Marketing communications and protection motivation theory: Examining consumer decision-making

Abstract

Findings from the literature onProtection Motivation Theory (PMT) show that variables proposed within the PMT model(vulnerability, severity, efficacy, andcosts) have an impact on persuasion measures; however, little is known about the manner in which these variables are considered by the consumer. Exploratory research was conducted into the decision-making process to determine the sources of information used (i.e., whether the decision is mostly stimulus -or memory-based) and the variables considered (i.e., whether all the PMT variables are evaluated by the consumer even in the absence of information provided in the communication, and how much thought is put in the evaluation of each of the PMT variables).