title: The effects of heuristic cues, motivation, and ability on systematic processing of information about breast cancer environmental factors.
abstract: The heuristic systematic model is used to investigate how ability, motivation, and heuristic message cues predict knowledge scores for individuals receiving messages written for different literacy levels about 3 environmental risk factors for breast cancer. The 3 risk factors were the roles of genetics, progesterone, and ingesting perfluorooctanoic acid in breast cancer risk. In this study, more than 4,000 women participated in an online survey. The results showed support for the hypotheses that ability (measured as education, number of science courses, and confidence in scientific ability) predict knowledge gain and that those individuals who presented with the lower literacy level message had significantly higher knowledge scores across all 3 message topics. There was little support for motivation or heuristic cues as direct predictors of knowledge gain across the 3 message topics, although they served as moderators for the perfluorooctanoic acid topic. The authors provide implications for health communication practitioners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. smiths@msu.edu
authors.forename: Sandi W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hitt
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nazione
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Russell
authors.forename: Kami
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Silk
authors.forename: Charles K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Atkin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms; D003463:Cues; D004782:Environmental Health; D005260:Female; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009042:Motivation; D012307:Risk Factors; D020377:Self Efficacy