how AFRAID are YOU?

FEAR APPEALS


The fear appeals PSAs we saw in class were horrifying at the very least. When I went back and thought about how I was feeling when I was watching them for the first time, I could not remember, even though it was just minutes ago. All I remember is being horrified. I do not remember the content of what the person was saying before their “accident”, but could vividly remember the “accident” itself, not to mention the petrifying screams from the first PSA. An explanation for this is that I was processing what I watched peripherally, not centrally. A peripheral route is at the low end of the elaboration continuum which means processing requires much less information that central route.
In 1953, Hovland, Janis, and Kelley laid the foundation proposing that fear would increase the likelihood of persuasion because it reduces emotional tension. Hovland said fear is only effective if it is sufficiently intense to create a drive state that recipients believe can be effectively countered by the recommended action. But if the recipients do not effectively counter the recommended action, then this theory is disproved. If I watched the first PSA (the one with the hot oil) and get through it without it being sufficiently intense, it would not be fearful, which is called efficacy. This is the perception of a threat being handled. It also depends on the credibility on the person issuing the threat because that will result in a lower compliance. According to Janis and Feshback (1967), high levels of inducing fear will usually result in defensive avoidance and low levels of fear are not enough to stimulate attitude change. Therefore, they concluded that using moderate levels of fear produces the best results.
Other types of messages that are high effective in inducing fear are messages that are said which our brains have previously stored, bringing back our own memory in relation to that fear. You can send without creating greater perceptions on the danger of something and result in a higher effect. It is an easy observation to make that fear is one of the most common persuasive devices used today. The predicament is the ethics of using them, which, I think, needs more debate.