Action tendency emotions evoked by memorable breast cancer messages and their association with prevention and detection behaviors

Sandi W. Smith, Lauren M. Hamel, Michael R. Kotowski, Samantha Nazione, Carolyn LaPlante, Charles K. Atkin, Cynthia Stohl, Christine Skubisz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

Memorable messages about breast cancer sent by different sources, such as friends and family members, were analyzed for the action tendency emotions that they evoked. Negative emotions of fear, sadness, and anger, and positive emotions of hope and relief were analyzed for their associations with prevention and detection breast cancer behaviors. Messages that evoked fear were significantly more likely to be associated with detection behaviors, whereas messages that evoked relief were significantly less likely to be associated with detection behaviors than messages that did not evoke these emotions. These results are consistent with control theory and also show that friends and family are important sources of memorable messages about breast cancer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)737-746
Number of pages10
JournalHealth Communication
Volume25
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2010

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This publication was made possible by the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers, grant number U01 ES/CA 012771 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), NIH, DHHS. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIEHS or NCI, NIH.

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Communication

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