Communications about environmental risks and risk-reducing behavior: The impact of fear on information processing

Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Volumn 31, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 754-777

  Meijnders, Anneloes L ^a   Midden, Cees J H ^a   Wilke, Henk A M ^b  

^a EINDHOVEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY   (Netherlands)

^b LEIDEN UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035297817     PISSN: 00219029     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb01412.x     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980). Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
2. Baron, R., Inman, M., Kao, C. F., & Logan, H. (1992). Negative emotion and superficial social processing. Motivation and Emotion, 16, 323-346.
3. Baron, R., Logan, H., Lilly, J., Inman, M., & Brennan, M. (1994). Negative emotion and message processing. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 30, 181-201.
4. Beck, K. H., & Frankel, A. (1981). A conceptualization of threat communications and protective health behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 44, 204-217.
5. Biek, M., Wood, W., & Chaiken, S. (1996). Working knowledge, cognitive processing, and attitudes: On the determinants of bias. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 547-556.
6. Boster, F. J., & Mongeau, P. A. (1984). Fear-arousing persuasive messages. In R. N. Bostrom (Ed.), Communication yearbook (Vol. 8, pp. 330-375). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
7. Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 752-766.
8. Chaiken, S., Liberman, A., & Eagly, A. H. (1989). Heuristic and systematic processing within and beyond the persuasion context. In J. S. Uleman & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 212-252). New York, NY: Guilford.
9. Dillard, J. P. (1994). Rethinking the study of fear appeals: An emotional perspective. Communication Theory, 4, 295-323.
10. Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.
11. Eagly, A. H., & Kulesa, P. (1997). Attitudes, attitude structure, and resistance to change. Implications for persuasion on environmental issues. In M. H. Bazerman, D. M. Messick, A. E. Tenbrunsel, & K. A. Wade-Benzoni (Eds.), Environment, ethics, and behavior. The psychology of environmental valuation and degradation (pp. 122-153). San Francisco, CA: New Lexington Press.
12. Forgas, J. P. (1994). The role of emotion in social judgments: An introductory review and an affect infusion model (AIM). European Journal of Social Psychology, 24, 1-23.
13. Gleicher, F., & Petty, R. E. (1992). Expectations of reassurance influence the nature of fear-stimulated attitude change. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 28, 86-100.
14. Hale, J. L., Lemieux, R., & Mongeau, P. A. (1995). Cognitive processing of fear-arousing message content. Communication Research, 22, 459-474.
15. Hass, J. W., Bagley, G. S., & Rogers, R. W. (1975). Coping with the energy crisis: Effects of fear appeals upon attitudes toward energy consumption. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60, 754-756.
16. Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion: Psychological studies of opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
17. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (1995). IPCC second assessment synthesis of scientific-technical information relevant to interpreting Article 2 of the UN framework convention on climate change [On-line]. Available: http://www.unep.ch/ipcc/syntrep.html
18. Janis, I. L. (1967). Effects of fear arousal on attitude change: Recent developments in theory and experimental research. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 166-224). New York, NY: Academic Press.
19. Janis, I. L., & Feshbach, S. (1953). Effects of fear-arousing communications. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48, 78-92.
20. Jepson, C., & Chaiken, S. (1990). Chronic issue-specific fear inhibits systematic processing of persuasive communications. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 5, 61-84.
21. Kuppens, M., de Wit, J., & Strobe, W. (1996). Angstaanjagendheid in gezondheidsvoorlichting: Een dual process analyse [Fear-arousing health persuasion: A dual-process analysis]. Gedrag en Gezondheid: Tijdschrift voor Psychologie en Gezondheid, 24, 241 -248.
22. Leventhal, H. (1970). Findings and theory in the study of fear communications. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 5, pp. 119-186). New York, NY: Academic Press.
23. Maddux, J. E., & Rogers, R. W. (1983). Protection motivation and self-efficacy: A revised theory of fear appeals. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 469-479.
24. McGuire, W. J. (1969). The nature of attitudes and attitude change. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 136-314). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
25. Meijnders, A. L. (1998). Climate change and changing attitudes. Effect of negative emotion on information processing (dissertation). Eindhoven, The Netherlands: University Press Facilities Eindhoven.
26. Nisbett, R. E., & Ross, L. (1980). Human inference: Strategies and shortcomings of social judgment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
27. Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. ( 1981). Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.
28. Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
29. Rippetoe, P. A., & Rogers, R. W. (1987). Effects of components of protection-motivation theory on adaptive and maladaptive coping with a health threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 596-604.
30. Rogers, R. W. (1975). A protection motivation theory of fear appeals and attitude change. Journal of Psychology, 91, 93-114.
31. Rogers, R. W. (1983). Cognitive and physiological processes in fear appeals and attitude change: A revised theory of protection motivation. In J. T. Cacioppo & R. E. Petty (Eds.), Social psychophysiology: A source book (pp. 153-176). New York, NY: Guilford.
32. Rogers, R. W., & Prentice-Dunn, S. (1997). Protection motivation theory. In D. S. Gochman (Ed.), Handbook of health behavior research. Vol. I: Personal and social determinants (pp. 113-132). New York, NY: Plenum.
33. Ruiter, R., Kok, G. J., & Verplanken, B. (1998). De effecten van angstaanjagende voorlichting op attitudes en gedrag: Een informatieverwerkingsbenadering [Effects of fear-arousing communications on attitudes and behavior: An information-processing approach]. In W. Otten, R. M. Meertens, R. Vermunt, & J. B. F. de Wit (Eds.), Sociale psychologie en haar toepassingen (pp. 47-63). Delft, The Netherlands: Eburon.
34. Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1988). How do I feel about it? The informative function of affective states. In K. Fiedler & J. P. Forgas (Eds.), Affect, cognition and social behavior: New evidence and interpretive attempts (pp. 44-62). Toronto, Canada: C. J. Hogrefe.
35. Shelton, M. L., & Rogers, R. W. (1981). Fear-arousing and empathy-arousing appeals to help: The pathos of persuasion. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 11, 366-378.
36. Sherer, M., & Rogers, R. W. (1984). The role of vivid information in fear appeals and attitude change. Journal of Research in Personality, 18, 321-334.
37. Sutton, S. R. (1982). Fear-arousing communications: A critical examination of theory and research. In J. R. Eiser (Ed.), Social psychology and behavioral medicine (pp. 303-337). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
38. Tanner, J. F., Day, E., & Crask, M. R. (1989). Protection motivation theory: An extension of fear appeals theory in communication. Journal of Business Research, 19, 267-276.
39. Taylor, S. E. (1986). Health psychology. New York, NY: Random House.
40. Taylor, S., & Thompson, S. (1982). Stalking the elusive vividness effect. Psychological Review, 89, 155-181.
41. Tesser, A., & Shaffer, D. R. (1990). Attitudes and attitude change. Annual Review of Psychology, 41, 479-523.
42. Wilder, D. A., & Shapiro, P. (1989). Effects of anxiety on impression formation in a group context: An anxiety-assimilation hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 481-499.
43. Zanna, M. P., Detweiler, R. A., & Olson, J. M. (1984). Physiological mediation of attitude maintenance, formation, and change. In W. M. Waid (Ed.), Sociophysiology (pp. 163-195). New York, NY: Springer-Verlag.