EFFECTS OF FEAR AROUSAL, SEX AND ANXIETY PREDISPOSITION OF SUBJECTS ON ATTITUDE CHANGE

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effects of fear arousal, sex and anxiety predisposition of Ss on attitude change. The Ss were 868 college students. Experimental groups were exposed to fear-arousing communications on syphilis which recommended to take a blood test, and they were asked to respond to both of before and after questionnaires.The main rerults were as follows: (1) High fear communication produced greater effects on attitude and behavior change than low fear communication. (2) There was found the interaction. effect between fear level and anxiety on attitude change. Low anxiety Ss were equally influenced in the high and low fear condition, but as level of anxiety predisposition of Ss increased, high fear communication incresed attitude change and low fear communication decreased attitude change. (3) Female Ss were more influenced by fear communications than male Ss, and the sex difference on influenceability was more clear in the high fear condition.Most of these results was interpretable with the emotional and cognitive responses of Ss to fear situation.