Enhancing Health Message Framing With Metaphor and Cultural Values: Impact on Latinas' Cervical Cancer Screening.

Background: An integration of message framing and sociocultural literature suggests that ethnic health disparities may be reduced by incorporating minority groups' cultural values into persuasive health messages. Framing messages with metaphors represents one promising strategy for harnessing cultural values to change health outcomes. Still, the effectiveness of metaphoric health messages in minority populations has received virtually no empirical attention. Purpose: To fill this gap, the present study tested whether a health message using a cancer-screening metaphor targeting collectivism and familism values would engage individual differences in these values to predict Papanicolaou (Pap) smear intentions among Latinas. Methods: Latina women (N = 168) completed an online survey including measures of collectivism and familism. They were randomized to read a message about Pap smears featuring the metaphor the body is a family or no metaphor before reporting their Pap smear intentions. Results: Regression analyses revealed a pattern of interactions suggesting metaphoric messages engage targeted cultural values: For Latinas reading the family metaphor message, collectivism and familism positively predicted Pap smear intentions, whereas for Latinas reading the no-metaphor message, these values did not predict intentions. Conclusions: This study offers a foundation for further examination of the potential for metaphoric health messages that connect to cultural values to reduce ethnic health disparities. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

When existence is not futile: The influence of mortality salience on the longer-is-better effect.

This research examines how death reminders impact the valuation of objects of various ages. Building from the existence bias, the longer-is-better effect posits that which exists is good and that which has existed for longer is better. Integrating terror management theory, it was reasoned that mortality reminders fostering a motivation to at least symbolically transcend death would lead participants to evaluate older object more positively as they signal robustness of existence. Participants were reminded of death (vs. control) and evaluated new, 20-, or 100-year-old objects. Results indicated death reminders resulted in greater valuation of older objects. Findings are discussed with implications for terror management theory, the longer-is-better effect, ageism, materialism, and consumer behaviour.