Individual Differences in Sensitivity to Health Communications: Consideration of Future Consequences.

Abstract

There are reliable individual differences in the extent to which people consider the long- and short-term consequences of their behaviors. Such differences, assessed by the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) Scale (A. Strathman, F. Gleicher, D. S. Boninger, & C. S. Edwards, 1994), are hypothesized to influence the impact of a persuasive communication. In an experimental study, the time frame of occurrence of positive and negative consequences of engaging in a new colorectal cancer-screening program was manipulated in a sample of two hundred twenty 50-69-year-old men and women. CFC moderated (a) the processing of short- versus long-term consequences and (b) the persuasive impact of the different communications on behavioral intentions. Low CFC individuals produced more positive thoughts and were more persuaded when positive consequences were short term and negative consequences were long term. The opposite was true for high CFC individuals.

A field experiment testing the utility of regulatory fit messages for promoting physical activity

“…These findings are consistent with accumulating evidence that tailoring messages to dispositional characteristics of the message recipient enhances message persuasiveness (Cesario et al, 2004) and leads to behavior change (Latimer et al, 2005(Latimer et al, , 2007Mann et al, 2004;Orbell, Perugini, & Rakow, 2004;Updegraff et al, 2007).…”

Temporal perspective and parental intention to accept the human papillomavirus vaccination for their daughter

“…For example, Orbell, Perugini and Rakow (2004) showed that people low in CFC, who generally might perceive preventive health behaviours as risky or costly, may be more persuaded by messages that take care to emphasize the short term positive benefits of action.…”

[Commentary] TIME FOR A CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE ON BEHAVIOUR CHANGE INTERVENTIONS?

“…One other possibility for intervention is to tailor cessation messages to individuals' time preference. Preliminary analyses in the context of disease screening have found that messages related to the costs and benefits of screening that are tailored to recipients' time perspective lead to greater reported intention to attend for screening than generic messages [18,19].…”