This research investigates the relationship between regulatory focus and construal level. The findings indicate that promotion-focused individuals are more likely to construe information at abstract, high levels, whereas those with a prevention focus are more likely to construe information at concrete, low levels (experiments 1 and 2). Further, such fit (vs. nonfit) between an individual's regulatory focus and the construal level at which information is represented leads to more favorable attitudes (experiments 3 and 4) and enhances performance on a subsequent task (experiment 3). These outcomes occur because fit enhances engagement that in turn induces processing fluency and intensifies reactions. (c) 2009 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc..
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A meta-analysis of health communications examines the influence of 22 tactics and six individual characteristics on intentions to comply with health recommendations. The analysis indicates that message tactics have a significant influence on intentions toward health-related recommendations even after the authors account for individual differences. In addition, the authors examine when message tactics interact with individual characteristics to determine intentions. The results, which are based on 60 studies involving nearly 22,500 participants, show that there is significant opportunity to tailor health communications more efficiently to different market segments.
The authors explore the relationship between perceived efficacy, depth of processing, and message framing. They conduct two experiments on varying health-related issues: sexually transmitted disease and skin cancer. In both studies, the authors demonstrate that a low efficacy condition (i.e., when it is uncertain that following the recommendations will lead to the desired outcome) motivates more in-depth processing. They then show that when subjects process in-depth, negative frames are more persuasive than positive ones. In contrast, a high efficacy condition generates less effortful message processing in which positive and negative frames are equally persuasive.
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