title: The relative persuasiveness of gain- and loss-framed messages for promoting vaccination: a meta-analytic review.
abstract: Vaccination against disease is a powerful public health tool, and persuading people to be vaccinated is a correspondingly important challenge. A number of studies have compared the effectiveness of gain-framed and loss-framed appeals in this domain, often expecting gain-framed appeals to be more persuasive. A meta-analytic review (k = 32, N = 11,814), however, finds no significant difference in the persuasiveness of gain- and loss-framed appeals for encouraging vaccination. This conclusion is unaffected by differences in the phrasing of the outcomes invoked or by differences in the specific vaccination advocated. But the results contain a hint that parents might be more persuaded to vaccinate their children by loss-framed than by gain-framed appeals. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. d-okeefe@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: O'Keefe
authors.forename: Xiaoli
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Nan
mesh_terms: D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D014611:Vaccination / Q000523:psychology*