Mc. Brouwers et Rm. Sorrentino, UNCERTAINTY ORIENTATION AND PROTECTION MOTIVATION THEORY - THE ROLE OF INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES IN HEALTH COMPLIANCE, Journal of personality and social psychology, 65(1), 1993, pp. 102-112
The experiment was designed to determine the influence of uncertainty
orientation (R. M. Sorrentino, J. C. Short, 1986) on compliance with a
diagnostic health behavior. Ss (N = 155) read 1 version of an educati
on essay on a disease and diagnostic response. Threat and efficacy inf
ormation were manipulated. Consistent with protection motivation theor
y (R. W. Rogers, 1983), uncertainty-oriented Ss sought more health-rel
ated information as threat and efficacy increased. Certainty-oriented
Ss, however, sought more health-related information as threat or effic
acy, but not both, increased. Individual differences were also found o
n adaptive measures and ineffective alternative responses.