Emphasizing Good or Bad Health Conditions? How Gain-Loss Framing and Kernel State Framing Influence Adaptive and Maladaptive Health Outcomes

• In Event: Alcohol, Diet, Behavior Change: High-Density Panel in Public Health Communication

Abstract

This experimental study examines the separate and joint effects of gain-loss framing and kernel state framing on readers’ adaptive and maladaptive behavioral intentions. Four hundred and thirteen students completed a paper-and-pencil questionnaire that included a news report about diabetes. Headline and article text were manipulated with regard to gain-loss framing (health gains vs. losses if article recommendations are followed/disregarded) and kernel state framing (health, energy, and self-confidence vs. pain, exhaustion, and uncertainty). Articles portraying negative kernel states produced more reactance than articles mentioning positive health conditions. Loss-framed articles motivated the higher levels of information seeking than gain-framed articles. Gain-loss framing × respondent gender two-way interactions emerged for the intention for detection behavior and reactance. Overall, findings suggest that both message frames affect readers’ health-related intentions, albeit independently and partly gender-specific. Consequences for effective health message design as well as the appropriate theoretical foundation of these framing techniques are discussed.

Authors

• Matthias R. Hastall, TU Dortmund U

• Maike Barth, Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen