title: A brief measure of reactance to health warnings.
abstract: Reactance to persuasive messages involves perceived threat to freedom, anger, and counterarguing that may undermine the impact of health warnings. To understand reactance's effects, reliable and valid assessment is critical. We sought to develop and validate a brief Reactance to Health Warnings Scale (RHWS). Two independent samples of US adults completed the brief RHWS in studies that presented warnings on cigarette packs that smokers carried with them for 4 weeks (Study 1; n = 2149) or as digital images of cigarette packs that participants viewed briefly (Study 2; n = 1413). The three-item Brief RHWS had good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. The scale correlated with higher trait reactance and exposure to pictorial warnings, supporting its convergent validity. With respect to predictive validity, the Brief RHWS predicted perceived message effectiveness, quit intentions, avoidance of the warnings, and number of cigarettes smoked per day. The Brief RHWS can serve as an efficient adjunct to the development of persuasive messages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. mghall@unc.edu.|Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. mghall@unc.edu.
authors.forename: Marissa G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Paschal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sheeran
authors.affiliation: School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Seth M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Noar
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Kurt M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ribisl
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Marcella H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Boynton
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.|Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Noel T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Brewer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011356:Product Labeling; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Defensive processing; Health communication; Health warnings; Pictorial warnings; Reactance; Tobacco control