Emotion and Adaptation

The fear appeal literature is examined in a comprehensive synthesis using meta-analytical techniques. The meta-analysis suggests that strong fear appeals produce high levels of perceived severity and susceptibility, and are more persuasive than low or weak fear appeals. The results also indicate that fear appeals motivate adaptive danger control actions such as message acceptance and maladaptive fear control actions such as defensive avoidance or reactance. It appears that strong fear appeals and high-efficacy messages produce the greatest behavior change, whereas strong fear appeals with low-efficacy messages produce the greatest levels of defensive responses. Future directions and practical implications are provided.

A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeals: Implications for Effective Public Health Campaigns

The Role of Perceived Risk in the Quality-Value Relationship: A Study in a Retail Environment

How the mind works

Information technology executives strive to align the actions of end users with the desired security posture of management and of the firm through persuasive communication. In many cases, some element of fear is incorporated within these communications. However, within the context of computer security and information assurance, it is not yet clear how these fear-inducing arguments, known as fear appeals, will ultimately impact the actions of end users. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of fear appeals on the compliance of end users with recommendations to enact specific individual computer security actions toward the mitigation of threats. An examination was performed that culminated in the development and testing of a conceptual model representing an infusion of technology adoption and fear appeal theories.

Results of the study suggest that fear appeals do impact end user behavioral intentions to comply with recommended individual acts of security, but the impact is not uniform across all end users. It is determined in part by perceptions of self-efficacy, response efficacy, threat severity, and social influence. The findings of this research contribute to information systems security research, human-computer interaction, and organizational communication by revealing a new paradigm in which IT users form perceptions of the technology, not on the basis of performance gains, but on the basis of utility for threat mitigation.

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Fear appeals and information security behaviors: an empirical study

Most research in the area generally known as “fear appeals” has examined the persuasive effects and effectiveness of different types of threat-based communications on various groups of consumer subjects, often failing to distinguish between the threats, the literal communication stimuli, and the actual fear arousal response that different types of threats might engender. Building on a noteworthy exception to that pattern of past work, which provided a basis for a model of fear arousal, the authors further clarify the distinction between threats and psychological responses to the threats. They test an expanded model based on that distinction that provides further understanding of consumer fear arousal responses to advertising stimuli.

There are Threats and (Maybe) Fear-Caused Arousal: Theory and Confusions of Appeals to Fear and Fear Arousal Itself

The effects of specific job satisfaction facets on customer perceptions of service quality: An employee-level analysis.

This study explores consumers' ethical judgments about the use of sexual appeals in print advertising. It specifically focuses upon responses on the Reidenbach-Robin multidimensional ethics scale, ad attitude, brand attitude, and purchase intentions. The findings indicate that, regardless of the respondent's gender, the use of a strong overt sexual appeal in a print advertisement was not well received. Consequently, advertisers need to rethink the use of strong overt sexual appeals, especially given the controversial issues surrounding such advertising stimuli and their popular use to break through media clutter.

Ethical Judgments of Sexual Appeals in Print Advertising

This paper examines the tenability of a two-dimensional (tension and energy) formulation of fear arousal effects in the context of print advertising. Intuitively, stimulation of fear parallels a tw...

Fear Appeals in Print Advertising: An Analysis of Arousal and Ad Response

The present study uses a causal-modeling approach to evaluate an experimental manipulation of female nudity in print advertising A hypothetical model which includes a multi-dimensional structure of arousal acting as an intervening factor between the ad nudity stimulus and resulting cognitive impressions of the ad is proposed The results lend particular insight into the complex underpinnings of the psychophysiological response to female nudity in advertising Important theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed

Michael S. LaTour

Papers

There are Threats and (Maybe) Fear-Caused Arousal: Theory and Confusions of Appeals to Fear and Fear Arousal Itself

The effects of specific job satisfaction facets on customer perceptions of service quality: An employee-level analysis.

Ethical Judgments of Sexual Appeals in Print Advertising

Fear Appeals in Print Advertising: An Analysis of Arousal and Ad Response

Female Nudity, Arousal, and Ad Response: An Experimental Investigation