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JMIR MHealth and UHealth Feb 2022There is a need to further investigate how persuasive design principles can change rural health professionals' behaviors to look after their own health workforce...
BACKGROUND
There is a need to further investigate how persuasive design principles can change rural health professionals' behaviors to look after their own health workforce capability. Several theories are used when developing apps to persuade people to change behavior, including the Persuasive System Design Model, consisting of primary task, dialogue, system credibility, and social support categories, and Cialdini's principles of persuasion. These have not been analyzed yet in the field of health workforce capability.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to determine the persuasive design techniques used in capability building-related apps and to provide recommendations for designing a health workforce app to increase their persuasiveness.
METHODS
A Python script was used to extract a total of 3060 apps from Google Play. Keywords centered around health workforce capability elements. App inclusion criteria were as follows: been updated since 2019, rated by users on average 4 and above, and more than 100,000 downloads. Next, 2 experts reviewed whether 32 persuasive strategies were used in the selected apps, and these were further analyzed by capability categories: competencies and skills, health and personal qualities, values and attitudes, and work organization.
RESULTS
In all, 53 mobile apps were systematically reviewed to identify the persuasive design techniques. The most common were surface credibility (n=48, 90.6%) and liking (n=48), followed by trustworthiness (n=43, 81.1%), reminders (n=38, 71.7%), and suggestion (n=30, 56.6%). The techniques in the social support domain were the least used across the different apps analyzed for health workforce capability, whereas those in the primary task support domain were used most frequently. The recommendations reflect learnings from our analysis. These findings provided insight into mobile app design principles relevant to apps used in improving health workforce capability.
CONCLUSIONS
Our review showed that there are many persuasive design techniques that can assist in building health workforce capability. Additionally, several apps are available in the market that can assist in improving health workforce capability. There is, however, a specific lack of digital, real-time support to improve health workforce capability. Social support strategies through using social support persuasive design techniques will need to be integrated more prominently into a health workforce capability app. An app to measure and monitor health workforce capability scores can be used in conjunction with direct real-world person and real-time support to discuss and identify solutions to improve health workforce capability for rural and remote health professionals who are at high risk of burnout or leaving the rural health workforce.
Topics: Health Personnel; Humans; Mobile Applications; Persuasive Communication; Social Support; Workforce
PubMed: 35129447
DOI: 10.2196/33413 -
Health Psychology Review Dec 2022Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII) is a self-regulation strategy that combines the strategies mental contrasting (MC) in which individualscontrast...
Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions (MCII) is a self-regulation strategy that combines the strategies mental contrasting (MC) in which individualscontrast a desired future with the current reality with the strategy of forming implementation intentions (II), which involves making concrete if-then plans (implementation intentions, II) to overcome the obstacles standing in the way of the desired future. Numerous studies across behavioral domains have demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy in supporting people to adopt health-promoting behaviors or changing unhealthy behaviors. However, research on MCII has so far neglected the applicability of the concept in media-mediated persuasive health communication. This conceptual review aims to demonstrate and examine the potentials and effects of MCII as a technique to tailor media-mediated persuasive health messages and their dissemination through different media channels. In doing so, it draws on existing models of health behavior change, especially individuals' threat and coping appraisals. Potential effects of MCII on these cognitive factors are discussed, and practical implications for health message design are outlined.
Topics: Humans; Intention; Health Communication; Persuasive Communication; Health Behavior
PubMed: 34607534
DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2021.1988866 -
Health Communication Oct 2019There has been evidence that empathy-arousing messages might be an effective and ethical approach to persuasion in health communication. Knowledge of intrinsic message...
There has been evidence that empathy-arousing messages might be an effective and ethical approach to persuasion in health communication. Knowledge of intrinsic message features is needed to better design and craft such messages. The goals of this research were (a) to identify message features with the potential to arouse state empathy, (b) to verify the association between the identified message features and state empathy, and (c) to determine if state empathy mediates the impact of the message features on persuasion and social stigma. In the present study, a coding scheme was developed for empathy-arousing message features; 532 individuals recruited from Qualtrics Panel each viewed five messages randomly selected from a total of 20 stimuli messages that varied in empathy message features. Multilevel modeling analyses confirmed the association between the identified message features and state empathy; and state empathy's mediating role of message feature effects on persuasion and social stigma.
Topics: Adult; Arousal; Attitude; Empathy; Female; Health Communication; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Persuasive Communication; Social Stigma
PubMed: 29889544
DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2018.1485078 -
Psychological Science Mar 2021Researchers and practitioners want to create opinions that stick. Yet whereas some opinions stay fixed, others are as fleeting as the time it takes to report them. In...
