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- Title
An Experimental Analysis of Emotion Induction Prior to Reading a Health Narrative on Personal Risk Perception, Health Intentions, and Behavior.
- Authors
Udochi, Aisha L.; Kennedy, Lindsay A.; Sestir, Marc A.
- Abstract
When people find risk for diseases personally relevant, research shows they are more likely to engage in health-protective behaviors (Brewer, Chapman, Rothman, Leask, & Kempe, 2017). One way to make risk information more personally relevant is to present it in narrative form (Dunlop, Wakefield, & Kashima, 2008). Because positive emotions have been linked to broadened social categories (Waugh, & Fredrickson, 2006), improved processing of health information (Raghunathan & Trope, 2002), and better health outcomes (Kok et al., 2013), they may promote engagement in healthier behaviors, as well. Thus, we predicted inducing positive emotions in participants prior to reading a health narrative would lead to increased identification with the narrative figure and, subsequently, increased personal perceived risk for the diseases mentioned in the article and increased health behavioral intentions and behaviors. In the present study, 124 participants (29 men, 94 women, 1 did not report) watched a short video that induced either positive, negative, or neutral emotions, read a health narrative, then completed a packet of surveys measuring for risk perception for certain health diseases and intentions of engaging in healthy behaviors. Participants were then gifted a pedometer app, which they were asked to use for 2 weeks and share data from to assess their actual engagement in healthy behaviors. Results did not support our predictions, but findings suggested positive emotions may decrease perceived seriousness of certain diseases (obesity: p = .01, η² = .07; diabetes: p = .04, η² = .05). Future implications of findings are discussed.
- Subjects
WAKEFIELD (England); RISK perception; EYEWITNESS accounts; EMOTIONS; BEHAVIOR; DIABETES; HEALTH behavior
- Publication
Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research, 2019, Vol 24, Issue 4, p235
- ISSN
2164-8204
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.24839/2325-7342.JN24.4.235