Abstract
This study tested the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) by examining how fear mediated the effects of threat on individuals’ assessment of risk, which was neglected in many fear appeal studies. Second, this study treated efficacy as an existing perception, and explored the effects of varying levels of threat and efficacy on individuals’ behavioral intention. Furthermore, this study examined whether message format, such as narratives, played a role on individuals’ behavioral intention. Implications for the EPPM and health message development were discussed.
Highlights
This study investigates the effects of fear appeals on individuals’ health risk estimation and coping response in the context of promoting preventive skin cancer behaviors among college students
The findings contribute to the development of Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) in three folds
It highlights the mediating role of fear on individuals’ risk estimation of skin cancer. It confirms the role of efficacy as an individual variable instead of a message trait variable
Summary
The EPPM [16] has gained increasing scholarly attention and becomes an important theoretical guidance for the examination of fear components in health messages. When both the perceived threat and efficacy were high, individuals were more likely to activate the danger control process, which led them to adaptive responses (accept the recommended response) In this process, individuals were motivated to control the danger because they were motivated to enact protection behaviors, and their attitudes and behavioral intentions changed in accordance with the message recommendations in order to prevent the negative outcomes induced by the threat [18,19]. When the perceived threat was high and the perceived efficacy is low, individuals were more likely to activate the fear control process by engaging in maladaptive responses (message rejection) In this process, individuals were motivated to control their fear elicited by the health threat, and they would deny the recommendations [16,18]. Fear will mediate the effect of threat level on risk evaluation, with high fear eliciting high risk evaluation about skin cancer
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