Temporal framing and the decision to take part in type 2 diabetes screening: effects of individual differences in consideration of future consequences on persuasion.
Reliable individual differences in the extent to which people consider the long- and short-term consequences of their own behaviors are hypothesized to influence the impact of a persuasive communication. In a field experiment, the time frame of occurrence of positive and negative consequences of taking part in a proposed Type 2 diabetes screening program was manipulated in a sample of 210 adults with a mean age of 53 years. Individual differences in consideration of future consequences (CFC; A. Strathman, F. Gleicher, D. S. Boninger, & C. S. Edwards, 1994) moderated (a) the generation of positive and negative thoughts and (b) the persuasive impact of the different communications. Low-CFC individuals were more persuaded when positive consequences were short term and negative consequences were long term. The opposite was true of high-CFC individuals. Path analyses show that net positive thoughts generated mediated the effect of the CFC x Time Frame manipulations on behavioral intentions.
Orbell
Sheina
S
Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom. sorbell@essex.ac.uk
Hagger
Martin
M
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003657:Decision Making; D003710:Demography; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D009042:Motivation; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors