Fear arousal theory of persuasion Flashcards
Who proposed the fear-arousal theory of persuasion?
What year was it?
Janis and Feshbach (1953)
What does the theory propose?
It argues that persuasive messages can change attitudes and behavior if they arouse fear in the recipients.
What were Janis and Feshbach able to show?
They were able to show that high fear messages may not be as effective as many had assumed. If a message is so frightening, then it creates a degree of emotional tension which individual cannot deal with through changing their behavior. This can result in ego defense mechanism.
Give one strength of the study?
One strength is evidence that fear is an important motivator of behavior change. For example, James and Howard studied the effects on students of fear-arousing communications on not being vaccinated against tetanus. They found that arousing fear did have a positive effect on the likelihood of students to get vaccinated which was the behavior or intention to get vaccinated which attitude. Even when high fear arousal produced the most change suggesting it is always counterproductive.
Give one weakness of the study?
One weakness is that the evidence does not fully support fear arousal. For example the study by Janis stated that high fear messages are counterproductive but the study also showed that fear does increase the chance of behavior change.
