Blending emotion and logic in health messaging strategy: Audience perception of message appeals in anti- and pro-vaccination memes

Users’ non-sustainable consumption behaviors are affecting the sustainability of access-based services (ABSs), but ABS firms can utilize messaging strategies (ex-ante reminders) to persuade users to curtail their non-sustainable consumption behaviors. Through two online scenario-based experiments in China, this study determined that: (1) Compared with rational appeal messaging, emotional appeal messaging is better able to persuade consumers to curtail non-sustainable consumption behaviors. Furthermore, loss-framed messages are more effective than gain-framed ones. (2) Message appeal and message framing have an interactive persuasive effect on reducing such consumer behaviors. Loss-framed rational appeal messages are more persuasive at reducing non-sustainable consumption behaviors than gain-framed rational appeal messages, and gain-framed emotional appeal messages persuade consumers to reduce non-sustainable consumption behaviors more than loss-framed ones. (3) Consumers’ psychological ownership moderates the persuasive effect of messaging. Among consumers with a high level of psychological ownership of shared goods, only gain-framed emotional appeal messaging is effective at reducing non-sustainable consumption behaviors, whereas among consumers with low psychological ownership, the persuasive effect of loss-framed rational appeal messaging is more effective than gain-framed emotional appeal messaging. This study extends the research on non-sustainable consumption behavior management in ABSs and provides important inspiration for the management of ABSs consumer behavior.

PurposeThis research examines how construal level shapes the effectiveness of rational (vs emotional) messages for inducing cessation behaviors. Concrete mindsets foster self-improvement goals, whereas abstract mindsets boost self-relevance goals.Design/methodology/approachIn four studies, this research examines the moderating role of construal level on health messages and the underlying mechanism of goal pursuit.FindingsResults demonstrate that concrete (vs abstract) mindsets increase consumers’ intent to engage in cessation behaviors when exposed to rational (vs emotional) messages. Consistent with this study’s theorizing, the authors found that self-improvement goals underlie the effects for concrete mindsets, whereas self-relevance goals mediate the effects for abstract mindsets.Research limitations/implicationsThe reported effects are limited to health messages focusing on cessation behaviors.Practical implicationsThis research can help public policymakers to design more effective health messages to foster specific cessation behaviors – quitting smoking and reducing drinking – focusing on concrete (vs abstract) mindsets and rational (vs emotional) messages.Originality/valueThis investigation highlights construal level as an important moderator for message appeals (rational vs emotional) on cessation behaviors, along with the underlying mechanism of goal pursuit, thus contributing to health marketing literature.

Background Black audiences with melanoma diagnoses face high morbidity rates, which necessitates the development and testing of sunscreen messaging strategies to be used by health specialists and practitioners in future campaigns. Purpose The purpose of this study was to test how Black skinfluencers’ emotional and informational message appeals interact with Black consumers’ health regulatory focus and health beliefs to impact sunscreen-related attitudes, use, and purchase intentions. Method A between-subjects online experiment with 570 Black participants aged 18 and above was conducted. Participants’ existing health regulatory focus and health beliefs were measured and incorporated as moderators. Results Participants with higher susceptibility and self-efficacy reported higher sunscreen use and purchase intentions when exposed to a melanoma-based fear appeal. Influencers discussing the benefits of sunscreen use to mitigate the effects of hyperpigmentation resonate with Black participants who are promotion oriented in their health regulatory focus. Discussion This study suggests the effectiveness of incorporating skinfluencer-based message strategies in health campaigns designed to increase sunscreen usage amongst Black audiences. Translation to Health Education Practice Our findings offer potentially effective strategies for Certified Health Education Specialists seeking to design campaigns that encourage sunscreen use to prevent melanoma diagnoses and related morbidity outcomes amongst Black audiences.

