Community notification aims to warn the public when reintegrating sexual offenders represent a significant risk to public safety. However, anxiety and powerlessness are often unintentional side-effects of notification. Fear appeals are persuasive messages that arouse fear of a threat and may include recommended actions for avoiding the threat. This research applied a fear appeal theory, the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM), to community notification web pages. Study 1, a systematic review of existing community notification web pages, informed the development of a traditional web page vignette for Study 2. Study 2 compared the traditional web page format to a high efficacy web page intervention, which comprised educational information on avoiding sexual victimization. The EPPM predicted positive correlations between fear and perceived threat (hypothesis 1), fear and behavioural intentions (hypothesis 2), and perceived efficacy and intentions to adopt victimization prevention behaviours (hypothesis 4) as well as negative correlations between perceived efficacy and maladaptive fear control responses (hypothesis 3). The intervention group was predicted to have higher perceived threat, higher perceived efficacy, be less likely to adopt fear control responses, and more likely to endorse behavioural intentions than the control group (hypothesis 5). Female participants were hypothesized to have higher fear, perceived threat, fear control responses, and behavioural intentions and lower perceived efficacy than male participants (hypothesis 6). The results provide preliminary support for the EPPMs ability to explain reactions to receiving a community notification. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 4 were fully supported and hypothesis 6 was partially supported as females displayed higher fear, perceived threat, and behavioural intentions; however, the intervention was ineffective in producing differences between the intervention and control groups (hypothesis 5). Exploratory regression analyses found gender, education level, previous victimization, parental status, and locus of control were related to the EPPMs variables. Future research should examine the impact of different educational materials and delivery systems (such as interpersonal sources, media, and web-based multi-media) to further examine the application of the EPPM to web-based sexual offender community notification and determine whether it is possible to increase adaptive responses to receiving a community notification by providing educational information.

Community notification aims to warn the public when reintegrating sexual offenders represent a significant risk to public safety. However, anxiety and powerlessness are often unintentional side-effects of notification. Fear appeals are persuasive messages that arouse fear of a threat and may include recommended actions for avoiding the threat. This research applied a fear appeal theory, the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM), to community notification web pages. Study 1, a systematic review of existing community notification web pages, informed the development of a traditional web page vignette for Study 2. Study 2 compared the traditional web page format to a high efficacy web page intervention, which comprised educational information on avoiding sexual victimization. The EPPM predicted positive correlations between fear and perceived threat (hypothesis 1), fear and behavioural intentions (hypothesis 2), and perceived efficacy and intentions to adopt victimization prevention behaviours (hypothesis 4) as well as negative correlations between perceived efficacy and maladaptive fear control responses (hypothesis 3). The intervention group was predicted to have higher perceived threat, higher perceived efficacy, be less likely to adopt fear control responses, and more likely to endorse behavioural intentions than the control group (hypothesis 5). Female participants were hypothesized to have higher fear, perceived threat, fear control responses, and behavioural intentions and lower perceived efficacy than male participants (hypothesis 6). The results provide preliminary support for the EPPMs ability to explain reactions to receiving a community notification. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 4 were fully supported and hypothesis 6 was partially supported as females displayed higher fear, perceived threat, and behavioural intentions; however, the intervention was ineffective in producing differences between the intervention and control groups (hypothesis 5). Exploratory regression analyses found gender, education level, previous victimization, parental status, and locus of control were related to the EPPMs variables. Future research should examine the impact of different educational materials and delivery systems (such as interpersonal sources, media, and web-based multi-media) to further examine the application of the EPPM to web-based sexual offender community notification and determine whether it is possible to increase adaptive responses to receiving a community notification by providing educational information.

