Fear appeal: Never ever to be a drunk driver!

The consequence of being a drunk driver can be even worse than die! This advert illustrates the misery of a girl who suffered from a severe car crash due to drunk driving. This image exemplified a tactic called ‘fear appeal’ that elicits fear by linking an undesired action with negative consequence.

Fear appeals reply on a threat to an individual’s well-being that motivates him/her towards action (i.e. increasing control over a situation or preventing an unwanted outcome) (Maddux & Rogers,1983). Johnston and Warkentin (2010) conducted an experiment to investigate the effect of fear appeal.

College students were solicited via email to volunteer for the project of computer security and information assurance. Participants were randomly assigned to three groups. In group 1, participants were exposed to a pretest survey followed by a fear appeal treatment and a posttest survey; in group 2, participants were subjected only to the pretest survey and the posttest survey; in group 3, participants were exposed to the fear appeal treatment and the posttest survey only, thereby making it possible to account for testing effects. Six constructs were measured: behavioural intent (compliance of end users with recommendations to enact specific individual computer security actions towards the mitigation of threats), social influence, response efficacy, self-efficacy, threat severity, and threat susceptibility.

Partial least squares regression analysis was employed to examine the structural model, and the result is illustrated in the figure below. It showed that the impact of fear appeals on behavioural intentions was determined in part by perceptions of self-efficacy, response efficacy, threat severity, and social influence.

In term of my striking image, the perceived threat is very severe (even worse than die), whilst the perceived self-efficacy is very high (never drunk driving). People will conform this recommendation to prevent severe consequences.

Reference:

Johnston, A. C., & Warkentin, M. (2010). Fear appeals and information security behaviors: an empirical study. MIS quarterly, 34(3), 549-566.

Maddux, J. E., & Rogers, R. W. (1983). Protection motivation and self-efficacy: A revised theory of fear      appeals and attitude change. Journal of experimental social psychology, 19(5), 469-479.