ReviewHealth psychology review2018
Ignoring theory and misinterpreting evidence: the false belief in fear appeals.
Review in Health psychology review, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 2 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Change of risk behaviour in young people - the effectiveness of the trauma prevention programme P.A.R.T.Y. considering the effect of fear appeals and cognitive processes.BMC public health · 2022Pooled it
- Quality and Adoption of COVID-19 Tracing Apps and Recommendations for Development: Systematic Interdisciplinary Review of European Apps.Journal of medical Internet research · 2021Pooled it
- Harnessing Hope and Bolstering Knowledge of How to Quit: A Qualitative Investigation of Including Efficacy Content in Tobacco Risk Communication via Daily SMS.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Trial
- "I Quit": Testing the Added Value and Sequencing Effects of an Efficacy-focused Message among Cigarette Warning Labels.Journal of health communication · 2020Trial
- Examination of a hope- and fear-based message targeting older adults who smoke: A randomized trial.Geriatric nursing (New York, N.Y.)Trial
- The Meaning of Sedentary Behavior for People with Spinal Cord Injury: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Developing psychosocial phenotypes to understand engagement with digital health technologies for heart failure.NPJ digital medicine · 2026Article
- Emotional arousal of graphic cigarette warning labels loses its beneficial effects on craving reduction after repeated exposure - A longitudinal neuroimaging study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Smokers' willingness to pay for smoking cessation services and its determinants: evidence from China.Health economics review · 2026Article
- A qualitative investigation of experiences of care and illness perceptions related to self-management behaviors in chronic kidney disease.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Risk perception and coping mechanisms by gender identity and education level during the COVID-19 syndemic in Spain.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Taking pleasure seriously: Should alcohol research say more about fun? 'No safe level' advocates must take note.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- Strategies to correct vaccine misinformation on social media for pregnant women and the impact of vaccine skepticism.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Developing a Smart Sensing Sock to Prevent Diabetic Foot Ulcers: Qualitative Focus Group and Interview Study.Journal of participatory medicine · 2025Article
- Enhancing young people's pregnancy loss and fertility awareness and knowledge via schools: a way forward.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Understanding Fear of Breast Cancer Among Ghanaian Women via the Champion Breast Cancer Fear Scale.Breast cancer : basic and clinical research · 2025Article
- Public perceptions of HIV/AIDS awareness in the Gulf Council Cooperation countries: a qualitative study.International journal for equity in health · 2024Article
- Tensions in caring for chronic patients' medication adherence: A qualitative study in Cyprus.Journal of health psychology · 2024Article
- Towards the Science of Engagement with Digital Interventions.Current directions in psychological science · 2024Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Use of fear appeals assumes that when people are emotionally confronted with the negative effects of their behaviour they will change that behaviour. That reasoning is simple and intuitive, but only true under specific, rare circumstances. Risk perception theories predict that if people will experience a threat, they want to counter that threat. However, how they do so is determined by their coping efficacy level: if efficacy is high, they may change their behaviour in the suggested direction; if efficacy is low, they react defensively. Research on fear appeals should be methodologically sound, comparing a threatening to a non-threatening intervention under high and low efficacy levels, random assignment and measuring behaviour as outcome. We critically review extant empirical evidence and conclude that it does not support positive effects of fear appeals. Nonetheless, their use persists and is even promoted by health psychology researchers, causing scientific insights to be ignored or misinterpreted.
Indexed as
Identifiers
29233060What 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.