Researchers and practitioners want to create opinions that stick. Yet whereas some opinions stay fixed, others are as fleeting as the time it takes to report them. In seven longitudinal studies with more than 20,000 individuals, we found that attitudes based more on emotion are relatively fixed. Whether participants evaluated brand-new Christmas gifts or one of 40 brands, the more emotional their opinion, the less it changed over time, particularly if it was positive. In a word-of-mouth linguistic analysis of 75,000 real-world online reviews, we found that the more emotional consumers are in their first review, the more that attitude persists when they express it again even years later. Finally, more emotion-evoking persuasive messages create attitudes that decay less over time, further establishing emotion's causal effect. These effects persist above and beyond other attitude-strength attributes. Interestingly, we also found that lay individuals generally fail to appreciate the relation between emotionality and attitude stability.
Topics: Attitude; Emotions; Humans; Mouth; Persuasive Communication
PubMed: 33557695
DOI: 10.1177/0956797620965532 -
Journal of Medical Internet Research Sep 2019Persuasive design, in which the aim is to change attitudes and behaviors by means of technology, is an important aspect of electronic health (eHealth) design. However,...
BACKGROUND
Persuasive design, in which the aim is to change attitudes and behaviors by means of technology, is an important aspect of electronic health (eHealth) design. However, selecting the right persuasive feature for an individual is a delicate task and is likely to depend on individual characteristics. Personalization of the persuasive strategy in an eHealth intervention therefore seems to be a promising approach.
OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to develop a method that allows us to model motivation in older adults with respect to leading a healthy life and a strategy for personalizing the persuasive strategy of an eHealth intervention, based on this user model.
METHODS
We deployed a Web-based survey among older adults (aged >60 years) in the Netherlands. In the first part, we administered an adapted version of the revised Sports Motivation Scale (SMS-II) as input for the user models. Then, we provided each participant with a selection of 5 randomly chosen mock-ups (out of a total of 11), each depicting a different persuasive strategy. After showing each strategy, we asked participants how much they appreciated it. The survey was concluded by addressing demographics.
RESULTS
A total of 212 older adults completed the Web-based survey, with a mean age of 68.35 years (SD 5.27 years). Of 212 adults, 45.3% were males (96/212) and 54.7% were female (116/212). Factor analysis did not allow us to replicate the 5-factor structure for motivation, as targeted by the SMS-II. Instead, a 3-factor structure emerged with a total explained variance of 62.79%. These 3 factors are intrinsic motivation, acting to derive satisfaction from the behavior itself (5 items; Cronbach alpha=.90); external regulation, acting because of externally controlled rewards or punishments (4 items; Cronbach alpha=.83); and a-motivation, a situation where there is a lack of intention to act (2 items; r=0.50; P<.001). Persuasive strategies were appreciated differently, depending on the type of personal motivation. In some cases, demographics played a role.
CONCLUSIONS
The personal type of motivation of older adults (intrinsic, externally regulated, and/or a-motivation), combined with their educational level or living situation, affects an individual's like or dislike for a persuasive eHealth feature. We provide a practical approach for profiling older adults as well as an overview of which persuasive features should or should not be provided to each profile. Future research should take into account the coexistence of multiple types of motivation within an individual and the presence of a-motivation.
Topics: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Electronics; Female; Health Communication; Humans; Internet; Male; Middle Aged; Motivation; Persuasive Communication; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 31493323
DOI: 10.2196/11759 -
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics Feb 2021Competence in spoken discourse is an important consideration during assessment and intervention planning for adolescents with communication difficulties. Currently, a...
Competence in spoken discourse is an important consideration during assessment and intervention planning for adolescents with communication difficulties. Currently, a lack of age-appropriate protocols and reference data against which to interpret performance, are barriers when working with this population, particularly those that assess a range of genre and language features. Using a new assessment tool, the Curtin University Discourse Protocol-Adolescent (CUDP-A), this study aimed to collect and describe spoken discourse samples from a large group of adolescents (n = 160), aged 12 to 15 years, recruited to represent a mainstream academic cohort. For each participant, samples of recount (3), expository (3), persuasive (3), and narrative (2) discourse were described using theoretically supported measurements sensitive to micro-linguistic, micro-structural, macro-structural, and super-structural discourse features. Participants also completed a standardized assessment of oral language. Variability was found in micro-linguistic and micro-structural features, with stability seen in macro-structural and super-structural features. Few age- and gender-related differences were observed, while multiple significant correlations between spoken discourse and oral language variables were revealed across the sample. The CUDP-A was successful in eliciting spoken discourse across genres relevant to social and academic contexts, enabling an in-depth description of adolescent discourse. This tool, supported by the reference data, provides a new opportunity to assess spoken discourse skills in adolescents from clinical populations, e.g., acquired brain injury or developmental disorders. Further research is needed to examine factors influencing discourse ability, such as those that may be related to genre, or contextual factors related to the presence of communication partners, with novel tools such as the CUDP-A facilitating this.
