Abstract
Health promoting messages can be framed in terms of the gains that are associated with healthy behaviour, or the losses
that are associated with unhealthy behaviour. In this study, we examined the influence of self-efficacy to quit smoking on
the effects of gain framed and loss framed anti-smoking messages in a randomized controlled trial among 539 adult
smokers. Participants with a high self-efficacy to quit smoking reported higher levels of motivation to quit smoking after
receiving a loss framed message than after receiving a gain framed message or no message. For these participants
receiving a gain framed message did not result in a higher motivation to quit smoking than receiving no message. For
participants with a low self-efficacy to quit smoking there were no differences in motivation to quit smoking between the
gain framed message condition, loss framed message condition and control condition. Our results suggest that
self-efficacy can moderate the effects of message framing on persuasion
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 800-809 |
| Journal | European Journal of Social Psychology |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Keywords
- motivational phases
- risk information
- fear appeals
- behavior
- smoking
- smokers
- intentions
- attitudes
- choice