Gain-framed health claims work better than fear appeals

Researchers at the University of Vermont US investigated the effectiveness of gain- and loss-framed health claims. They found that positive health claims more effectively motivate the general public than negative or fear-based claims that attempt to scare people into action.
Because most people are not highly involved in health behaviors, gain-framed messages are likely to be the most successful type for encouraging adherence and compliance. Since most audiences do not have the highly specific and detailed health knowledge that the message producers possess, they are less susceptible to fear-based messaging than the producers. An article about the research is published in Nutrition Reviews.
Click here for the article (116 kB).

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