Testing the Effectiveness of Emotional Appeals on Self- and Others-Focused Mental Health Outcomes
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Eng, Nicholas
- Graduate Program:
- Mass Communications
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 17, 2023
- Committee Members:
- Anthony Olorunnisola, Program Head/Chair
Mary Oliver, Major Field Member
Christofer Skurka, Major Field Member
Jessica Myrick, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Denise Bortree, Outside Unit & Field Member - Keywords:
- mental health
mental illness
depression
emotions
appraisal theories of emotion
compassion
hope
humor
emotional appeal
experiment
quantitative
persuasion
strategic communication
cognitive elaboration
health communication - Abstract:
- 52.9 million U.S. adults live with a mental illness, yet less than half of U.S. adults with any mental illness reported receiving mental health services. Despite concerns about untreated mental illnesses, little is known about how to effectively communicate about this serious health issue. Responding to calls from researchers to experimentally test the use and effects of message appeals in mental health communication, a preregistered online experiment (N = 584) was conducted. Employing a 4 (Emotional Appeal: Compassion/Hope/Humor/Control) x 2 (Call-to-Action: Depression treatment-seeking/Depression stigma reduction) between-subjects experimental design, it tested how emotional appeals and calls-to-action (CTA) influence emotional and cognitive responses, and subsequently self- and others-focused mental health outcomes. Guided by appraisal theories of emotion, emotion-as-frames, and appraisal tendency framework, a path analysis shows that participants’ emotional responses differentially influenced mental health outcomes. Compassionate responses were positively associated with social support willingness and treatment-seeking intentions, while hopeful responses were negatively associated with social stigma around mental illnesses. Humorousness on the other hand was associated with increased social stigma. A mediation analysis revealed that elaboration mediated these relationships. In looking at the call-to-action used, a treatment-seeking CTA was associated with lower treatment seeking intentions. Additionally, three-way interaction between emotional appeal type, message focus, and issue involvement on social support willingness emerged. Compared to the control, emotional appeals were more effective in enhancing social support willingness for people with low issue involvement when the CTA was about seeking treatment. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.