Effective communication and messaging strategies are crucial to raise awareness and support participants' efforts to adhere to lung cancer screening (LCS) guidelines. Health messages that incorporate images are processed more efficiently, and given the stigma surrounding lung cancer and cigarette smoking, emphasis must be placed on selecting imagery that is engaging to LCS-eligible individuals. This exploratory study aimed to identify person-centered themes surrounding LCS imagery. This qualitative study leveraged a modified photovoice approach and interviews to define descriptive themes about LCS imagery. Study participants eligible for annual LCS who had a CT scan within 12 months were asked to select three images and participate in a semi-structured interview about photo selection, likes, and dislikes. Participants were also asked their opinions about images from current LCS communications featuring matches, smoke, and cigarettes. Data were analyzed using an inductive thematic approach. Data saturation was reached after thirteen individuals completed the photovoice activity; each participant selected three pictures resulting in a total of 39 images representing LCS. Over half (54%) of images selected contained lungs and only 4 (10%) contained smoking-related elements. Five main themes emerged: 1) images should focus on good news and early detection; 2) people should be relatable; 3) pictures with lungs can dually support lung health or invoke fear; 4) opportunity for education or awareness; and 5) should not be judgmental and induce stigma. These findings suggest that LCS imagery should not contain negative or stigmatizing elements but instead be relatable and educational. This information can inform communication and messaging interventions and strategies for future LCS participation, awareness, and educational research.

Given the prevalence of health misinformation (i.e., inaccurate health messaging that lacks scientific evidence), there is a need for successful communication strategies to combat this detrimental health issue (Krishna & Thompson, 2021). Guided by goals-plans-action theory (Dillard, 1990), which explains the communicative process of creating and implementing influence messages, the purpose of this dissertation was to: (a) uncover primary care physician goals, plans, and action when correcting patient-held health misinformation and (b) experimentally test corrective influence messages for their effectiveness from the patient’s perspective. Two studies addressed these two purposes. In Study One, results of surveys of primary care physicians (N = 105) discovered significant, positive relationships between their primary goal (i.e., correction of health misinformation) and the secondary goals of identity and conversation management. Additionally, Study One results revealed five types of primary care physician strategic message plans during these conversations (i.e., vocalics, clarity, body positioning, listening behavior, relationship-building tone), and five themes for communicative action strategies that primary care physicians use when correcting patient-held health misinformation (i.e., scientific evidence-based explication, recommendations for evaluating health-related information and sources, emotional and/or relationship-building appeal, simple correction, disregard/judgment). Scenario-based corrective influence messaging was created based on communicative action themes from Study One (i.e., scientific evidence, evaluation recommendation, emotional appeal), checked for validity, and pilot tested. In Study Two, U.S. IX adults ages 18 years and older (N = 371) were asked to imagine they have found information online saying vaccines contain toxic ingredients and decide to bring this information up to their primary care physician, were randomly assigned to read a scenario from one of these three corrective influence messaging themes, and then reported their perceptions of the primary care physician. Results revealed no significant differences between scientific evidence and emotional appeal messages on key patient outcomes including perceived source credibility, patient satisfaction, intent to communicate with and share online health information to a primary care physician. Results of the two studies provide evidence for the applicability of goals-plans-action theory to the context of health misinformation and corrective influence messages, and yield recommendations for primary care physicians to implement when correcting health misinformation.

PurposeTo understand challenges faced by faith leaders in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in engaging with current public health strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic; to explain why long-standing collaborations between government, faith-based health services and leaders of faith communities had little impact; to identify novel approaches to develop effective messaging that resonates with local communities.MethodsA qualitative participatory research design, using a workshop methodology was deployed to seek opinions of an invited group of faith leaders in the DRC provinces of Ituri and Nord-Kivu. A topic guide was developed from data gathered in prior qualitative interviews of faith leaders and members. Topics were addressed at a small workshop discussion. Emerging themes were identified.FindingsLocal faith leaders described how misinterpretation and misinformation about COVID-19 and public health measures led to public confusion. Leaders described a lack of capacity to do what was being asked by government authorities with COVID-19 measures. Leaders' knowledge of faith communities' concerns was not sought. Leaders regretted having no training to formulate health messages. Faith leaders wanted to co-create public health messages with health officials for more effective health messaging.ConclusionPublic trust in faith leaders is crucial in health emergencies. The initial request by government authorities for faith leaders to deliver set health messages rather than co-develop and design messages appropriate for their congregations resulted in faith communities not understanding health messages. Delivering public health messages using language familiar to faith communities could help to ensure more effective public health communication and counter misinformation.

