Temporal frames, temporal focus, and behavioral expectations: The persuasive impact of near and distant threats.

BACKGROUND: Ultraviolet (UV) photography and photoaging visuals make hidden sun damage visible to the naked eye, granting the potential to create messages that vary in temporal dimensionality. As UV photos depict immediate skin damage, the photo communicated that exposure in sun causes invisible damage to the young truck driver (near temporal frame) and visible damage (e.g., wrinkles) to the old truck driver (distant temporal frame). OBJECTIVE: The current study examines the moderating effects of loss/gain frames and temporality variables on the relationship between temporal framing and sun safe behavioral expectations. METHOD: U.S. adults (N = 897) were assigned to a 2 (near/distant temporal frame) × 2 (gain/loss frame) between-participants experiment. RESULTS: The loss frame triggered greater fear compared to the gain frame, this fear forms an indirect path where loss frames increase fear and fear increases changes in sun safe behavioral expectations. Participants exposed to the distant frame had increased behavior expectations if either of the two temporality variables (CFC - future or current focus) were low. Participants with low temporality indicators (i.e., CFC - future, current focus, or future focus) exposed to the gain frame had increased behavior expectations. CONCLUSIONS: The findings demonstrate the potential utility of temporal frames as a tool for designing strategic health messages.

Message frame and health literacy: Strategies to improve adherence to antihypertensive medications.

BACKGROUND: Hypertension and prehypertension is prevalent in about half of the total world population. Experts recommend comprehensive medical treatment for people with underlying diseases or at risk for metabolic syndrome. However, previous studies have found that approximately half of all patients with hypertension stopped taking antihypertensive medication within a year, and this phenomenon was closely related to the low perceived benefit and outcome expectation of taking behavior. OBJECTIVES: As the initial perception of medication is greatly influenced by the medication message, this study explored the effect of the gain-loss framing of the message of adherence to antihypertensives. Furthermore, the study analyzed the interaction between health literacy and involvement, which is a characteristic of the message recipient, and the message frame and examined how the message strategy should differ according to individual factors. METHODS: The quasi-experiment via an online survey was conducted from August 9 to 11, 2021. Participants who had the potential for hypertension but had not yet been diagnosed were selected through screening questions. A total of 1200 participants were randomly assigned to each frame group. Data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, analysis of covariance for analysis of main effects and interaction effects between variables, and Bonferroni post-hoc for multiple analyses. RESULTS: Regarding medical adherence intention, the frame did not show a main effect, whereas individual factors showed a main effect. An interaction effect of frame and individual factors were found. Specifically, in the group with low health literacy or low involvement, a significant gain frame advantage effect was observed. CONCLUSIONS: This study verified the relationship between medication messages and behavior and provides insight into tailoring messages to antihypertensive adherence; it found that individuals' health literacy and involvement must be considered in health communication message strategies.

Impact of information framing and vaccination characteristics on parental COVID-19 vaccine acceptance for children: a discrete choice experiment.

This study aimed to test the influence of vaccination characteristics and gain/loss-framing of information, on parental acceptance of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination for their minor children. A discrete choice experiment was conducted among parents of children aged 0-17 years from September to October 2021 in Hong Kong. Respondents were randomly assigned to four groups with different framing of information and asked to choose hypothetical vaccination alternatives, described by seven attributes that were derived from prior qualitative interviews. A mixed logit model was adopted to analyze the effect of attributes and information framing on parental vaccination acceptance. The vaccine acceptance rates under different scenarios were also estimated. A total of 298 valid responses were obtained. It was found that the BioNTech brand, higher efficacy, less serious adverse events and more vaccination coverage in children significantly improved parental acceptance. Additionally, loss-framing increased parental acceptance compared with gain-framing, while the presentation of mortality information did not make a difference. Acceptance was also associated with parental uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine and the children's age. CONCLUSION: The findings imply that factors including gain/loss information framing, importance of vaccine characteristics, and peer influence have a significant effect on parents' decisions to get their children vaccinated. Parents with younger children had greater vaccine hesitancy, and information framing techniques should be considered in vaccination promotion for combating such vaccine hesitancy. Future studies could be conducted to identify the moderators and mediators of information framing to facilitate its implementation. WHAT IS KNOWN: • Parental acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine was found to be associated with various socio-economic and psychosocial factors, while the evidence on impact of vaccination characteristics was limited. • Behavioral interventions, including information framing, have been used to promote various health behaviors. WHAT IS NEW: • Loss-framing of information on vaccine effectiveness improves vaccine acceptance, while additional information on how the vaccine reduces death does not make a difference, which can be used to inform communication with the public in vaccination promotion. • The social norm (i.e., the vaccine uptake amongst other people) is important for increasing the parental vaccine acceptance rate.

Impacts of gain versus loss frame messages about beverages on boy students, an application of extended parallel process model.

