Previous research has yielded mixed findings regarding the potential for message framing to influence HPV vaccine-related intentions. Drawing on the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), the current study focuses on the role of threat and efficacy as serial mediators linking message framing and HPV vaccine-related intentions. College-age females and their parents participated in a between-subjects, posttest only experiment to investigate whether behavioral intentions to talk to a doctor about the HPV vaccine differ as a function of framing messages in terms of disease prevention. For young women, framing messages as preventing genital warts (as compared to cancer prevention) significantly increased perceptions of self-efficacy, which enhanced response efficacy perceptions that, in turn, increased intentions to talk to a doctor about the HPV vaccine. There were no effects of message framing among parents. However, response efficacy was a significant mediator of self-efficacy and behavioral intentions for both the college-age females and their parents. The results of this study suggest new approaches for considering the relationship among EPPM constructs.

The greatest obstacle for health campaigns is most likely a lack of adequate exposure (Hornik, 2002), as public health messages compete with a flood of alternative messages. In light of America's obesity epidemic, the present work examines message characteristics that may foster exposure to recommendations on healthful weight management. Drawing on social cognitive theory and exemplification theory, the present three-session 2×2 experiment examined impacts of efficacy and exemplification, as characteristics of an online weight-loss message, on selective exposure and change in recommended behavior. Exposure depended on both characteristics, as the exemplar, high-efficacy version resulted in longest and the baserate, high-efficacy version in shortest exposure, while both low-efficacy versions fell in between. Change in recommended behavior was positive and significantly higher in exemplar message groups than for base-rate version groups, where the change was negative.

Background: Improving informed consent to participate in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) is a key challenge in cancer communication. The current study examines strategies for enhancing randomization comprehension among patients with diverse levels of health literacy and identifies cognitive and affective predictors of intentions to participate in cancer RCTs. Methods: Using a post-test-only experimental design, cancer patients (n = 500) were randomly assigned to receive one of three message conditions for explaining randomization (ie, plain language condition, gambling metaphor, benign metaphor) or a control message. All statistical tests were two-sided. Results: Health literacy was a statistically significant moderator of randomization comprehension (P = .03). Among participants with the lowest levels of health literacy, the benign metaphor resulted in greater comprehension of randomization as compared with plain language (P = .04) and control (P = .004) messages. Among participants with the highest levels of health literacy, the gambling metaphor resulted in greater randomization comprehension as compared with the benign metaphor (P = .04). A serial mediation model showed a statistically significant negative indirect effect of comprehension on behavioral intention through personal relevance of RCTs and anxiety associated with participation in RCTs (P < .001). Conclusions: The effectiveness of metaphors for explaining randomization depends on health literacy, with a benign metaphor being particularly effective for patients at the lower end of the health literacy spectrum. The theoretical model demonstrates the cognitive and affective predictors of behavioral intention to participate in cancer RCTs and offers guidance on how future research should employ communication strategies to improve the informed consent processes.

This study examines involuntary autobiographical memories (IAMs) that are triggered by video entertainment content so that we can better understand the interplay between our conception of self and our ability to relate to narratives. We used thought-listing techniques to obtain unsolicited autobiographical memories. We examined IAMs engendered when viewing 11 different video presentations over three studies. Results indicated that IAMs are a normal part of the media experience. Generation of IAMs appears to be related to low levels of arousal, mediated by the specific content genre, with dramas producing more IAMs than comedies. Narrative involvement (transportation) triggers more IAMs for those viewing comedy programs.