Fear Versus Humor: The Impact of Sensation Seeking on Physiological, Cognitive, and Emotional Responses to Antialcohol Abuse Messages

Abstract

This study investigates the differences in physiological, cognitive, and emotional responses to existing emotional antialcohol abuse advertisements (fear vs. humor appeal) between high and low sensation seekers. A 2 (Message Type) x 2 (Sensation-Seeking Tendency) x 4 (Message Repetition) mixed-model experiment with repeated measures was conducted with 71 college students. The results, based on self-reports, indicated that fear messages generated more interest and perceived danger of excessive drinking regardless of sensation-seeking tendency, whereas humorous messages were rated as more likeable than fear messages, and the difference was bigger among low sensation seekers than among high sensation seekers. One interesting finding was that for both fear and humor appeals, low sensation seekers showed greater emotional responses (greater corrugators activities and greater zygomatic activities) than high sensation seekers overall. The implications of the current study as well as suggestions for future study were discussed.

Underage Drinkers' Responses to Negative-Restrictive Versus Proactive-Nonrestrictive Slogans in Humorous Anti–Alcohol Abuse Messages: Are Humorous Responsible Drinking Campaign Messages Effective?

“…For example, according to Conway and Dube (2002), humorous messages persuaded highly masculine individuals better Downloaded by [George Washington University] at 03:08 07 February 2015 than did nonhumorous messages. Risk takers (also known as sensation seekers) liked humorous health campaign messages better than did non-risk takers (Lee & Ferguson, 2002;Lee & Shin, 2011).…”

“…Therefore, to identify the best message strategies, we believe that one must understand individuals' behavioral characteristics (Ferguson, Valenti, & Melwani, 1991) and how they process incoming messages from their point of view (Lee & Bichard, 2006, Lee & Shin, 2011.…”

“…The four humorous anti-alcohol abuse television ads used were from Lee and Shin (2011). Humorous anti-alcohol abuse ads were defined as ads that use humor to gain target audiences' attention and to deter their excessive drinking and tend to portray the lighter consequences rather than the severe consequences of excessive drinking (Lee, 2010;Lee & Ferguson, 2002;Lee & Shin, 2011).…”

“…Humorous anti-alcohol abuse ads were defined as ads that use humor to gain target audiences' attention and to deter their excessive drinking and tend to portray the lighter consequences rather than the severe consequences of excessive drinking (Lee, 2010;Lee & Ferguson, 2002;Lee & Shin, 2011). Ads were obtained from profit and non-profit institutions and the four final ads were selected to represent humor ads (see details in Lee & Shin, 2011).…”

Evaluation of a tactic to engage hard-to-reach patients during the exercise referral process: a longitudinal qualitative study

“…For example, smoking cessation [4], alcohol cessation [5] and sexually transmitted infection prevention [6], albeit with questionable effectiveness and little discussion of whether such methods fit easily into a person-centered framework. There is no literature to date that discusses their use by HPs within the area of exercise referral in the United Kingdom.…”