Evaluation of the Crash Course March 2009 - De Montfort University

(McKenna, 2006.) He also draws attention to the persistence of the ‘it won’t happen
to me’ syndrome of unrealistic optimism and illusions of control even in the face of
advice about risk reduction (McKenna, 1993).
The message from these studies seems quite clear: deterrence-oriented attitude
change programmes relying on shocking messages are not always effective in
changing young people’s behaviour and they may actually have harmful effects.
However, a substantial amount of psychological research has demonstrated that in
certain circumstances, certain types of fear-based appeals can be successful in
changing people’s attitudes and behaviour (Witte and Allen, 2000; Windell and Allen,
2005; Meyerowitz and Chaiken, 1987).
Early psychological research on health education also showed that attempts to
change attitudes using shocking messages can sometimes be problematic (e.g.
Liberman and Chaiken, 1992; Petty, 1995). Where the attempt to change attitudes
shocks people into feeling fear or other strong emotional responses and the person
being persuaded does not clearly perceive a way in which their future actions can
moderate these feelings, poor results in attitude change can follow as people
disengage from the communication and do not rationally process the information
they receive (e.g. Jepson and Chaiken, 1990; Liberman and Chaiken, 1992).
Windell and Allen (2005) provide an examination of the literature on fear appeals and
consider the lessons for behaviour-changing programmes aimed at young people in
terms of what they tend to do wrong and how they might better align themselves with
an evidence-based approach to changing attitudes and behaviours.
One important issue is the level of fear invoked. If perceived threat caused by the
use of fear-based messages is too low, “the individual does no further cognitive
processing of the fear because of a lack of motivation” (Windell and Allen, 2005;
p.389). Correspondingly, however, if the perceived level of threat is high but the
individual does not believe that there is an effective way for him or her to take some
action that will diminish this threat then it is more likely he or she will “become
defensive or deny that the threat is real or that it applies to him or her” (Windell and
Allen, 2005; p.389).
What is needed for a fear-based appeal to succeed is its being accompanied by an
appropriate recommended course of action that has the clear potential to counter the
threat raised in the fear-appeal. The individual receiving the fear-based appeal must
also perceive the recommended action as achievable and effective. Windell and
Allen (2005) provide a summary of overall recommendations for fear-inducing
attitude-change messages. They argue that fear-based appeals will be most
effective when:
• They genuinely frighten people
• They offer specific recommendations for overcoming the fear-aroused threat
• The recommended action is perceived by the recipient as potentially effective
for reducing the threat, and
• The recipient believes that they can perform the recommended action
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