Fear appeals
‘Fear appeals’ use images, videos, stories and other
forms of information that intend to evoke the emotion of
fear in the audience. They are sometimes referred to as
“scare ‘em straight” approaches, as the point of evoking
fear is to ‘scare’ individuals into wanting to avoid some
unpleasant consequences which are shown to result
from the behaviour we are targeting. These approaches
were common to Think! campaigns, and many other
interventions, for many years, although we are now
seeing a shift away from this style for a number of
reasons, including the fact that research has shown that
it is not as effective as we might have expected.
Whilst some research has found education using fear
appeals to be useful in creating attitude and behaviour
change¹, other research suggests that fear appeals may
even have the opposite effect to that intended (leading
individuals to drive less safely than before they were
exposed to the fear appeal). Fear appeals have been
shown to be particularly ineffective at changing
intentions to behave differently in future for youngmales 2 .
However, when fear is generated, but generated
alongside a period of ‘fear relief’ (an opportunity for
individuals to overcome the fear that is being felt), and
when individuals are offered practical suggestions for
avoiding experiencing the threat that has been shown,
fear-appeals have been found to be more successful 3,4 .
If using education that utilises a fear-based format, it
is therefore advisable to offer a period of ‘fear relief’
during which individuals can absorb the information
about consequences and the strategies that may avoid
those consequences.
We should avoid exploiting the potential of fearful
information without providing follow-up advice
and suggestions about how that fear can be turned
into effective action.
Fear is a powerful but complex emotion. If you
want to know more, see the list of references to
research findings at the end of this section, or
contact one of our Accessible Academics (p.146-155).
¹ Hoekstra, T. and Wegman, F., (2011). Improving the effectiveness of road safety campaigns: Current and new practices. IATSS research, 34(2), pp.80-86.
² Wundersitz, L.N., Hutchinson, T.P. and Woolley, J.E., (2010). Best practice in road safety mass media campaigns: A literature review. Social psychology, 5,pp.119-186
³ Rossiter, J.R. and Thornton, J., (2004). Fear‐pattern analysis supports the fear‐drive model for anti-speeding road‐safety TV ads. Psychology & Marketing, 21(11),pp945-960
4
Algie, J. and Rossiter, J.R., (2010). Fear patterns: A new approach to designing road safety advertisements. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the
Community, 38(4), pp.264-279.
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