the effect of perspective type and target on the effectiveness of health campaigns

7/25/2019 The Effect of Perspective Type and Target on the Effectiveness of Health Campaigns

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The Effect of Perspective Type and Target on the Effectiveness of Health Campaigns

Abstract

This study looks at the effectiveness of narrative campaigns with regards to emotional engagement and the

viewers relationship with the subject in the campaign. The first hypothesis for this study is that the effectiveness

of narrative campaigns is lessened when emotional perspective-taking is used. The second hypothesis is that the

negative effect of taking an emotional perspective can be reduced or reversed if the participant takes the

perspective of an in-group member. This study looks at the interaction between these two factors. The findings

support the predictions and show that the effects of emotional perspective-taking significantly depend on whose

perspective the participants took. An emotional perspective would result in a significantly less positive attitude

toward getting tested for a Sexually Transmitted Infection compared to a non-emotional perspective. However this

effect disappears when the participants can relate to the target in the narrative campaign. The two independent

variables for this study are whether participants were emotionally engaged in the narrative campaign and whether

or not they could relate to the target in the campaign. The two dependent variables are how distressed the

participants were by the campaign and their attitudes towards getting tested for Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

The participants in this study were 172 Social Psychology students from the University of Exeter, ranging in age

from 17 to 47.

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Research has shown that people can have an unrealistically optimistic view when it comes to their own

susceptibility to health risks (Weinstein 1984), people seem to have an It wont happen to me mentality. Studies

have also found that people tend to reject information that suggests that their health may be at risk (Lieberman &

Chaiken 1992) and are more likely to recall information suggesting they are in good health (Kiviniemi & Rothman

2006). This may be why it requires a realisation of great personal risk for people to change their behaviour

(Schwarzer 2001). Evidence in health campaigns can fall into two categories, it can either be statistical or it can

be anecdotal and narrative (Perloff 2003). Narrative campaigns are becoming more and more common and tend

to be more influential than advertisements which rely on statistics to inform people (deWit et al 2008). This may

be due to the fact that narratives are easier to remember and more relatable than statistics (Tversky & Kahneman

1973). However, little is known about how narrative campaigns work and how people process campaign

narratives, which tend to involve taking the perspective of the actors in the advertisement and engaging

emotionally with them. Perspective-taking in health advertisements has not been greatly studied, however

research by Tarrant, Calitri and Weston (2012) indicates that taking the perspective of somebody similar is more

effective than taking the perspective of a stranger. Cameron and Chan (2008) have shown that emotional

evolvement with health issues can cause people to become defensive, which can be problematic if they feel like

they dont want to report honestly about their health or they may not have any desire to find out more about it and

protect themselves against it. This study asks whether emotional involvement in an narrative campaign about

gonorrhoea combined with perspective taking is effective in influencing the participants attitudes about Sexually

transmitted Diseases and whether it makes a difference whose perspective is taken. The first hypothesis for this



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study is that when the participants use emotional perspective-taking narrative campaign is less effective. The

second hypothesis is that whatever negative effect emotional perspective taking has can be reduced or reversed

if the participant takes the perspective of somebody similar to them. The rates of Sexually Transmitted

Diseases/Infections in young people are rising despite attempts to increase health awareness and the prevalence

of education. Therefore it is worthwhile to study what the most effective way of encouraging behaviour change is

for young adults.

Method

The participants used in the study were students from the Introduction to Social Psychology class in the

University of Exeter. The sample size was 172, 138 of which were male and 34 were female, ranging in age from

17-47. The mean age was 19.01, with a standard deviation of 2.85. None of the participants were excluded. The

participants were assigned to the different conditions based on whether the first letter of their surname was in the

first or second half of the alphabet and also based on convenience with regard to their classes. The participants

were spread out across 6 different sessions, each lasting an hour long. The study has an experimental between

subjects design, with 2 independent variables and 2 dependant variables. One of the independent variables in

this study was whether the perspective taking was emotional or not. This was manipulated by asking the

participants to either imagine how Sam, the character in the campaign narrative, would feel or what he would do

having found out that he has gonorrhoea. The other independent variable was whether or not the participants

would relate to the subject in the advertisement. This was manipulated by showing half the participants products

with the University of Exeter brand, they were then asked to name what made them similar to other University of