Health risk messages may appeal to the responsibility of individuals or members of interdependent dyads for their own or others’ health using many different message strategies. Health messages may also emphasize society’s responsibility for population health outcomes in order to raise support for health policy changes, and these, too, take many different forms. Message designers are inherently interested in whether these appeals to personal, interdependent, and societal responsibility are persuasive. The central question of interest is therefore whether perceptions of responsibility that result from these messages lead to the desired message outcomes. A growing body of empirical research does suggest that there is a direct persuasive effect of perceptions of personal responsibility and interdependent responsibility on health intentions or behaviors, as well as indirect persuasive effects of responsibility on intentions or behaviors via anticipated emotions, specifically regret, guilt, and pride. Research also suggests that perceptions of societal responsibility increase support for public health policy (i.e., the desired message outcome in societal responsibility messages). Important to this area of research is a conceptual definition of responsibility that lends itself toward identifying specific message features that elicit perceptions of responsibility. Specifically, attributions of causation and solution, obligation, and agency are identified as effect-independent message features of responsibility.

Since the advent and global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, several governments used emotional appeals as mechanisms to influence public behavioural change in a bid to combat spread of the then novel Coronavirus. Research shows that the uptake of health messaging is often, partly influenced by audience responses to emotional appeal techniques employed in such messages. This study intended to assess responses by South African audiences to COVID-19 emotional appeal messages from March 2020. The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) is applied. A quantitative study analysed responses of over 1000 participants. Results indicate that government officials used a tailored and phased communication strategy mirroring fear and pro-social appeal messages to the intensity of COVID-19 waves. Results indicate that the most recurring emotional responses by participants were concern, worry and sadness. The least experienced emotions were gloom and surprise. Participants held mixed perceptions towards messages about their experiences regarding government COVID-19 message clarity. Majority of the participants, 72-76% expressed intentions to continue engaging in positive behavioural measures in response to government containment strategies. The recurring multiple waves of COVID-19 infections globally, necessitated tailored and mixed multi-phased messaging by the South African government provoking mirrored responses. This study could provide insight into effective, audience-responsive messaging for longstanding health crises by health promotion organisations including governments.

Effective communication is crucial during health crises, and social media has become a prominent platform for public health experts (PHEs) to share information and engage with the public. At the same time, social media also provides a platform for pseudoexperts who may spread contrarian views. Despite the importance of social media, key elements of communication, such as the use of moral or emotional language and messaging strategy, particularly during the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, have not been explored. This study aimed to analyze how PHEs and pseudoexperts communicated with the public during the emergency phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focused on the emotional and moral language used in their messages on various COVID-19 pandemic-related topics. We also analyzed their interactions with political elites and the public's engagement with PHEs to gain a deeper understanding of their influence on public discourse. For this observational study, we gathered a dataset of >539,000 original posts or reposts from 489 PHEs and 356 pseudoexperts on Twitter (subsequently rebranded X) from January 2020 to January 2021, along with the replies to the original posts from the PHEs. We identified the key issues that PHEs and pseudoexperts prioritized. We also determined the emotional and moral language in both the original posts and the replies. This allows us to characterize priorities for PHEs and pseudoexperts as well as differences in messaging strategy between these 2 groups. We also evaluated the influence of PHEs' language and strategy on the public response. Our analyses revealed that PHEs focused more on masking, health care, education, and vaccines, whereas pseudoexperts discussed therapeutics and lockdowns more frequently (P<.001). PHEs typically used positive emotional language across all issues (P<.001), expressing optimism and joy. Pseudoexperts often used negative emotions of pessimism and disgust, while limiting positive emotional language to origins and therapeutics (P<.001). Along the dimensions of moral language, PHEs and pseudoexperts differed on care versus harm and authority versus subversion across different issues. Negative emotional and moral language tends to boost engagement in COVID-19 discussions across all issues. However, the use of positive language by PHEs increases the use of positive language in the public responses. PHEs act as liberal partisans: they express more positive affect in their posts directed at liberals and more negative affect in their posts directed at conservative elites. In contrast, pseudoexperts act as conservative partisans. These results provide nuanced insights into the elements that have polarized the COVID-19 discourse. Understanding the nature of the public response to PHEs' messages on social media is essential for refining communication strategies during health crises. Our findings underscore the importance of using moral-emotional language strategically to reduce polarization and build trust.

This study analysed the message strategies used in promotional e-mails and explored differences between the e-mail messages of different goods and service marketers. A content analysis of 698 promotional e-mails offers insights on enhancing the effectiveness of e-mail marketing. The findings revealed a higher incidence of informational subject lines, 'text-only' e-mail bodies, and emotional appeals in e-mail messages for services than for goods. This study is the first attempt to analyse the advertising content of promotional e-mails in India and subsequently offer marketing insights. The results can aid practitioners to design and customise an e-mail message strategy.

