Fear arousal theory

Janis and Feshback proposed the fear arousal theory in 1953, arguing that persuasive messages can change attitudes and behaviours if they arouse fear.

Fear creates unpleasant physical and psychological arousal, by changing behaviour we can avoid the feared outcome.
This suggests that change in behaviour can be negatively reinforced.
Health campaigns use this, for example = anti-smoking ads - graphic lung cancer images.

The relationship between fear and behaviour is curvilinear, which means little amount of fear has no effect on behaviour change, moderate fear is very effective and a high amount of fear is counterproductive.
However, too much fear leads to a different state, also known as denial. Denial can be negatively reinforced too and it results in the opposite behaviour change.

Aim: to see if-arousing messages produce denial in place of behaviour change.
Findings: strong-fear group had more anxiety about tooth decaybut only 8% improved their dental hygiene.
The low-fear group had the least anxiety but more change than strong-fear.

Moderate group had the best outcome with 36% improving their dental hygiene.

Strengths:
- the study measured change in behaviour improvements, where most studies in this field only measure intention to change.
- It has greater validity than other studies because we are aware that there is a significant gap between an individual’s intentions to change and the individual’s actual behaviour.
- other studies have found similar or the same results.
Weaknesses:
- the research has not been replicated, this questions validity.