Fear Based Campaigns: They Just Don’t Work

Guest posting by Kylie Balotin

 

After one of my team’s presentations, one member of the audience pitched a new idea for our campaign’s HIV video. Why not show doctors the consequences of not talking to their patients about HIV testing and scare them into testing their patients more frequently? At first, this seems like a great idea, but studies have shown that fear tactics alone will not change the audience’s behavior.

Video Campaigns

As there are few physician-targeted campaigns, I looked up patient-targeted HIV video campaigns to see how fear appeals can be used and if they are effective. One of the first videos I found came from the New York campaign, “It’s Never Just HIV.” After watching this video, I found that I had experienced many of the defense mechanisms listed in the article, “Fear-Based Campaigns: The Way Forward or Backward?” such as “othering” (when a person doesn’t listen to a campaign message because they don’t believe that it applies to them) and minimizing (when a person believes that the message is exaggerated and don’t respond to the campaign), even though I was not a member of the target audience. (Knowles and Challacombe) I thought the video was ridiculous and exaggerated, so the message was lost on me. The entire video seemed over-the-top, from the actors’ expressions and actions to the images used to depict the diseases to the use of the sound of a heartbeat as the video quickly flashed images of men crying and in hospitals. (NYC Health) I experienced “othering” even though I know that I also have a chance of contracting HIV if I am not careful. (Knowles and Challacombe) Additionally, I did not feel like I had gained any more knowledge about how to make sure I was safe from HIV. For example, this video made me wonder how someone could make sure his or her partner used a condom and how would someone approach a conversation if the partner seemed unwilling to wear a condom.

 Your Smoke

Example of a campaign poster employing fear tactics

Poster Campaigns

The ineffectiveness of fear-based campaigns is not limited to videos and also appears in poster campaigns, which is demonstrated in the blog post “Why Graphic Anti-Smoking Ads Make Some People Smoke More Cigarettes.” (Goldb) This post gave some examples of anti-smoking campaigns that relied on fear-based tactics in order to encourage people to quit smoking such as the one shown above. Yes, these posters are shocking and disturbing, but this type of campaign once again leaves the audience with questions. These posters don’t explain how someone can go about quitting smoking and don’t empower their audiences to make a large life change. (Goldb)

How to Fix Fear-Based Campaigns

If used correctly, fear appeals can be helpful in a campaign as it might be useful in catching the audience’s attention. However, the campaign cannot rely solely on fear tactics to convey its message. Studies have shown that the most effective HIV interventions are ones that aim to change attitudes and beliefs regarding HIV, provide information about HIV, and give people examples of how to approach discussions about HIV and its prevention. (Albarracín et al.) Even though we know that information alone is not sufficient to change behavior, we need to add more education into campaigns so the audience has more knowledge about how they can change their behavior. This is why we cannot use the suggestion of “fear mongering” for our video. We need to empower the physicians that our campaign is targeting by giving them the knowledge and resources they need to change their behavior.

 

References

Albarracín, Dolores et al. “A Test of Major Assumptions About Behavior Change: A Comprehensive Look at the Effects of Passive and Active HIV-Prevention Interventions Since the Beginning of the Epidemic.” Psychological bulletin 131.6 (2005): 856–897. PubMed Central. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.

Goldb, Jessica, and on. “Why Graphic Cancer Ads Make People Smoke More Cigarettes – Iodine Blog.” The Iodine Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.

Knowles, Zak, and Laurel Challacombe. “Fear-Based Campaigns: The Way Forward or Backward?” TheBody.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2015.

NYC Health: It’s Never Just HIV. N.p., 2010. Film.

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