Appeal to fear in health care: appropriate or inappropriate?

 "Appeal to fear in health care: appropriate or inappropriate?"

This article is written by a chiropractic scholar and it appears that people rarely use fear appeal for false advertising however sees this occur more so in his line of work. 

Findings:

AIM: This paper examines appeal to fear in general: its perceived positive aspects, its negative characteristics, its appropriate as well as its fallacious use.

"Appeal to fear is a commonly used marketing method that attempts to change behaviour by creating anxiety in those receiving a fearful message. It is regularly used in public health initiatives such as anti-smoking, anti-drunk driving campaigns as well as in hypertension awareness campaigns. "

Using appeal to fear as a tool of persuasion can be valid or fallacious depending on the truth of the premises within the argument.

Dear Appeal in Marketing: "Marketers use a variety of methods in an effort to persuade target audiences to modify behaviours in the interests of bettering their health. One of the ploys used by the developers of public health campaigns is to provoke an emotional response. Emotional appeals may include fear of ill health, death, disfigurement, as well as shame, scorn, humiliation or even disgust [1]. According to Witte [2] p.329 “Fear appeals are persuasive messages designed to scare people by describing the terrible things that will happen to them if they do not do what the message recommends.” Appeal to fear is often presented as a warning:"

"Use of the appeal to fear, in the form of threatening health messages, is commonly used as a strategy for changing behaviours within a population in relation to public health initiatives. The tactic involves using images or messages to elicit negative emotions such as anxiety in the expectation that the audience will be motivated to adopt the healthier behaviours [28]."

Example of fear appeal equation

X is something to fear; therefore Y should be implemented to prevent X.

X (death) is something to fear; therefore Y (stopping smoking) should be implemented to prevent X.

X (Autism) is something to fear; therefore Y (not vaccinating children) should be implemented to prevent X.

__________________________

"In 1953 Janis and Feshbach’s seminal research identified three main types of emotional reactions to anxiety-arousing topics.

1) Inattentiveness – a defensive tendency to avoid thoughts related to the topic.

2) Aggressiveness – a defensive tendency to become aggressive towards the communicator, likely in the form of rejecting the arguments.

3)Defensive avoidances – attempts to ward off exposure to the anxiety causing communication typically in the form of failing to recall the message, losing interest in the topic, denying or minimizing the importance of the threat [30]."

"Janis and Feshbach suggested a negative association between fear producing messages and intended results. They found that a message that induced a minimal amount of fear was more effective than one evoking a high fear response in terms of both positive attitude change and resistance to subsequent attitudinal retrogression [30]."

Conclusion: "I have briefly examined the appeal to fear as it is used in mainstream health care and established that for the most part its appropriate use is effective and not fallacious. It is however used fallaciously by a large element within the chiropractic profession in its marketing of the unsubstantiated effects of chiropractic subluxation."

Simpson, J. K. (2017). Appeal to fear in health care: appropriate or inappropriate? Chiropractic & Manual Therapies, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-017-0157-8