Purpose This study aims to examine the influence of message appeal in social media posts by cybersecurity firms on consumer behavioral engagement, considering endorsements from either typical consumers or experts. The literature review suggests that both message appeal and endorsement have a positive effect on consumer behavior. Consequently, this research seeks to discern which combinations of message appeal and endorser type elicit the most favorable consumer behaviors toward cybersecurity products. Design/methodology/approach Employing a quantitative, experimental between-subjects design, the study enlisted 168 participants randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions via an online survey. Findings The findings reveal that posts with emotional message appeal did not significantly enhance consumer behavioral engagement over informational appeal. Moreover, the type of endorser was found to modulate the impact of message appeal on consumer engagement, with posts of emotional appeal generating higher engagement when endorsed by typical consumers, and informational appeal posts performing better with expert endorsement. Originality/value This study contributes to cybersecurity marketing by demonstrating that emotional appeals endorsed by typical consumers generate higher engagement than expert-backed informational messages, revealing a novel link between consumer endorsements and engagement while providing strategic insights for effective message design.

Purpose This study aimed to explore the impact of emotional and rational corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages by sport product companies on consumer purchase intention. CSR activities have positively influenced crucial factors affecting consumer purchase intention. Despite the industry's active implementation of CSR initiatives, research on messages that significantly influence consumer behavioral intentions is lacking. Design/methodology/approach After collecting responses from 427 individuals, a 2 (emotional vs. rational appeal) x 2 (service vs. physical product) factorial design was employed and tested. Findings The research revealed no significant difference in purchase intention between emotional and rational appeal for overall sport products. However, in the case of service products, emotional appeal was found to have a negative effect on purchase intentions. For physical products, rational appeal significantly impacted purchase intention compared to emotional appeal. Originality/value This study contributes to the field by identifying which type of appeal is effective for purchase intention.

This study presents a computational analysis of industry-specific advertising message strategies through the theoretical lens of the FCB (Foote, Cone &amp; Belding) grid framework. Leveraging the AiSAC (AI Analysis System for Ad Creation) system developed by the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation (KOBACO), we analyzed 27,000 Korean advertisements across five major industries using advanced machine learning techniques. Through Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling with a coherence score of 0.78, we identified five distinct message strategies: emotional appeal, product features, visual techniques, setting and objects, and entertainment and promotion. Our computational analysis revealed that each industry exhibits a unique “message strategy fingerprint” that significantly discriminates between categories, with discriminant analysis achieving 62.7% classification accuracy. Time-series analysis using recurrent neural networks demonstrated a significant evolution in strategy preferences, with emotional appeal increasing by 44.3% over the study period (2015–2024). By mapping these empirical findings onto the FCB grid, the present study validated that industry positioning within the grid’s quadrants aligns with theoretical expectations: high-involvement/think (IT and Telecom), high-involvement/feel (Public Institutions), low-involvement/think (Food and Household Goods), and low-involvement/feel (Services). This study contributes to media science by demonstrating how computational methods can empirically validate the established theoretical frameworks in advertising, providing a data-driven approach to understanding message strategy patterns across industries.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how business-to-business (B2B) companies use message strategies on social media platform and how these strategies are effective in improving customer perceived value and encouraging customer engagement, as well as how B2B companies differ from business-to-customer (B2C) counterparts in terms of utilization and effectiveness of social media message strategy.Design/methodology/approachBased on content analysis of Sina Weibo brand pages and survey of website visitors, this paper examines the differences of social media message strategies and their impacts upon customer perceived value and customer engagement between B2B and B2C companies.FindingsB2B companies use more rational appeals and less emotional appeals, have lower degree of informativeness and perform better in interactivity and variety than B2C companies. These five dimensions of message strategy have different roles in engaging customers via perceived value across B2B and B2C settings.Originality/valueThe research makes significant contributions to B2B social media marketing literature by answering two interrelated questions, namely, “What companies are doing?” and “What companies should do?” on social media websites. Besides, it provides insightful implications for B2B companies on how to implement appropriate message strategies in their social media marketing efforts by conducting Importance-Performance Analysis.

This commentary links the climate crisis with the pandemic in how both are the subject of campaigns to doubt the science. The authors discuss how clinicians have a clear role to play in countering misinformation.