Abstract
Research on exemplification suggests that celebrity health exemplars can exert a greater influence on public risk perceptions than exemplars featuring noncelebrities. In the aftermath of actor Tom Hanks’s announcement that he tested positive for COVID-19, an online experiment compared the effects of his exemplar to an identical noncelebrity exemplar. Hanks’s disclosure increased perceptions of susceptibility to the virus. The celebrity exemplar also increased anxiety, which increased intentions to engage in preventive behavior. These findings suggest that the mere presence of celebrity might function as a cognitive and affective heuristic that guides risk-related assessment and decision making.
Highlights
Research on exemplification suggests that celebrity health exemplars can exert a greater influence on public risk perceptions than exemplars featuring noncelebrities
The only variable that was intended to be manipulated experimentally was the celebrity status of the person featured in the exemplar, but there was a chance that in doing so, perceptions of the severity of COVID-19 could have been inadvertently manipulated
The experimental condition was entered as the independent variable, risk-prevention behavior was entered as the dependent variable, and susceptibility, severity, and emotion were entered as mediators
Summary
Research on exemplification suggests that celebrity health exemplars can exert a greater influence on public risk perceptions than exemplars featuring noncelebrities. There were only a little over 500 confirmed cases in the United States (Muccari et al, 2020) and few people had any firsthand experience with the virus For this reason, Hanks’s experience with COVID-19 was likely a touchstone moment for those trying to orient themselves to the risks the virus posed. Decades of research on celebrity health–related media events has documented a variety of effects that announcements such as Hanks’s can have on public health (see Myrick, 2017), such as increased issue awareness, healthrelated communication, engagement in prevention and treatment, and reduced disease stigmatization (e.g., Cohen et al, 2020; Hoffner & Cohen, 2018; Myrick et al, 2013; Rahmani et al, 2018). One question this study sought to answer is whether there might be something unique about the quality of celebrities—beyond personal involvement—that can make their health experiences more psychologically impactful than noncelebrity experiences?
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