Fear appeals in social marketing: Strategic and ethical reasons for concern

By G. Hastings, M. Stead, John Webb. 2004

631 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Marketing, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3196c74df400ebaad0f4bddbb699fece89439fda

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In Applied Psychology

In Marketing

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Investigating the Long-Term Impacts of Climate Change Communications on Individuals’ Attitudes and Behavior (2014, background): “Furthermore, Hastings, Stead, and Webb (2004) assert that there are few field research evaluations of fear appeals and that laboratory studies of their efficacy are flawed by the overuse of student samples, forced exposure to communications under unrealistic conditions, and short-term measurement…”
The use of positive and negative appeals in social advertising: a content analysis of television ads for preventing HIV/AIDS (2021, background): “Acceptance of messages influences the reputation and image of sponsored organisations (Hastings et al., 2004).”
Examining the effectiveness of physical threats in road safety advertising: The role of the third-person effect, gender, and age (2007, background): “standing criticism of the majority of threat appeal literature (see Hastings, Stead, & Webb, 2004 )”
Defensive reactions to health-promoting information: an overview and implications for future research (2013, background): “Instead, health promoters should use strategies that are less likely to trigger defensive reactions, such as positive reinforcement of desirable behaviour (Hastings et al., 2004), behavioural skills training (Albarracı́n et al.”
The Use of Message Framing in the Promotion of Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors (2011, background): “Despite the immediate effectiveness of physical loss ads, however, their long-term impact is unclear, as has been suggested by Hastings, Stead, and Webb (2004).”
Scared straight? Fear-appeal anti-smoking campaigns, risk, self-efficacy and addiction (2009, background): “This inequality ‘violates, in ethical theory, the principle of equal justice for all’ (Hastings et al. 2004, p. 975).”
Emotional responses to prosocial messages increase willingness to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020, background): “However, the relationship between fear and disease prevention behaviors is not straightforward (Hastings et al., 2004).”
How Hope and Doubt Affect Climate Change Mobilization (2019, background): “In particular, many warn against fear appeals because they can trigger counterproductive responses like avoidance, denial, and reactance, when solutions are unknown, undesirable, or inaccessible (Folkman and Lazarus, 1990; Lazarus, 1999; Hastings et al., 2004).”
Feelings that Make a Difference: How Guilt and Pride Convince Consumers of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Consumption Choices (2014, background): “Although there is evidence that guilt is widely used in marketing (Huhmann and Brotherton 1997; Hesz and Neophytou 2010), the ethicality of promoting responsible behavior through the use of negative emotions is debated (Hastings et al. 2004).”
The use of visual warnings in social marketing: The case of tobacco (2011, background): “First, Hastings et al. (2004); Ruiter and Kok (2001) and Stewart and Martin (1994) consider that insufficient attention has been paid to unintentional consequences of warnings and especially the possible adverse effects of fear appeal messages.”