Download Message Processing: Anti-drink driving television commercials

Message Processing: Targeting High At-Risk Groups
Marie-Louise Fry, University of Newcastle
Susan Dann, Queensland University of Technology
Abstract
Much theoretical work has been devoted to the study of fear-arousing persuasive messages
and in particular how effective such messages are in inducing people to change their beliefs,
intentions and behaviours. Television commercials are a key communication method utilised
by road and traffic authorities in Australia to influence road-related behaviours. However, the
effectiveness of road safety advertising, especially anti-drink driving messages, continues to
be questioned (White et al, 2000; Keller, 1999; Donovan et al, 1995). Thus, it is important to
understand the factors that influence the effectiveness of media appeals directed at changing
road-related behaviours, especially among high at-risk groups. This paper puts forward a
model of message processing for social marketing situations bringing into alignment three
areas of related yet non-integrated research: fear arousal, sensation seeking and message
processing. As such, the objective of this paper is to explain a model conceptualising message
processing for social marketing situations with specific reference to anti-drink driving
television commercials.
Background
Typically, road safety advertising utilises threat appeals as the key persuasion tool to deter
drinking and driving. A key use of emotion in advertising is to influence consumers’
interpretations of the product usage experience by associating a brand with a unique set of
psychological characteristics that would not typically be associated with that brand without
exposure to the advertisement. In social marketing and health promotion contexts, the threat
message is key executional tool that aims to emphasise personal vulnerability, encouraging
people to adopt an available, effective behaviour to reduce the likelihood of experiencing an
unwanted outcome (Strong, Anderson and Dubas, 1993). In an anti-drink driving persuasive
communication, the unique psychological characteristics associated with not drinking and
driving (i.e. the threat message) aim to connect the experience of the advertisement so tightly
with being socially and morally responsible that consumers cannot remember the behaviour
without recalling the fear experience generated by the advertisement. In this way tag lines,
such as ‘Drink and Don’t Drive: You Legend’, ‘Speed Kills’ or ‘Stop, Revive, Survive’, assist
in branding the more socially acceptable behaviour by providing an easily recognizable
recommendation to avert the non-social behaviour. Thus, the objective of fear appeals aims to
arouse feelings of susceptibility and/or threat which, if reduced by the message
recommendations, become persuasive.
Two key issues are neglected in the study of fear/threat appeal effectiveness. First, there has
been little examination of those high at-risk people who disregard the recommendations of the
persuasive message and continue harmful behaviours. Consequently, little empirical research
has focused explicitly on a priori attitudes and beliefs of those who are less likely to adhere to
the message recommendations (non-adherents) as distinct from those who are likely to adhere
to the message recommendations (adherents). Traditionally, fear appeal studies measure trait
anxiety or self-esteem as a segmentation variable to then measure threat appeal effectiveness.
Trait anxiety refers to the level of general, background, free-floating or neurotic anxiety
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present in the individual immediately prior to the conduct of the experiment. While trait
anxiety may be appropriate to measure the degree of fear consequences of the social
marketing message in an overall sense, it is argued that ‘attention’ and ‘issue involvement’
are two important components of the persuasion process (Eagley and Chaiken, 1993; Petty
and Cacioppo, 1986). Whether the receiver feels positively or negatively about the message is
largely determined by the receiver’s attitude, knowledge and prior experience relating to the
topic, with personal involvement intensifying the direction (Petty and Cacioppo, 1984). Few
fear arousal models directly include prior involvement, experience, topic knowledge as a
mediator of the fear arousal response. The exception is the Ordered Protection Motivation
Theory (Tanner, Hunt and Eppright, 1991) which identifies ‘sources of information’ to
include verbal persuasion, observed learning and experience as mediators of fear arousal
response. However, the authors’ explanation of the model does not adequately justify the
influence of ‘sources of information’ as a possible a priori segmentation tool. As a result it
becomes difficult to directly implicate motives as an explanation for biased reasoning. As
Keller (1999) argues, exploration of the attitudinal and motivational processes as an
explanation for why target audiences are not persuaded by health messages is still incomplete
because there is little direct empirical evidence.
The second key issue neglected in fear/threat appeal studies is the lack investigation of how
people actually process the persuasive message. Whilst theoretical models depicting the fear
arousal process have been developed (eg: Witte, 1992a&b; McGuire, 1968, Hovland, Janis
and Kelley, 1953; Leventhal, 1970; Rogers, 1983), there has been little examination of ad
executional elements of the persuasive message in conjunction with the threat stimulus. Thus,
the key element in designing persuasive social marketing communications is a more thorough
understanding of the way individuals’ process persuasive messages.
