PROCESSING MESSAGES ABOUT DISEASE DETECTION AND HEALTH PROMOTION BEHAVIORS - THE EFFECTS OF ANXIETY

A study was conducted to examine the effects of anxiety on the process ing of messages that encourage the performance of disease detection an d health promotion behaviors. It was hypothesized that under high-anxi ety conditions messages about health promotion behaviors would be proc essed more than messages about disease detection behaviors and that th is effect would reverse under lower levels of anxiety. To test this hy pothesis, the participants were required to read information designed either to increase or to decrease anxiety about health. Following the anxiety manipulation, participants received a strong or weak message p romoting the performance of either health promotion or disease detecti on behaviors. Then participants were required to indicate their attitu des about the behavior, their cognitive responses to the message, and their recall of the message. The results support the hypothesis.