Although the significance of travel health risks is well documented, the process through which people assess their vulnerability and ultimately take on preventive measures needs clarification. The purpose of this article is to better understand factors underlying travelers’ health risk perceptions and their protective behavior. Using the health psychology literature, a conceptual model that incorporates multilevel psychological constructs was tested with 830 Australian outbound travelers. Worry was an important antecedent to both travel health risk perceptions and risk-protective behavior. Perceived control over health-related risks was not positively associated with risk perceptions but was positively associated with risk-protective behavior. Sensation-seeking propensity was negatively associated with risk perceptions but positively associated with risk-protective behavior. Travel risk perceptions mediated the relationship between the antecedents and risk-protective behavior. Implications for the design of health communication for industry and government are outlined, and future research avenues are also proposed.
We conducted an experiment to investigate the impact of sport scandal on consumer attitudes toward a range of sport stakeholders. We examined the effects of fans’ social identity (fan of scandalized team vs. fan of rival team), scandal severity (single perpetrator vs. multiple perpetrators), and the sponsor brand’s response to the scandal (sponsorship retention vs. termination) on consumers’ attitudes toward the implicated team, the scandal perpetrators, the sport, and sponsor brand. We find evidence of differential reactions to scandal reflecting social identity, such that fans support their own team despite increased scandal severity but negatively judge a rival team’s transgressions. Results suggest that where fans are concerned, sponsors may be better served to continue with a sponsorship following scandal than to terminate, even for some forms of severe scandal. However, termination may receive more positive evaluation from rival team fans; hence continuation of sponsorship needs to accompany a tempered approach.
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