Bridging the Fear and Hope: A Smartphone Eye-Tracking Examination of the Effects of Hope in Fear-based Health Messages
Bridging the Fear and Hope: A Smartphone Eye-Tracking Examination of the Effects of Hope in Fear-based Health Messages
Abstract: This study used a smartphone eye-tracking approach to examine understudied areas in health communication – hope in fear appeal – when people are exposed to differential emotional shifts with fear and hope on social media. In an image presentation with 4 (fear only vs. fear-then-hope vs. fear and hope vs. hope-then-fear) between-subjects eye-tracking experiment, participants viewed Instagram posts with variation of emotional shifts, then answered a questionnaire containing measures including perceived self-efficacy and intent to engagement of diabetes preventive behavior. Results indicated that emotional shift from fear to hope influences message processing through raising participants’ perceptions of self-efficacy compared to fear-only image social media content. The research also showed that fear-based images increased people’s attention to efficacy information followed by fear and hope, fear-then-hope, and hope-then-fear condition. Implications for health communication theory and practice are further discussed.
Related Research
-
Understanding Users’ Intention to Adopt AI Nutrition Chatbots: Insights from UTAUT2Mao, L., Lu, P., & Mengqi (Maggie) Liao. “Understanding Users’ Intention to Adopt AI Nutrition Chatbots: Insights from UTAUT2,”paper to be presented at the 76th annual ICA conference, June 2026 in Cape […]
-
Conversations Across Time: The Persuasiveness of Conversing with AI-Powered Future-Self Simulations in Reducing Sugar-Sweetened BeveragesMengqi (Maggie) Liao, Kim, H., & Hye-Jin Yoon. “Conversations Across Time: The Persuasiveness of Conversing with AI-Powered Future-Self Simulations in Reducing Sugar-Sweetened Beverages,” paper to be presented at the 76th annual conference of the […]