Background: Humanity builds and writes its history. Overtime the need of feeling secure has been present originated from an emotion, a condition and reaction: the fear of threats or danger. The impact of human fear over the humanity behaviour leads for searching ways of reducing such fear. Consequently, security companies have a potential opportunity for fulfilling this human need reducing the phenomenon of fear. Some organisations and companies discovered that human fear can be used as tool for influencing the individual behaviour and for consumption purposes. Aim: Developing a research and discussing some of the issues that concerns today‟s societies and business organisations as well as the managerial consequences arising by exploring the global fear and necessity of security trends as a critical issue for the decades to come. Therefore, the purpose of this study explores the extent to which companies can use human fear that an individual perceives as a potential strategy within the security industry to increase and expand their market. Definitions: When companies use fear in advertising influence human behaviour known in marketing as fear appeal. In this research, mass media does not use fear as a conscious way to manipulate or persuade human behaviour. However, the usage of fear messages in mass media has an impact on human fear perception. Then, there is evidence of a positive relationship between marketing fear appeal and mass media spreading information of threats, violence and crime. Both create fear on humans‟ perception but marketing in a direct conscious way and mass media in an indirect unconscious way, what we have identified and called „unacquainted-indirect fear appeal‟. Results: The findings in this exploratory thesis show a functional relationship between the phenomenon of fear and the phenomenon of the need of security which are persistent variables overtime. Therefore, it is possible for security companies to take advantage of this trend and to develop a potential strategy to increase and expand their market while taking into account that fear appeal needs a very specific treatment and testing along this process due to the several results that can be achieved from such a strategy. The results can vary depending on the circumstances of the individual and the environment not always controllable by the companies within business in a constant changing world.

This study examines whether hope appeal and fear appeal in service advertisements would significantly influence consumers¡¦ perception of innovation characteristics such as relative advantage, compatibility, and perceived risk, thus further influence the consumers¡¦ decision on whether to adopt the innovative service product or not. As to the literature support, the researcher advocate that when consumer perceives a stronger appeal of hope or fear, he/she will generate a selective exposure to the information from the specific advertisement, thus further influence the consumers¡¦ adoption decision. And by experimental design, besides the main effect of hope and fear appeal, the researcher also considered and included the negative reactivity of consumers and also the amount of benefit information within the advertisement to explore their moderating roles in the effects of emotional appeal on the customers¡¦ adaptation of service innovation. The results shows that except perceived risk, other perceived innovative characteristics (compatibility and relative advantages) are significantly affected by the hope and fear appeal. The result also shows that perceived innovative characteristics partially mediate the effect of emotional appeal on the customers¡¦ adaptation of service innovation. But unexpectedly, negative reactivity and the amount of benefits information within the advertisement do not show significant moderating effects on the relationship between emotional appeal and adaptation of service innovation.

The aim of the Master Thesis entitled "Analysis of marketing appeals in advertisement" is to study how consumers perceive particular appeals in terms of the credibility and popularity. Furthermore, research is focused on finding out with what kind of products responders associate the advertisements with appeals of fear, humor and warmth. Next aim is to find out how responders perceive quantity of advertisement with the particular appeals. Finally, I focus on finding what examples of advertisements using the particular appeals responders recall. The work is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part covers theoretical basis of advertisement as well as psychological aspects in advertisements. Final chapter of the theoretical part is devoted to appeals in advertisement. The practical part comprises results of questionnaire, which is based on snowball method and the content analysis of 200 TV commercials, which provides information on what appeals are the most frequent ones in analyzed TV commercials.

