Emotional shifts in health messages as a strategy for generating talk and behavior change

Abstract

Although talk generated by health messages can spread message content and promote positive behavior change, little is known about what message features may be more likely to prompt conversation. Given theoretical and research support for sequential emotional experiences to increase the intensity of emotion and the extent of engagement with the emotional content – both of which are expected to positively influence talk and persuasion – we examined whether shifts in emotion within a health message influenced these outcomes. In a longitudinal experiment, we compared the effects of two texting while driving prevention messages containing a shift in emotional valence (negative to positive and positive to negative) with two single-valence emotional messages (negative-only and positive-only) on talk and persuasion (N = 333). Results indicated that emotional shift messages generated more talk than single-valence messages because they elicited greater emotional intensity and deeper message processing. These variables also mediated the effect of emotional shift messages on persuasion both immediately following message exposure and one week later, though intentions to avoid texting while driving immediately after message exposure had a greater influence on beliefs and behavior at the one-week follow-up than talk. These findings suggest that talk may play a more important role in spreading message content and reinforcing message-generated change rather than creating change itself.