Visual Attention to Anti-Drunk-Driving PSAs With Different Emotionality: Explicating How Messages’ Emotionality Affects “Seeing” and “Believing”

• In Event: Studies of Message Properties

Abstract

This study examines participants’ eye movements when presented with “real-world” persuasive messages – using anti-drunk driving PSAs with different emotional tones (positive, negative, co-active) as stimuli (stimuli have been pretested and selected). As public health messages with persuasive intent tend to use negative emotional appeals to promote desired attitude or behavior change (Leshner, Bolls, & Thomas, 2009), findings about their effectiveness have been mixed. Theoretical frameworks used in this study include the dimensional approach to emotions and two motivational systems. EmployingTobii TX300 Eye Tracker system, this study intends to explicate how people’s eye movements will differ as a function of viewing messages with different emotional valence, and further explores the relationship between allocation of visual attention and later cognitive processing of the messages and promoted behavior in the message.

Author

• Chen Lou, Michigan State U