Temporal framing in persuasive health messages Applying the two-factor approach of Consideration of Future Consequences

Abstract

To tackle the ever-growing obesity rate, people should be encouraged to maintain a healthy diet. Fruit and vegetables are deemed important parts of such diets, but most people do not consume sufficient amounts. This might be remedied through persuasive health messages informing people about short- and long-term consequences of unhealthy diets. The main goal of this study is to examine such messages’ effectiveness by considering the interplay between their temporal framing and individual’s differences in their Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC). To measure CFC the questionnaire CFC-14 has been used, which, contrasting the former CFC-12, considers two dimensions: CFC-future and CFC-immediate. Following previous research, this study expected that, for those oriented towards the future (high CFC-future), reading long-term framed messages would increase their intention to eat sufficient amounts of fruit and vegetables. As for people focussed on the present (high CFCimmediate), they were expected to be more convinced by short-term framed messages. This presumed effect was hypothesized to be mediated by attitude and perceived behavioural control. These hypotheses were tested with an online experiment in which 130 participants read short- or long-term framed messages and indicated their intention to eat sufficient amounts of fruit and vegetables. The results did not confirm the hypotheses. Possible explanations would be discrepancies between the dimensions measured by the CFC-14 and the CFC-12 questionnaire, or the lack of severity of health consequences described in the persuasive health messages that was used.