2026-04-15T11:57:55Z https://datacatalogue.cessda.eu/oai-pmh/v0/oai

16001fc98b2c9e4bbb6db2b3f8832fc85cff32761ebb53e59cf09778ef57b5c8 2025-12-08T01:17:55Z language:enopenaire_data

Threatening communication: a critical re-analysis and a revised meta-analytic test of fear appeal theory Threatening communication: a critical re-analysis and a revised meta-analytic test of fear appeal theory doi:10.17026/DANS-2CK-9JHNeasy-dataset:50772 Gjalt-Jorn Peters 2012-01-01 DANS Data Station Social Sciences and Humanities 2012-07-24 Social Sciencesthreatening communicationbehavior changefear appealsintervention developmentrisk perceptionperceived riskperceived threatmeta analytic test <p>Despite decades of research, consensus regarding the dynamics of fear appeals remains elusive. A meta-analysis was conducted that was designed to resolve this controversy. Publications that were included in previous meta-analyses were re-analysed, and a number of additional publications were located. The inclusion criteria were full factorial orthogonal manipulations of threat and efficacy, and measurement of behaviour as an outcome. Fixed and random effects models were used to compute mean effect size estimates. Meta-analysis of the six studies that satisfied the inclusion criteria clearly showed a significant interaction between threat and efficacy, such that threat only had an effect under high efficacy (d = 0.31), and efficacy only had an effect under high threat (d = 0.71). Inconsistency in results regarding the effectiveness of threatening communication can likely be attributed to flawed methodology. Proper tests of fear appeal theory yielded the theoretically hypothesised interaction effect. Threatening communication should exclusively be used when pilot studies indicate that an intervention successfully enhances efficacy.</p> https://ssh.datastations.nl/oai doi:10.17026/DANS-2CK-9JHN 2025-12-03T01:00:44Z ddi:codebook:2_5