lecture 7: evidence Flashcards
What is evidence?
Persuasive evidence to promote the acceptance of a personal risk (which in turn is prerequisite for behavior change)
- Used to avoid discounting/rejecting unwelcome messages
Definiton statistical evidence
- objective and quantitative information
- factual info, abstract data, numbers, stats about health risk
- can be generalized across a population
definiton narrative evidence
- anecdotal info
- concrete and emotional info
- cohesive story, often on a first person account on personal experience with a risk
Theoretical principles derived from narratives:
- ELM: personally relevant health info -> enhances involvement: heuristic and effective processing -> enhances active processing of info and overcomes counter-arguing
- availability heuristic: recipients can imagine event that person in narrative experiences -> increases likelihood estimates
- risk-as-feelings hypothesis: vividly presented risk info -> evoke strong emotional reactions -> influences health behavior directly
- transportation theory: absorption into a story -> integrative melding of attention, imagery and feelings
Mention the different type of role models
Positive role model = showing the benefits of already good behavior
Negative role model = showing undesirable behavior and the losses of it
Transitional role model = effective, first engages in de undersirable behavior but changes to the desirable behavior
They should be: Attractive Credible Reliable Identification (empathy, similarity, realism)
What are narratives + definition? (De graaf)
A specific form of communication
- personal story,
- factual info translated into personal experience
Form: textual, audio, visual and audiovisual
Information: can be more interesting and attractive (than basic info)
- it draws attention
- new perspective
- feels more recognizable/relatable
- more important
Definiton (in more detail):
- contains at least 1 character who goes trough 1 event
- in a specific setting
Characteristics narrative (De graaf et al)
Character: A human like agent who behaves intentionally, has a purpose
Event: Transition from the one state of being to another (causal; self-efficay)
Underlying structure: Cause and effect, action, or reaction thereto (can be chronological, but that does not have to so)
Setting: Event in time and place
What make narratives affective? (De Graaf et al. 2014)
- Content
- similarity with character: not so promising
- similarity with setting: more effect but needs more research
- valence/framing: positive effect on health behavior in fain frame on intention
- emotional content: more emotional content = more effective - The form
- Medium: not narrative-specific, not promising for health effects
- Narrative perspective: first-person perspective more effective
- embedding of health message in narrative: distance between narrative and educational content (worth more research) - Context:
- Presentation format (e.g. entertainment, fact/ficton)
- Did not matter if it was persuasive
Experiment de Wit, Das and Vet results
conditions: personal account vs. abstract prevalence data
dependent measures: personal risk perception & intention to obtain vaccination
Results:
- narrative induces more risk perception than the control base rate text
- risk perception mediated the effect of health risk message evidence on intention
- statistics: works when receiver wants to here congruent info (info that people want to hear)
- narratives: work better when there’s preference for inconsistent info (info that people are unwilling to face) (happens more)
WHY do narratives work better:
- promote a sense of personal risk
- go straight to the emotional braind
- influence persuasion
- are less subject to defensive responses
Statistics vs narratives: what works best and WHEN? (field experiment De wit and Vet 2008)
- Narrative effectiveness is dependent on the content of the message versus how the receiver feels about that topics (health problem/personal risk)
Statistiscs: Work in case of preference consistent information. (Information that people want to hear; congruent with receiver’s view)
Narratives: Work better for preference inconsistent information (information that people are unwilling to face, like ‘you are at risk for a serious illness’: convince to open up to vulnerability/risk perception)
What is a narrative?
Effective strategy to increase perceptions of personal health risk and motivate at-risk individuals to engage in protective health behavior
What is an agency assignment?
“When describing health threats, communicators can assign agency to the threat (e.g. “hepatitis C has infected 4 million Americans”), or to humans (e.g. “Four million Americans have contracted Hepatitis C”). –> language of the health messages
- Often also occurs unconsciously Can be: - living (ticks infect people) vs lifeless - concrete vs abstract - natural vs artifactual/product
- You can assign responsibilty
Research Bell et al
Health topics in flyers (human or bacteria agency)
Dependent variables: vulnerability, severity, fear, self-efficacy, response-efficacy, intention
Results:
- No interaction on the effects of agency on the dependent variables
- More vulnerability in case of E.coli and Salmonella; NF and CRK pneumonia more severe
- The bacterial agency instigated higher levels of risk perception than the human agency
So in sum:
- Vulnerability and severity are perceived higher if the agency assignment involved the threat (the bacteria) and not the human being
What are the different language agencies? (idk of je het moet weten)
Threat agency = "Woman who are infected by HPV, are at greater risk..." Human agency = "Woman who have attracted HPV, are at greater risk..." Agentless language (neutral) = "HPV is associated with cancer" Sentient threat agency = "HPV sneaks up on woman, leaving some with..." Metaphorical threat agency = "HPV is a sleeping dragon, that can wake up and"
What are antropomorphic agents? O’Mally en Worrel (2014)
“Digital representations of computer programs that have been designed with, or on behalf of, a human”
- Less confounding factors for adopting recommendation, in terms of attractiveness and liking than in case of real-life people
