Abstract
Two 3(control versus LTI versus HTI) × 2(self-affirmation versus no self-affirmation)-experiments were conducted. The first study presented a news message on the treatability of bowel cancer (N = 717); the second study was about skin cancer (N = 342). The dependent variables were the intention to engage in preventive behaviors and message acceptance. The results showed that when participants were exposed to LTI, only when response efficacy was low, a self-affirmation procedure increased their intention to prevent cancer (experiment 1), and increased message acceptance (experiment 2). When participants were exposed to HTI, the self-affirmation procedure did not increase the intention, and even reduced message acceptance. The findings suggest that defensive processes were active in reaction to LTI, but not in reaction to HTI. Although publishing LTI and HTI information in the media serves legitimate goals, it may have positive but also negative unintended effects on preventive behaviors in the population.
Highlights
Treatment-related information is one of the most pervasive forms of health information in the media (Adelman & Verbrugge, 2000)
The aim of this paper is to test to what extent self-regulatory defensive reactions (Ruttan & Nordgren, 2016) are involved in the effects of low treatability information (LTI) and high treatability information (HTI) on intention to engage in cancer prevention
In the framework of Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), HTI reduces the necessity of danger control, possibly manifesting in a lower intention to engage in a specific preventive behavior
Summary
Treatment-related information is one of the most pervasive forms of health information in the media (Adelman & Verbrugge, 2000). When the course of a disease can be positively changed by health professionals, the disease is regarded as “highly treatable” This high treatability information (HTI) is presented in the news media regularly, for example: “An effective cure for all types of cancer could be just five to 10 years away, according to one of the world’s leading experts on the disease” (Johnston, 2017). In the framework of EPPM, HTI reduces the necessity of danger control, possibly manifesting in a lower intention to engage in a specific preventive behavior. LTI increases the use of fear control so further reducing the use of danger control, possibly manifesting in a lower intention to engage in a specific prevention behavior. Both LTI and HTI are expected to lower the inclination to engage in prevention behaviors, but for different reasons
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