While much research warns that arousing strong fear in health promotion contexts may be
counter productive and induce maladaptive coping responses (Stuteville, 1970; Webb, 1974;
Job, 1988; Henley, 1997), it is argued that the key dominant advertising-based persuasion
theories of elaboration likelihood model (ELM) (Petty and Cacioppo, 1981, 1986) and
systematic-heuristic model (HSM) (Chaiken, Liberman and Eagly, 1989) are useful in
capturing the way non-adherents process messages. Both ELM and HSM posit that the
amount and nature of elaboration or processing of a persuasive message is a function of
motivation and ability to process the message. Although these two models differ in some
respects, they both posit that persuasion may be accomplished by two dissimilar ‘routes’ or
‘modes’. In ELM, these are the central and peripheral routes and in the HSM these are the
systematic or heuristic modes. Attitude change via the central route or systematic processing
consists of thoughtful consideration of the argument in the message and occurs when the
receiver possesses both the motivation and ability to think about the message and topic.
Attitude change via the peripheral route or heuristic processing occurs when the receiver lacks
the ability or motivation to engage in much thought on the issue. Thus, message design issues
associated with the central/systematic route focus on the message argument and ability of the
receiver to cognitively scrutinise the quality of that argument. Using the peripheral route, the
listener decides to agree with the message based on cues other than the strength of the
argument such as length of message, source credibility or attractiveness, the number (not the
quality) of the arguments in the message. Given that message processing involves both
consideration of message argument and message design issues, there is a call for a more
thorough examination of executional elements associated with social marketing persuasive
communications, not only the threat stimulus.
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While the literature on fear-arousal is rich with strategy and application, far less is known
about the psychological processes through which the strategy works. The remainder of this
paper puts forward a model of message processing for social marketing situations bringing
into alignment three areas of related yet non-integrated research: fear arousal, sensation
seeking and message processing.
The ‘Model’
The model, depicted in Figure 1, builds on Witte’s extended parallel process model (EPPM)
of fear arousal (1992a), integrates sensation seeking (Zuckerman, 1988) as an a priori
segmentation tool, utilises the persuasion paths of ELM and HSM (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986;
Eagly and Chaiken 1993) depicted by sensory, narrative and argument processing and
integrates literature from the communications domain. Specifically, the model aims to
illustrate differing paths of persuasion depending on the propensity to which the message
recipient a priori adheres to the issue topic. The following discussion elaborates on each of
the variables within the model, with an explanation of the routes to persuasion undertaken by
adherents and non-adherents.
Figure 1:
Conceptualisation of message processing for HSS and LSS
High Sensation Seekers
(HSS - non-adherent)
• Low perceived efficacy
• High perceived threat
Perceived
message
sensation
value
Low Sensation Seekers
(LSS - adherent)
• High perceived
threat/efficacy
Sensory
processing
Fear control
processes
(Maladaptive
behaviour)
Narrative
processing
Argument
processing
Danger control
processes
(Adaptive
behaviour)
= low sensation route to message processing
= high sensation route to message processing
Sensation seeking is a biologically-based trait “based on the idea that persons differ reliably
in their preferences for or aversions to stimuli or experiences with high-arousal potential”
(Zuckerman, 1988, p.174). Many studies have determined that the variation in one’s level of
sensation (i.e. high sensation (HSS) vs. low sensation (LSS) seeker) predicts behavioural
differences in alcohol use, cigarette use, and drug use (Andrucci et al, 1989; Donohew et al,
2000; Schierman and Rowland, 1985). Relating specifically to alcohol consumption, there is
sufficient evidence to suggest HSSs are more likely to consume high levels of alcohol
regularly, regularly drive drunk, under-estimate the consequences of driving drunk, perceive a
low risk of detection for drunk driving, and perceive themselves to be minimally intoxicated
(Kulick and Rosenberg 2000, Jonah, Thiessen and Au-Yeung, 2001) as compared to LSSs.
Using sensation seeking as a segmentation variable, the model takes into consideration
Keller’s (1999) key criticism of fear arousal models, that is, fear arousal models do not
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differentiate between people who a priori are more (HSS) versus less likely (LSS) to resist
the message.
Witte’s (1998, 1992a) EPPM of fear arousal suggests that perceived threat and efficacy
interact to determine if adaptive or maladaptive responses are engaged. Those people who feel
able to perform the recommended response (high perceived efficacy) and believe they are
vulnerable to the threat message (high perceived threat) engage in protection motivation and
adaptive responses, where elaboration of the message argument is scrutinized. Alternatively,
those people who feel unable to perform the recommended response (low perceived efficacy)
and who feel vulnerable to the threat (high perceived threat) may promote defensive
motivation and maladaptive processes. Relating Witte’s research to the proposed model, it is
argued that HSSs perceive themselves to possess superior driving skills that may give them
the confidence that they can follow closely, speed safely and drive safely after drinking,
thereby not perceiving certain behaviours to be risky. Alternatively, the HSS perceives the
behaviour of driving drunk to be risky, yet accepts the risk for the thrill and excitement. If
engaging in the risky behaviour has not resulted in negative consequences (e.g. detected by
police or accident), they may lower their perceived level of risk and possibly engage more
frequently in the risky behaviour. In this model, perceived efficacy of driving ability and prior
experience is considered to impact message processing as it is proposed HSS have higher
levels of perceived driving efficacy and lower levels of perceived response and self efficacy
and perceived threat (susceptibility and severity) in message recommendations than LSS.
