Protection motivation theory: An extension of fear appeals theory in communication

Abstract

Protection motivation (PM) theory concerns how individuals process threats and select responses to cope with the danger brought about by those threats. Fear appeals, one type of communication involving a threat, have been studied in marketing. But PM theory suggests adding coping response information to fear appeals, which effectively influences adoption of appropriate coping behaviors. This article reports the results of tests of several aspects of PM theory in a marketing context. The results indicate that traditional threat-oriented fear appeals are less effective than appeals that also contain information concerning the coping response.