Interplay between benefit appeal and valence framing in reducing smoking behavior: Evidence from a field experience

Abstract

Smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable death globally, yet it remains a common behavior. Interventions that increase the concreteness of future smoking outcomes have been suggested to be effective, but little research has examined what type of future outcomes should be highlighted, and in what way. The present study therefore explores the efficacy of two types of framings of smoking cessation consequences: Benefit appeal (time vs. money) and valence (gain vs. loss). A randomized controlled field experiment with 2935 participants conducted via a digital therapeutics app found an interplay between appeal type and valence such that messages focusing on money were most likely to lead to immediate reduced smoking behavior when framed as a gain, rather than loss. Effects on motivation or long‐term smoking cessation were not detected. The results shed light on psychological differences between money and time, between attitudes and behaviors, and between short‐term and long‐term behavior change. This study highlights the importance of considering both benefit appeal and valence framing when designing smoking cessation messages.

Too little money or time? Using justifications to maintain a positive image after self‐control failure

“…In line with this notion, money and time are the resources that people frequently cite as having too little of to pursue their goals (Lee‐Yoon et al., 2020). Accordingly, appeals to motivate individuals (e.g., to stop smoking) have varied whether such appeals use time versus money as motivators (Nobel, 2023). Similarly, charity appeals commonly focus on these two central resources and ask donors for contributions of time or money (W. Liu & Aaker, 2008: Malika et al., 2023; Xu et al., 2023).…”

Designing mobile application messages to impact route choice: A survey and simulation study

“…In health sciences, it is investigated how messages should be phrased to help individuals improve their health status. Examples are advice on diet [ 7 ], hygiene [ 8 ], vaccination [ 9 ], or giving up smoking [ 10 ]. In marketing, suitable framing is supposed to increase sales [ 11 , 12 ].…”

“…Political communication tries to win over voters through framing strategies [ 13 , 14 ]. Many of these studies focus on gain or loss, e.g., Nobel [ 10 ] investigates how gain-framed messages (‘if you quit smoking, you will live longer’) and loss-framed messages (‘if you continue to smoke you will lose money’) affect peoples’ success in quitting smoking. Other studies vary the amount of information and number of instructions [ 15 – 18 ].…”