SynthesisPsychological bulletin2015
Appealing to fear: A meta-analysis of fear appeal effectiveness and theories.
Synthesis in Psychological bulletin, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04042246 (Knowledge on Vaccination Schedule and Full Immunization, and Its Effect on Vaccine Take-up in Jada Local Government Area in Adamawa State, Northeastern Nigeria), which is not on this map. Cited by 295 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Knowledge on Vaccination Schedule and Full Immunization, and Its Effect on Vaccine Take-up in Jada Local Government Area in Adamawa State, Northeastern Nigeria
Who cites it
295 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Characteristics and Popularity of Videos of Abusive Head Trauma Prevention: Systematic Appraisal.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Do Vaping Prevention Messages Impact Adolescents and Young Adults? A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Studies.Health communication · 2023Pooled it
- Measuring the effects of misinformation exposure and beliefs on behavioural intentions: a COVID-19 vaccination study.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2022Pooled it
- A qualitative examination of affect and ideology within mass media interventions to increase HIV testing with gay men garnered from a systematic review.British journal of health psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Message Design Choices Don't Make Much Difference to Persuasiveness and Can't Be Counted On-Not Even When Moderating Conditions Are Specified.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Examining Spontaneous Cognitive and Emotional Reactions to Messages About Very Low Nicotine Cigarettes (VLNCs).Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education · 2026Trial
- Effects of Social Media Narratives on Affective and Behavioral Responses to Menopause Content: Randomized Online Experimental Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Trial
- Effectiveness of a multi-component intervention including pictorial warnings to reduce sugar-sweetened beverage consumption - a randomized controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2025Trial
- Who do we follow online? An experimental study on source clarity and social proximity in digital health communication.Frontiers in public health · 2025Trial
- Health Communication and Adherence to Noninvasive Ventilation in Chronic Hypercapnic Respiratory Failure: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2024Trial
- Differential Responses to Cigarette Package Labeling Alternatives Among Adults Who Smoke: Results From a Randomized Trial.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2024Trial
- Exploring the effects of cannabis health warnings on protective health intentions among US adults in legal recreational states.The International journal on drug policy · 2024Trial
- Combining Inserts With Warning Labels on Cigarette Packs to Promote Smoking Cessation: A 2-Week Randomized Trial.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2024Trial
- Are Fear Campaigns Effective for Increasing Adherence to COVID-Related Mitigation Measures?International journal of behavioral medicine · 2023Trial
- Mediational Effects on Motivation to Quit Smoking After Exposure to a Cigarette Pictorial Warning Label Among Young Adults.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2022Trial
- Does it matter if a story character lives or dies?: a message experiment comparing survivor and death narratives.Psychology & health · 2022Trial
- Responses to e-cigarette health messages among young adult sexual minoritized women and nonbinary people assigned female at birth: Assessing the influence of message theme and format.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2022Trial
- Backfire effect of salient information on vaccine take-up experimental evidence from scared-straight intervention in rural northern Nigeria.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2021Trial
- Effect of alcohol label designs with different pictorial representations of alcohol content and health warnings on knowledge and understanding of low-risk drinking guidelines: a randomized controlled trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2021Trial
- Psychosocial, Mental, and Suboptimal Health Measures Are Not Affected by Provision of Abdominal Aortic Calcification Imaging Results: A 12-Week RCT.AJPM focus · 2026Article
235 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Fear appeals are a polarizing issue, with proponents confident in their efficacy and opponents confident that they backfire. We present the results of a comprehensive meta-analysis investigating fear appeals' effectiveness for influencing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. We tested predictions from a large number of theories, the majority of which have never been tested meta-analytically until now. Studies were included if they contained a treatment group exposed to a fear appeal, a valid comparison group, a manipulation of depicted fear, a measure of attitudes, intentions, or behaviors concerning the targeted risk or recommended solution, and adequate statistics to calculate effect sizes. The meta-analysis included 127 articles (9% unpublished) yielding 248 independent samples (NTotal = 27,372) collected from diverse populations. Results showed a positive effect of fear appeals on attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, with the average effect on a composite index being random-effects d = 0.29. Moderation analyses based on prominent fear appeal theories showed that the effectiveness of fear appeals increased when the message included efficacy statements, depicted high susceptibility and severity, recommended one-time only (vs. repeated) behaviors, and targeted audiences that included a larger percentage of female message recipients. Overall, we conclude that (a) fear appeals are effective at positively influencing attitude, intentions, and behaviors; (b) there are very few circumstances under which they are not effective; and (c) there are no identified circumstances under which they backfire and lead to undesirable outcomes.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.