Drawing from the communications literature, HSS desire more arousing and stimulating
media content than LSS (Everett and Palmgreen, 1995; Lang et al, 2000). In the pursuit of
understanding what media styles appeal to HSSs, Donohew et al (1991) coined the concept
message sensation value as they suggested that one’s need for sensation is not only useful to
identify differences in risk behaviour such as drug use or alcohol use, but also for identifying
differences in the desired level of stimulation from exposure to persuasive communications.
Message sensation value is defined as the degree to which formal and content audio-visual
features of a message elicit sensory, affective and arousal responses. Message sensation value
(MSV) has been employed in designing messages (Donohew et al 1991; Palmgreen et al,
1991) and perceived message sensation value (PMSV) in measuring reactions to these
messages (Stephenson and Palmgreen, 2001; Everett and Palmgreen, 1995; Lang et al, 2000).
Previous research indicates that HSS (i.e. those with higher needs for arousal) required greater
levels of stimulation to enhance recall, influence attitudes and reduce continuance of the nonadvocated behaviour (Everett and Palmgreen, 1995; Donohew et al, 2000). Therefore,
perceived message sensation value should influence the processing of the anti-drink driving
ads differently for HSS and LSS. While LSS will not forego the processing of the anti-drink
driving ads altogether, the influence of PMSV is expected to be greater for HSS than for LSS
as the perceived sensation value of the ad increases.
Linking research from the communications and advertising message processing domains, it is
argued that HSS have a strong preference for messages that are novel, dramatic, intense,
exciting, suspenseful or fast-paced, that use intense hard-edged music or heavy use of sound
effects in the absence of music, and involve extreme close-ups (Donohew et al, 1991). These
executional elements appeal to the sensory processing receptors of the receiver, which is
subsumed by the peripheral processing concept (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986). As such, the
persuasiveness of the anti-drink driving message may be increased by HSSs paying attention
to the peripheral route of message processing.
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On the other hand, LSSs prefer messages that are less stimulating, that provide closure at the
end of the story/narrative and provide a tag line summing up the message (Donohew et al,
1991). These executional elements appeal to cognitive processing which involve elements
that assist in argument processing, subsumed by the central processing concept (Petty and
Cacioppo, 1986). Thus, it is argued that those people who already agree that drinking and
driving is dangerous and believe they have the capacity to engage in the messages’
recommended behaviour rely on elaboration of the central argument to process the message.
However, for those HSSs who maintain pro-drink driving attitudes whilst exposed to an antidrink driving message engage in biased cognitive processing. Biased cognitive processing
refers to situations where processing induced under high involvement becomes more
negatively biased as people’s attitude-congruent knowledge and attitude strength increase
(Petty and Cacioppo, 1984). Under this situation, it is argued HSS maintain focus on the
central argument of the message, with message processing becoming more negatively biased
as that person’s attitude-congruent knowledge and attitude strength increase. According to
cognitive consistency principles, the greater the counter-attitudinal involvement will lead to
greater the avoidance of and development of more negative reactions to the anti-drink driving
message which in turn will lead to continuance of maladaptive attitudes and behaviours (fear
control processes).
Narrative processing is considered a form of peripheral processing that refers to the story
included in the television commercial where characters are introduced (exposition), some
problem or obstacle develops (complication) and that problem or obstacle is somehow
overcome (resolution) (Harris, 1994; Cole, 1997). HSS should find it easier to attend to
narratives within messages as those messages are more likely to feature characters, situations
and storylines that are more novel, dramatic or conducted in intense contexts.
When a threat message elicits a fear response, Witte (1998) argues that one of two paths may
be taken: danger control (message acceptance) or fear control (message rejection). In this
model, it is argued that LSS are more likely to feel able to perform the recommended
response, feel vulnerable to the threat message, have low levels of message sensation value,
engage in argument processing resulting in danger control (adaptive behaviour) processes.
Alternatively, it is argued HSS may take one of two message processing routes. First, it is
argued that as HSSs respond to higher message sensation value levels to process persuasive
message, HSS are more likely to respond to sensory and narrative ad executional elements as
a mechanism to adhere to the ad recommendations. However, for those HSS who engage in
biased cognitive processing, this grouping will engage in fear control (maladaptive behaviour)
processes.
Conclusion
From an extensive literature review, a model of message processing was specifically designed
to differentiate those more likely versus those less likely to adhere to message
recommendations within a social marketing context. Further, the model is designed to assist
social marketers and health promotion practitioners to better design persuasive
communications to assist in uptake of the advocated behaviour. The next stage of this study is
to test this model, investigating message processing of anti-drink driving television
commercials among 18-24 year olds.
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