Exeter students. The narrative campaign for the participants in this condition was presented with Sam being an

Exeter student. The participants in the other condition were shown products with messages on them about being

unique, they were then asked what they thought made them unique. They were shown a narrative campaign were

Sam was not an Exeter student. The cover story that was told to the participants was that the researchers were

looking at different techniques for consumer and health marketing. The first part was actually to get the

participants to engage in either their unique identity or their University of Exeter focused identity. The picture in



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the campaign showed a man and a woman and depending on the gender of the participant a speech bubble

would be coming out of either the man or the womans head, this would allow the participant to take the subjects

perspective without being influenced by gender. The unisex name Sam was also chosen for this reason. One of

the dependant variables in this study was how distressed the participants were by the narrative campaign. This

was measured by asking the participants, in a questionnaire, to what extent did they feel distressed, upset,

disgusted, worried, disturbed, troubled, grieved, perturbed and alarmed on a 7 point scale, with 1 being Not at all

and 7 being Very Much. The other dependant variable for this study was the participants attitudes towards

taking action to protect themselves against Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The participants were asked whether

they agreed that getting tested for STIs is beneficial, useful, important, sensible and worthwhile on another 7 point

scale, with 1 being Totally Disagree and 7 being Totally Agree. They were also asked whether they agreed that

getting tested for STIs is awkward, embarrassing and unpleasant, these scores were reversed on the scale.

Results

Means and standard deviations for the two dependent measures, campaign distress and attitudes about

being tested, are presented in Table 1. Higher scores on each of these measures indicate more distress over the

campaign and more positive attitudes about being tested. Overall, participants did not find the campaign too

distressing (M= 2.88,SD= 1.20, on a 7-point scale) and held moderately positive attitudes about the target

behaviour of being tested (M= 5.03,SD= .57, on a 7-point scale).

Table 1.

Means and Standard Deviations for Campaign Distress and Attitudes about Testing as a function of perspective-

taking Target and Type.

!ther "ndivid#al $ello% E&eter St#dent

'on(

eotional

Eotional 'on(

eotional

Eotional

)istress*ean 2+,2 3+0- 3+0- 2+61

S) 1+20 1+1. 1+2. 1+1-

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/ttit#des*ean +12 .+0 +06 +1.

S) +, +.6 +6 +6.

n 3- .2 . .6

To examine the hypothesis, a 2 (target: different individual, fellow Exeter student) x 2 (type: non-emotional,

emotional) analysis of variance was performed on each of the dependent measures. The analysis of campaign

distress revealed no significant main effects of either perspective target,F(1, 168)= 11,p= .73, or perspective type,

F(1, 168)= .11,p= .73. As predicted, however, there was a significant interaction between these factors,F(1, 168)= 5.35,

p= .02. As can be seen in Table 1, when participants were manipulated to think of themselves as an individual

and to take the perspective of a different individual, emotional perspective-taking increased distress relative to

non-emotional perspective-taking, although this difference was not significant,F(1, 168)= 1.85, p = .18. Conversely,

when participants were manipulated to think of themselves in terms of their Exeter student identity and to take the

perspective of a fellow Exeter student, emotional perspective-taking reduced distress relative to non-emotional

perspective-taking,F(1, 168)= 3.72,p= .055.

The same analysis performed on attitudes about testing also revealed no significant main effects of

perspective target,F(1, 168) = 2.58,p= .11, or type,F(1, 168)= 1.92,p= .17, but the predicted interaction was

significant,F(1, 168)= 5.52,p= .02. As can be seen in Table 1, when participants were manipulated to think of

themselves as an individual and to take the perspective of a different individual, emotional perspective-taking

reduced positive attitudes relative to non-emotional perspective-taking,F(1, 168)= 6.56,p= .01. Conversely, when

participants were manipulated to think of themselves in terms of their Exeter student identity and to take the

perspective of a fellow Exeter student, emotional perspective-taking slightly increased positive attitudes relative to

non-emotional perspective-taking, however this difference was not significant,F(1, 168)= .49,p= .48.

