Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 12.1
Factors infl uencing adherence to health warnings
Governmental health agencies must frequently warn citizens about newly discov-
ered health hazards (e.g., smoking and excessive drinking). This chapter discusses
factors affecting adherence to governmental warnings against the use of household
products previously perceived to be safe. To be effective a health warning must fi rst
reach its intended audience. In addition, the message must also successfully con-
vince its intended audience to change its behavior. This is a challenging exercise in
marketing, because in order to successfully convince consumers to modify behavior,
the warning message must counteract and overpower the effect of habitual safe
experience. Thus the questions of how people perceive such warnings, whether they
adhere to them, and what promotes or prevents adherence are central factors to mar-
keting practice and research.
This chapter is structured as follows: we begin by examining the psychological
decision-making literature on such factors as trust of the source issuing the warning
and safe experience with the risk-causing agent. Next we touch on basic require-
ments of awareness and understanding of the message. We proceed to review the
marketing literature on message design (Keller and Lehmann 2008 ), 1 focusing on
factors practical for widespread implementation, including vividness of message,
one-sided vs. two-sided messages, and regulatory fi t. Next, based on behavioral
decision research (Ratner et al. 2008 ), we discuss natural cognitive and emotional
consumer biases that may reduce adherence and how they may be counteracted. See
Fig. 12.1 for an outline of the factors reviewed. To illustrate various factors, we
1 For an exhaustive treatment of the topic, we refer the interested reader to the meta-analysis of 60
studies and 22,500 participants by Keller and Lehmann ( 2008 ), showing that message tactics have
a signifi cant impact upon intention to adhere to health-related recommendations.
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