AFFECTIVE AND COGNITIVE REACTIONS TO NARRATIVE VERSUS STATISTICAL EVIDENCE ORGAN DONATION MESSAGES

Persuasive health messages have been examined for their effectiveness, but few studies have explored the cognitive and affective reactions t o these messages. The goal of the present research was to gain insight into the cognitive and affective reactions to statistical evidence an d narrative persuasive messages about organ donation in order to deter mine why these different types of evidence are persuasive. The influen ce of prior thought and intent about organ donation on these reactions also was explored. Cognitive reactions examined included total, posit ive, and negative thoughts about organ donation, message ratings, and assessments of causal relevance, while affective reactions examined in cluded positive and negative emotions about organ donation and anxiety . Results indicated a main effect for evidence type such that statisti cal evidence messages produced greater results in terms of all the cog nitive reactions, while narratives produced greater results for all of the affective reactions. A main effect for level of prior thought and intent regarding organ donation indicated that this variable influenc es both cognitive and affective reactions to persuasive organ donation messages. No interaction effects were found to be significant. In ter ms of the Heuristic Systematic Model of persuasion, statistical eviden ce messages rr ere found to enhance both systematic and heuristic proc essing while narratives were found to enhance only heuristic processin g. Implications for health communication practitioners are discussed.