Discussion

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The results have shown that perspective type (emotional or non-emotional) and target (Exeter student or

not) does not significantly affect the distress that participants felt about Sams story. However the participants

attitudes towards getting tested for Sexually Transmitted Diseases was effected by perspective type, with

participants reporting less positively in the emotional condition, however this was only true for the participants in

the unique identity condition. This shows an interaction of the two factors. The results show that the perspective

taking type and target interact significantly. This supports the hypothesis that the effects of emotional perspective

taking depends on the target whose perspective is taken. The negative effects of emotional perspective taking

vanished when the participants could relate to the target in the narrative campaign. This supports Terrant, Calitri

and Westons research (2012) which demonstrated that when the target in the campaign whose perspective must

be taken is an in-group member, then the campaign is more effective. However, this would only hold true for

students who feel that the University of Exeter is a part of their identity. This may not be the case for everyone

and further research may be done into how much stronger the effect could be if the in-group was defined as

something more specific e.g. within a group of friends. Furthermore, this only seems to make the negative effect

of emotional engagement disappear, it does not seem to positively improve attitude or decrease distress

compared to the condition of unique identity. Perhaps if the bond with the target was stronger we would see

more of a positive effect. A further possible limitation of the study is, whether or not people engaged emotionally

with the target, those asked to do so may not have put much effort into it. A basic description of his emotion to

expand on may be helpful with encouraging people to connect emotionally with Sam. It is also possible that the

participants who described what Sam did could engage with him emotionally. To avoid the possibility of this

occurring maybe the participants need not describe Sams actions. Wit et als work found that narrative

campaigns are more effective than messages containing statistics (2008). This study shows that whilst this may

be true, under certain circumstances, health messages can backfire and deter people from engaging in behaviour

that would reduce health risks. This study supports the research of Cameron and Chan (2008) which suggested

that emotional engagement can create defensiveness. This is demonstrated here by a less positive self-reported

attitude towards getting tested for a Sexually Transmitted Disease but only when the target in the health campaign

is not an in-group member. It is understandable that participants may be defensive when talking about a matter as

private as Sexually Transmitted Disease, it may be worthwhile to see how students would respond to less



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personal matters (e.g. to get themselves checked for a cold going around campus) and whether the same

cognitive biases would be at work. It is important that more research is done into making health campaigns as

effective as possible to counteract peoples cognitive bias to reject information which suggests that their health

may be at risk (Lieberman & Chaiken 1992) and to more readily recall information suggesting they are in good

health (Kiviniemi & Rothman 2006). This study shows that emotional engagement can cause defensiveness,

unless you are engaging with someone you can relate to. It should therefore be the duty of health advertisement

designers to try and produce a range of narratives that people will be able to relate to so as to minimize as much

reactance as possible.

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References

Cameron, L. D., & Chan, C. K. Y. (2008), Designing Health Communications: Harnessing the Power of Affect,

Imagery, and Self-Regulation.Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 262282. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-

9004.2007.00057.x

De Wit, J. B. F., Das, E., & Vet, R. (2008). What works best: Objective statistics or a personal testimonial? An

assessment of the persuasive effects of different types of message evidence on risk perception.Health

Psychology,27(1), 110-115. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.27.1.110

Kiviniemi, M. T., & Rothman, A. J. (2006). Selective memory biases in individuals memory for health-related

information and behavior recommendations.Psychology and Health,21, 247272.

doi:10.1080/14768320500098715

Liberman, A., & Chaiken, C. (1992). Defensive processing of personally relevant health messages.Personality

and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 669679. doi:10.1177/0146167292186002

Perloff, R. M. (2003). The dynamics of persuasion (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Schwarzer, R. (2001). Social-cognitive factors in changing health-related behavior.Current Directions in

Psychological Science,10,4751. doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00112

Tarrant, M., Calitri, R., & Weston, D. (2012). Social identification structures the effects of perspective taking.

Psychological Science, 23(9), 973-978. doi: 10.1177/0956797612441221

Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive

Psychology,5, 207232. doi:10.1016/0010-0285(73)90033-9

Weinstein, N. D. (1984). Why it won't happen to me: Perceptions of risk factors and susceptibility.Health

Psychology, 3(5), 431-457. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.3.5.431

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