title: The impacts of vicarious illness experience on response to gain- versus loss-framed breast cancer screening (BCS) messages.
abstract: Although vicarious experience with certain illnesses has been found to be influential on people's illness perceptions and related behaviors, the concept of vicarious experience has been understudied in health communication research. This study aims to ground possible effects of vicarious illness experience (VIE) into theory, specifically concerning the developments in gain versus loss framing literature. An experiment using 154 African American participants (mean age = 46 years) found that participants who had close women affected by breast cancer and those who had no close women affected by breast cancer responded to gain- versus loss-framed breast cancer screening (BCS) messages differently. Compared to the loss frame, the gain frame was more effective for participants with VIE in increasing their favorable attitudes toward BCS, BCS recommendation intentions, and memory of the BCS message. In contrast, when compared to the gain frame, the loss frame was more effective for those without VIE in increasing their cognitive elaboration of the BCS message. The findings suggest the strategic potential of VIE in developing health interventions, and they also provide practical implications for health communication practitioners into how to strategically use gain versus loss framing in accordance with their target publics.
authors.affiliation: a Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information , Nanyang Technological University.
authors.forename: Hyo Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015146:Midwestern United States; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D017741:Survivors; D014741:Video Recording