title: Impacts of efficacy and exemplification in an online message about weight loss on weight management self-efficacy, satisfaction, and personal importance.
abstract: Health information search is among the most popular Internet activities, requiring health campaigns to attract attention in a context of unprecedented competition with alternative content. The present study reconstructs a similar context that allows selective avoidance and exposure in order to examine which health message characteristics foster particular message impacts. Drawing on social cognitive theory, a 3-session study examined short-term and delayed impacts of efficacy and exemplification as characteristics of a weight loss online message, offered for selective reading among other content, on weight management self-efficacy, satisfaction, and personal importance. Short-term impacts and impacts 2 weeks after exposure reflect that the high-efficacy exemplar version increased self-efficacy and satisfaction, while the high-efficacy base-rate version lowered them. However, the exemplar and base-rate versions of the low-efficacy message increased importance of body weight management.
authors.affiliation: College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Melanie A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Sarge
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Knobloch-Westerwick
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005260:Female; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy; D015431:Weight Loss; D055815:Young Adult