Analyzing Message Effectiveness for Influencing Older Adults’ Intentions to Obtain Screening for Hepatitis C

• In Event: HIGH-DENSITY: Narratives and Health Communication

Abstract

As evidenced by prior research, narratives may be an effective persuasive device. Despite the scholarly progress that has been made in this area, uncertainty regarding the contexts in which this message format holds an advantage over other types of persuasive appeals persist. More specifically, statistical and narrative message formats have been compared extensively with mixed results. The present study aims to help mitigate these disparate findings in addition to answering a call for including a third, mixed format in the analysis. The three message formats—narrative, statistical, and combined—were presented to older adults with the context of testing for Hepatitis C, along with a no-message control. Data were collected from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and analyzed with planned contrasts as well as hierarchical linear regression. The study’s findings indicate an advantage for the combined format that embeds statistical information within the narrative. Implications for scholars and practitioners are discussed.

Author

• Kristin Maki, University at Buffalo, SUNY