An examination of message-relevant affect in road safety messages: Should road safety advertisements aim to make us feel good or bad?

Lewis, I.; Watson, B.; White, K.M. · 2008 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2008.03.003

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Summary

This study investigates the relative effectiveness of positive (humorous) versus negative (fear-evoking) emotional appeals in anti-drink driving road safety advertisements. Motivated by the prevalent reliance on fear-based campaigns and mixed empirical evidence regarding their efficacy, the research utilizes the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to examine how message-relevant affect influences persuasion. The authors hypothesize that the impact of these appeals depends on the viewer’s level of involvement, the presence of response efficacy (coping strategies), gender, and the time elapsed since exposure. Specifically, the study tests whether negative appeals are more persuasive immediately for highly involved individuals, while positive appeals may yield greater persuasive effects over time. The experimental design involved 201 licensed drivers who viewed two advertisements varying by appeal type (positive/negative) and response efficacy (high/low). Data were collected via questionnaires administered immediately after exposure and again 2 to 4 weeks later. The immediate assessment measured attitudes toward drink driving and intentions to use risk-reduction strategies, while the follow-up assessed attitudes, intentions, and self-reported behavior. The study also measured the third-person effect (TPE), gauging perceived influence on self versus others, and analyzed gender differences. Manipulation checks confirmed that positive appeals successfully elicited positive affect and negative appeals elicited negative affect, with high-efficacy ads perceived as providing more useful strategies. Results indicated complex interactions between appeal type, involvement, and response efficacy. Immediately after exposure, highly involved individuals exposed to high-efficacy negative appeals reported significantly less favorable attitudes toward drink driving than those exposed to positive appeals, supporting the hypothesis that negative appeals are initially more persuasive for this group. Gender differences were also evident, with males generally holding more favorable views toward drink driving than females. Crucially, the findings revealed that while negative appeals had an immediate advantage, positive appeals demonstrated greater improvement in persuasion outcomes over the two-to-four-week delay. This suggests that the persuasive impact of humorous messages increases with time, whereas the impact of fear-based messages may diminish or remain static. The significance of these findings lies in challenging the exclusive reliance on fear-based road safety advertising. The study provides empirical support for positive emotional appeals as a viable alternative, particularly for long-term behavior change. By demonstrating that positive appeals can become more persuasive over time, the research suggests that road safety campaigns should consider the temporal dynamics of emotional appeals. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of tailoring messages based on audience involvement and gender, indicating that a one-size-fits-all approach to emotional appeals is suboptimal. The study contributes to the broader understanding of how affect functions in persuasion, emphasizing that the role of emotion is not static but evolves depending on cognitive processing routes and time delays.

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Topics

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• public messaging
• affect mood