Fear Appeal

In Witte and Allen's (2000) meta-analysis, the message

characteristic that produced the strongest effects on attitudes and intentions was severity. Although Witte and

Allen are unable to determine what specifically accounts for

the strong effects of severity, they speculate that it could be

due to the "vivid and often gruesome pictures" (pp.

602-603) included as components of more recent manipulations. Consistent with Witte and Allen, we view graphic

pictures of health consequences as being closely related to

consumer perceptions of severity. Gruesome pictures have

the potential to be more novel and attended to more carefully than other features of the message, and this may

enhance desired effects. Thus, the focus of our study is to

determine whether varying the depiction of graphic warning

levels on cigarette packages affects evoked fear and, in

turn, whether this increases smokers' quitting intentions.2

Beyond the classic theoretical explanations of how fear

operates (e.g., Leventhal 1970; Rogers 1975) and Witte and

Allen's (2000) meta-analysis, it is important to discuss

some specific findings from the fear literature that are relevant to our study. In one of the few studies that test the persuasiveness of low versus high levels of fear appeals, Keller

and Block (1996) find that arousal and elaboration are key

Past studies that assess the persuasiveness of low and high levels of fear appeals showed that arousal and elaboration are primary moderators to contemplate. High fear appeals tend to be less effective when consumers elaborate on the issue which leads to defensive processing. By referencing others and promoting objective processing of the message, the problem elaboration can be reduced and thereby making the high-fear appeal more effective. Another study on the vulnerability evoked by fear appeal revealed positive linear effects on attitudes and intentions, even in situations where the threat was not significant and the argument quality was poor.

Fear-evoking messages tend to work better for those who are won over compared to those who are unconvinced (Keller, 1999). Nevertheless, only a low and moderate level of fear arousal was tested by Keller

Keller (1999) suggests that