Fear Appeal in Traffic Safety Advertising: The moderating role of medium context, trait anxiety, and differences between drivers and non-drivers | Zendy

Wim Janssens | Zendy; Patrick De Pelsmacker | Zendy

Open Access

Fear Appeal in Traffic Safety Advertising: The moderating role of medium context, trait anxiety, and differences between drivers and non-drivers

Author(s) -

Wim Janssens,

Patrick De Pelsmacker

Publication year - 2007

Publication title -

psychologica belgica

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 0.511

H-Index - 33

eISSN - 2054-670X

pISSN - 0033-2879

DOI - 10.5334/pb-47-3-173

Subject(s) - psychology , belgica , context (archaeology) , anxiety , appeal , social psychology , applied psychology , political science , psychiatry , law , paleontology , cruise , biology , oceanography , geology

The impact was investigated of the intensity of a fear appeal, the valence of the medium context, and the individuals' trait anxiety and personal relevance on the responses of 197 individuals to anti-speeding advertisements. A high level of fear attracts more attention. A negative valence context leads to a more positive anti-speeding attitude. The most important moderating effect of trait anxiety is that the attitude is more positive when low-anxiety individuals are exposed to high fear appeals in a context with negative valence than in a positive context. These results were largely replicated for drivers, but not for non-drivers for whom there was only an attention-getting effect of high fear appeal. Theoretical and practical implications for anti-speeding campaigning are discussed.

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