Topics: Adolescent; Communication; Humans; Language; Linguistics; Narration; Persuasive Communication
PubMed: 32126850
DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2020.1731607 -
Proceedings of the National Academy of... Jul 2022From vaccination refusal to climate change denial, antiscience views are threatening humanity. When different individuals are provided with the same piece of scientific...
From vaccination refusal to climate change denial, antiscience views are threatening humanity. When different individuals are provided with the same piece of scientific evidence, why do some accept whereas others dismiss it? Building on various emerging data and models that have explored the psychology of being antiscience, we specify four core bases of key principles driving antiscience attitudes. These principles are grounded in decades of research on attitudes, persuasion, social influence, social identity, and information processing. They apply across diverse domains of antiscience phenomena. Specifically, antiscience attitudes are more likely to emerge when a scientific message comes from sources perceived as lacking credibility; when the recipients embrace the social membership or identity of groups with antiscience attitudes; when the scientific message itself contradicts what recipients consider true, favorable, valuable, or moral; or when there is a mismatch between the delivery of the scientific message and the epistemic style of the recipient. Politics triggers or amplifies many principles across all four bases, making it a particularly potent force in antiscience attitudes. Guided by the key principles, we describe evidence-based counteractive strategies for increasing public acceptance of science.
Topics: Attitude; Climate Change; Cognition; Denial, Psychological; Humans; Information Avoidance; Persuasive Communication; Politics; Science
PubMed: 35858405
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2120755119 -
Social Science & Medicine (1982) Jul 2023Ultraviolet (UV) photography and photoaging visuals make hidden sun damage visible to the naked eye, granting the potential to create messages that vary in temporal...
BACKGROUND
Ultraviolet (UV) photography and photoaging visuals make hidden sun damage visible to the naked eye, granting the potential to create messages that vary in temporal dimensionality. As UV photos depict immediate skin damage, the photo communicated that exposure in sun causes invisible damage to the young truck driver (near temporal frame) and visible damage (e.g., wrinkles) to the old truck driver (distant temporal frame).
OBJECTIVE
The current study examines the moderating effects of loss/gain frames and temporality variables on the relationship between temporal framing and sun safe behavioral expectations.
METHOD
U.S. adults (N = 897) were assigned to a 2 (near/distant temporal frame) × 2 (gain/loss frame) between-participants experiment.
RESULTS
The loss frame triggered greater fear compared to the gain frame, this fear forms an indirect path where loss frames increase fear and fear increases changes in sun safe behavioral expectations. Participants exposed to the distant frame had increased behavior expectations if either of the two temporality variables (CFC - future or current focus) were low. Participants with low temporality indicators (i.e., CFC - future, current focus, or future focus) exposed to the gain frame had increased behavior expectations.
CONCLUSIONS
The findings demonstrate the potential utility of temporal frames as a tool for designing strategic health messages.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Motivation; Health Behavior; Persuasive Communication; Fear; Intention
PubMed: 37229932
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.115967 -
Public Health Oct 2022Previous studies have reported mixed results in reducing the prevalence of tobacco use among young people. The present study investigates the influence of a combined...
OBJECTIVES
Previous studies have reported mixed results in reducing the prevalence of tobacco use among young people. The present study investigates the influence of a combined emotions (fear and anger) approach to strengthen the persuasive impact of anti-smoking messages aimed at young smokers.
STUDY DESIGN
The study adopts a between-subject design experiment.
METHODS
Participants were exposed to either a fear appeal or a fear and anger appeal message, after which they answered questions about their emotions, perceived message effectiveness, and intention to reduce cigarette consumption and to quit smoking. An original measure of the co-occurrence of emotions felt by the participants (minimum [MIN] score) was used and mediation analyses were conducted to test the relationship between the emotional content of the message and behavioral intentions through the co-occurrence of fear and anger and perceived message effectiveness.
RESULTS
The findings show that the co-occurrence of fear and anger felt by individuals and perceived message effectiveness serially mediate the positive influence of a fear and anger appeal message compared to a fear alone appeal on changes in intention behavior (intention to reduce cigarette consumption, indirect effect = 0.152, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.014, 0.340], and intention to quit smoking, indirect effect = 0.236, 95% CI [0.096, 0.413]).
CONCLUSIONS
The study shows the interest of combining negative emotions in prevention messages and offers guidance for government agencies responsible for tobacco control policies to help them improve the effectiveness of anti-smoking messages.
Topics: Adolescent; Anger; Emotions; Fear; Humans; Persuasive Communication; Smokers
PubMed: 36027787
DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2022.06.031 -
Developmental Medicine and Child... Oct 2014
Topics: Humans; Medicine; Persuasive Communication
PubMed: 25208967
DOI: 10.1111/dmcn.12577