Harris, P.R. and Napper, L. (2005) Self-affirmation and the biased processing of threatening health-risk information. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31 (9). pp. 1250-1263. ISSN 0146-1672
Abstract
Self-affirming before reading about the link between alcohol and breast cancer promoted increased message acceptance among young women at higher risk. Differences were maintained on variables measured up to 1 month later Relative to their nonaffirmed counterparts, higher risk, self-affirmed participants had higher ratings of risk, imagination, intention to reduce alcohol consumption, and negative affect, such as fear, while reading the leaflet. In contrast, there were no differences between the groups on measures of broader message acceptance (belief in the link, evidence strength). Thus, self-affirmation promoted acceptance of the personal relevance of the message, a critical step in the precaution adoption process. Overall, the findings support the view that self-affirmation in an unrelated domain can offset defensive processing of a threatening health message, promoting central route persuasion and producing consequential and durable increases in message acceptance.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Keywords: | self-affirmation; defensive processing; perceived risk; optimistic bias; persuasion |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Psychology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Miss Anthea Tucker |
Date Deposited: | 19 Oct 2009 09:10 |
Last Modified: | 19 Oct 2009 09:10 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167205274694 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/0146167205274694 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:9853 |