied to identity and emotion, specifically anger and fear (Achen and Bartels 2016; Huddy, Mason, and Aarøe 2015; Tannenbaum et al. 2015; Valentino et al. 2011; Weber 2013).”
BackgroundReyes, G. P., Nandakumar, K., & Stevens, R. (2022) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-6684-5678-1.ch064 · Cited by 71
Self- and Response Efficacy Information in Fear Appeals: A Meta-Analysis
Bigsby, E., & Albarracín, D. (2022) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1093/joc/jqab048 · Cited by 72
“…Dillard, Plotnick, Godbold, Freimuth, & Edgar, 1996; Witte, 1992) have examined extant theories that predict persuasive success or failure (Tannenbaum et al., 2015), common message moderators (de Hoog, Stroebe, & de Wit, 2007; Earl & Albarracín, 2007; Peters, Ruiter, & Kok, 2013; Sutton,…”
BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialSelf-citationUnderstanding media publics and the antimicrobial resistance crisis
Davis, M., Whittaker, A. M., Lindgren, M., et al. (2017) · Global Public Health · doi:10.1080/17441692.2017.1336248 · Cited by 68
“AMR is frightening – an effect on which the news media relies in its use of ‘superbugs’ – and this use of fear may increase avoidance of AMR messages (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundTesting a novel multicomponent intervention to reduce meat consumption in young men
Amiot, C. E., Boutros, G. E. H., Sukhanova, K., & Karelis, A. D. (2018) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0204590 · Cited by 76
Rossen, I., Hurlstone, M. J., & Lawrence, C. M. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01483 · Cited by 71
“Themost recent and comprehensive meta-analytic assessment of the fear appeal literature concluded that fear appeals do work (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundSecondary Risk Theory: Validation of a Novel Model of Protection Motivation
Cummings, C. L., Rosenthal, S., & Kong, W. Y. (2020) · Risk Analysis · doi:10.1111/risa.13573 · Cited by 66
“Fear appeals can be highly effective in influencing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors (Tannenbaum et al., 2015), and are a common message strategy in health and risk communication.”
BackgroundDrummond, A., Hall, L. C., Sauer, J. D., & Palmer, M. A. (2018) · Climatic Change · doi:10.1007/s10584-018-2230-2 · Cited by 66
“Although fear can be an effective persuasion tool (Tannenbaum et al. 2015), message content, prompting strong fear reactions combined with a low degree of personal efficacy for action, can result in defensive responses that undermine message effectiveness (Witte and Allen 2000).”
BackgroundOrt, A., & Fahr, A. (2018) · British Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1111/bjhp.12310 · Cited by 65
Abrams, K. M., Leong, K. M., Melena, S., & Teel, T. L. (2019) · Environmental Communication · doi:10.1080/17524032.2019.1649291 · Cited by 62
Health Risk Perception and Risk Communication
Schmälzle, R., Renner, B., & Schupp, H. T. (2017) · Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1177/2372732217720223 · Cited by 70
“While many factors contribute to the effectiveness of mass media health messages, a core ingredient of effective campaigns is their ability to address recipients in a personal and motivationally relevant way (Burnkrant & Unnava, 1995; Dillard & Peck, 2000; Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundWhite, B. X., & Albarracín, D. (2018) · Health Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/17437199.2018.1448292 · Cited by 68
“2 Kok and colleagues cite a meta-analysis conducted by Tannenbaum et al. (2015).”
InfluentialSelf-citationWhere Health and Death Intersect
Arndt, J., & Goldenberg, J. L. (2017) · Current Directions in Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0963721416689563 · Cited by 64
“Notably, there are differing views about the potential of the TMHM to inform research on the use of persuasive fear messages (see Hunt & Shehryar, 2011; Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundJansen, J., & van Schaik, P. (2018) · International Journal of Human-Computer Studies · doi:10.1016/j.ijhcs.2018.10.004 · Cited by 77
“In addition, stronger results might have been found if one-off behaviour was investigated, such as installing anti-virus software, than repeated behaviours such as in our study (Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
Xiao, W. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.600826 · Cited by 70
A (Re)defining moment for fear appeals: a comment on Kok et al. (2018)
Roberto, A. J., Mongeau, P. A., & Liu, Y. (2018) · Health Psychology Review · doi:10.1080/17437199.2018.1445546 · Cited by 62
“…Witte & Allen, 2000) – including smoking behaviour (Sheeran et al., 2014) – fear appeals that include both threat and efficacy components have larger effects on behaviour than threatening communication alone (Peters et al., 2013; Sheeran et al., 2014; Tannenbaum, 2015; Tannenbaum et al., 2015).”
BackgroundInfluentialLang, R., Benham, J. L., Atabati, O., Hollis, A., Tombe, T., Shaffer, B., Burns, K. K., MacKean, G., Léveillé, T., McCormack, B., et al. (2021) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-021-10790-0 · Cited by 64
“Marketing campaigns that increase concern for COVID-19 may be effective in increasing uptake of public health behaviours; however, this will require a fine balance as to not promote fear appeal, which is a controversial method of promoting behaviour change [16, 34, 35].”
BackgroundEder, S. J., Steyrl, D., Stefańczyk, M., Pieniak, M., Molina, J. M., Pešout, O., Binter, J., Smela, P., Scharnowski, F., & Nicholson, A. A. (2021) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0247997 · Cited by 65
“These results highlight that inter-individual factors significantly contribute to a population’s fears of the novel coronavirus (SarsCoV-2), and support previous work calling attention to the ‘audience’ when investigating and designing behavioral interventions based on fear appeal [5].”
BackgroundO’Keefe, D. J., & Hoeken, H. (2021) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.664160 · Cited by 73
Vulturius, G., André, K., Swartling, Å. G., Brown, C., Rounsevell, M., & Blanco, V. (2017) · Regional Environmental Change · doi:10.1007/s10113-017-1218-1 · Cited by 63
“Much of the contemporary scientific literature about climate change adaptation focuses on structural factors that determine the capacity of society and its institutions to adapt to climate change impacts (Brooks et al. 2005; Füssel and Klein 2006; Tinch et al. 2015).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Tannenbaum, M. B., Hepler, J., Zimmerman, R. S., Saul, L., Jacobs, S., Wilson, K., & Albarracín, D.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- University of Nevada, Reno (US)
- University of Missouri–St. Louis (US)
- Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 2015-11
- Volume
- 141
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 1178-1204
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- PMC
- PMC5789790
- OpenAlex
- W2238586764
- Semantic Scholar
- 7940c739aafad42be93bddeda83667a658986963
- Cited by
- 1,315
- References
- 203
- Citations by year
- 2026: 148 · 2025: 149 · 2024: 138 · 2023: 124 · 2022: 134 · 2021: 192 · 2020: 203 · 2019: 78 · 2018: 78 · 2017: 48 · 2016: 21
- FWCI
- 5.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Sponsor name not included (R01 MH094241, R01 NR08325, and R56 AI114501)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Risk Perception and Management
- Social Sciences › Communication › Media Influence and Health
- Keywords
- fear appeals, attitude change, behavioral intention, risk communication, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, message framing
- MeSH terms
- Attitude, Behavior, Fear, Female, Humans, Male, Models, Psychological, Persuasive Communication, Risk Factors, Intention
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