The effect of disease anthropomorphism on compliance with health recommendations.
J Acad Mark Sci
; : 1-20, 2022 Jul 14.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2286077
ABSTRACT
The present article examines how disease anthropomorphism affects compliance with recommendations for preventing the disease. We find that consumers are more likely to comply with health recommendations when the disease is described in anthropomorphic (vs. non-anthropomorphic) terms because anthropomorphism increases psychological closeness to the disease, which increases perceived vulnerability. We demonstrate the effect of disease anthropomorphism on health compliance in seven studies with several diseases (COVID-19, breast cancer), manipulations of anthropomorphism (first person and third person; with and without an image), and participant populations (the US and China). We test the proposed pathway through psychological closeness and perceived vulnerability with sequential mediation analyses and moderation-of-process approaches, and we rule out alternative accounts based on known consequences of anthropomorphism and antecedents of health compliance. This research contributes to the theory and practice of health communication and to the growing literature on how the anthropomorphism of negative entities affects consumers' judgments and behaviors. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11747-022-00891-6.
Full text:
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Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
Language:
English
Journal:
J Acad Mark Sci
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S11747-022-00891-6
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