Seeing wildlife in our Nation's parks is often a highlight of many visitors' trips, but close range human - wildlife interactions can have negative consequences for both wildlife and people. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two interventions (fear and moral appeals) designed to reduce the feeding of deer by visitors in Shenandoah National Park by measuring changes in visitor attitudes and behavior. The study was conducted from July - September 1999 in a campground and picnic area, by placing the interventions (a small sign) on all picnic tables. Visitor attitudes and beliefs about the different components of the fear and moral appeal interventions were assessed by conducting surveys of campers under each experimental condition (control, moral appeal, and fear appeal). The impact of the interventions on behavior was tested in the picnic area by observing the responses of visitors to deer that frequently begged for food. Under current Park intervention conditions, visitors generally believe that feeding deer is not healthy for the deer. They have considerably less knowledge about potential threats to themselves from feeding deer. The fear appeal significantly changed attitudes about the risks to people (ANOVA, p=0.001). Under control conditions the majority (63%) of groups picnicking fed deer. Although the fear appeal produced an attitude change, it did not reduce feeding behavior by visitors (39% fed) as much as the moral appeal did (25% fed). The conflicting results between attitude and behavior change strongly suggest that researchers need to measure behavior and not just attitudes. / Master of Science

The question of whether or not advertising is effective has been a topic of research for decades. More specifically, this research asks the question of advertising effectiveness regarding anti-smoking advertising by the use of a method of advertising known as ‘fear-appeal advertising’. Due to the nature of this study, attention and focus are placed on the affective and emotional aspects of this type of advertising and aims to understand the perceptions that smokers have of anti-smoking advertisements. The respondents recruited for this study all classified themselves as smokers, and were selected to form a representative sample of the South African population, ranging between the ages of 24-49 years. The perceptions of these smokers are discussed against the backdrop of literature, in an attempt to highlight the effectiveness of these advertising campaigns and ultimately suggest a way forward. The value of this exploratory study lies in its potential for generating further questions about emotions, the complexity of human health-risk behaviour and the impact that exposure to health warnings will ultimately have on future actions. / Dissertation (MA (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

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Resource and visitor experience degradation in Haleakalā National Park resulting from recreational use of the Pools of 'Ohe'o has led park officials to discourage visitor use of the pools. This study uses the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to examine relationships among visitors' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control with regard to exploring the pools, their intentions to explore, and their actual behaviors while visiting the pools. Further, this study examines the influence of persuasive messages on visitors' behavior at the pools. Persuasive message treatments emphasize either the dangers of exploring the Pools of 'Ohe'o or resource protection and visitor experience impacts of recreational use at the pools. Through regression analysis of attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control with intention to explore, TPB is generally found to be an effective model for understanding visitor behavior at 'Ohe'o's Pools, particularly when visitors are exposed to persuasive messages. Results of analysis of variance indicate that the TPB model components of attitudes and subjective norms with regard to traveling companions and National Park Service officials are influenced by exposure to the persuasive treatment messages. Additionally, both intention to explore the pools and observed exploration behavior are significantly lower among those visitors receiving any persuasive treatment message. Thus, results of this research generally support the individual relationships assumed within TPB. With identification of the most influential components of visitor behavior, as understood through the TPB model developed in this study, managers of Haleakalā National Park will be able to develop and apply persuasive interpretive messages that maximize safe and sensitive visitor recreational behavior at the Pools of 'Ohe'o. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to examine individual reactions to environmental messages based on three message frames. The frames include shock or fear, humor, and emotional frames. The intent of the study was to document, through the use of pre- and post-questionnaires, individuals' reactions to the three types of messages by measuring attitude or perception change, credibility of the message, and importance of the issue. In this study, baseline knowledge levels and beliefs about environmental issues were examined using a pre-questionnaire. How variable treatments affect attitudes or create perception change with regard to the environmental messages were explored. This study was questionnaire based, with results based on one time pre- and post questionnaires of mass communications undergraduate students at the University of South Florida. Along with message framing, McGuire's Information Processing Theory is useful in determining an individual's psychological context, and the steps an individual will take after a message is presented. This theory gives a "good overview of the attitude change process, reminding us that it involves a number of components" (Severin & Tankard, 2001, p. 175). Using these two theories as underpinning, exploration of the effects of different types of Greenpeace messages is possible. Determining which types of frames promote a behavior change in individuals adds to environmental persuasion research, and ultimately assists the designers of environmental messages and the deliverers of environmental communication.