BACKGROUND: Unhealthy diet including consumption of high amounts of sugar-sweetened beverages is a key modifiable risk factor for obesity and NCDs which begin in childhood and adolescence. The study aimed to compare the effect of gain frame vs. loss frame messages on SSBs consumption intention and behavior of high school boy students. METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study, 270 students from three boy's high schools were selected through a multistage random sampling. Data collection was done through a 15 items self-reported questionnaire before and two months after the intervention. Each of the two intervention groups received one of the two types of gain frame or loss frame designed pamphlets inspired with extended parallel process model. The control group received no pamphlet. RESULTS: In control, GFM and LFM groups 91, 86 and 89 students participated in the study, respectively. After the intervention, significant differences were observed in perceived efficacy and threat of the GFM group and perceived efficacy, threat and intention in the LFM group compared with before the intervention. The GFM group had higher perceived self-efficacy than the control group and lower perceived severity than the LFM group. Intention to consume SSBs reduced significantly in LFM group, compared with the control group. CONCLUSIONS: A combination of LFM and GFM messages could more effectively lead to nutritional behavior change regarding the consumption of SSBs. Results help to design messages for educational programs and nutritional campaigns.

Knowledge is money: Do people think cultural capital can be transformed into economic value?

Cultural capital is defined as the accumulation of knowledge, behaviors, and skills that a person can tap into to demonstrate one's cultural competence and social status (Bourdieu, 1986). Cultural capital has been well-understood in social sciences such as sociology and economics for the past decades. Little research has examined the psychological antecedences and consequences of cultural capital at the individual level. Our current work seeks to provide empirical evidence to support the claim that cultural capital (embodied, objective, and institutionalized) can be transformed into economic value. Using a 3 × 3 × 2 (Cultural Capital Conditions × Behavioral Agents × Frames) mixed experimental design, our data showed that under the gain frame rather than the loss frame, the property of people with cultural capital was judged higher than those pretending to have cultural capital, but without real knowledge. Interestingly, this pattern of results only holds true under the embodied cultural capital condition, but did not hold true under the objectified and institutionalized cultural capital conditions.

Framing Effects on Online Security Behavior.

We conducted an incentivized lab experiment examining the effect of gain vs. loss-framed warning messages on online security behavior. We measured the probability of suffering a cyberattack during the experiment as the result of five specific security behaviors: choosing a safe connection, providing minimum information during the sign-up process, choosing a strong password, choosing a trusted vendor, and logging-out. A loss-framed message led to more secure behavior during the experiment. The experiment also measured the effect of trusting beliefs and cybersecurity knowledge. Trusting beliefs had a negative effect on security behavior, while cybersecurity knowledge had a positive effect.

Effect of persuasive messages on National Health Service Organ Donor Registrations: a pragmatic quasi-randomised controlled trial with one million UK road taxpayers.

BACKGROUND: A shortage of organs available for transplantation is causing loss of life. Increasing the number of individuals on the National Health Service (NHS) Organ Donor Register (ODR) is one way to address the shortage of organs. In Great Britain, new drivers registering for their driving licence are invited to join the ODR. A further 17 million drivers renew their road tax online each year, presenting an additional opportunity to prompt drivers to join the ODR. This trial explores the effect of adding persuasive messages to a prompt to join the ODR at the end of road tax payment transactions. METHODS: In this pragmatic, parallel group, quasi-randomised controlled trial, drivers renewing their road tax or registering for a driving licence were alternately allocated, using a JavaScript randomisation code embedded in the GOV.UK website, to view a control prompt inviting sign-ups to the ODR or the same prompt plus one of seven theoretically informed persuasive messages; (i) social norms alone, (ii) social norms plus the NHS ODR logo, (iii) social norms plus an image, (iv) loss frame, (v) gain frame, (vi) reciprocity and (vii) cognitive dissonance. The trial took place over a 4-week period in June 2013. The primary outcome measure was participants completing the online registration form (sign-ups). RESULTS: Altogether, 1,085,322 website users were included in the study. Further, 1171 more sign-ups were completed under the most effective message (reciprocity) compared to the control prompt alone (reciprocity: n = 4256, control: n = 3085; odds ratio, OR 1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.32-1.45, p < 0.001). The loss-framed message was as effective. All messages increased sign-ups compared to the control prompt apart from the social norms message plus image (n = 2879; OR 0.94, 95% confidence interval 0.89-0.99, p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Short persuasive messages alongside a prompt can persuade more ODR sign-ups for individuals renewing their road tax than a prompt alone. The most effective message remains in place today. Since the trial in 2013, the same message has been implemented across 25 government end-of-transaction websites on GOV.UK, resulting in 529,000 new registrations to the ODR up to 31st October 2017.

Activation of the prefrontal cortex by unilateral transcranial direct current stimulation leads to an asymmetrical effect on risk preference in frames of gain and loss.

Previous brain imaging and brain stimulation studies have suggested that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be critical in regulating risk-taking behavior, although its specific causal effect on people's risk preference remains controversial. This paper studied the independent modulation of the activity of the right and left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex using various configurations of transcranial direct current stimulation. We designed a risk-measurement table and adopted a within-subject design to compare the same participant's risk preference before and after unilateral stimulation when presented with different frames of gain and loss. The results confirmed a hemispheric asymmetry and indicated that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has an asymmetric effect on risk preference regarding frames of gain and loss. Enhancing the activity of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex significantly decreased the participants' degree of risk aversion in the gain frame, whereas it increased the participants' degree of risk aversion in the loss frame. Our findings provide important information regarding the impact of transcranial direct current stimulation on the risk preference of healthy participants. The effects observed in our experiment compared with those of previous studies provide further evidence of the effects of hemispheric and frame-dependent asymmetry. These findings may be helpful in understanding the neural basis of risk preference in humans, especially when faced with decisions involving possible gain or loss relative to the status quo.