Message Design: Overview

This entry provides an overview of persuasive message design. The first section focuses on a number of important content, structure, and format characteristics of messages (message “elements”). Following that, three classes of theories that can inform message design are presented: theories of message effects, information processing, and health behavior change. Next, important methodological issues in message design research are addressed, including the importance of message pretesting, differentiating message features from message effects, and message replication. The entry concludes with directions for future research.