Fear Appeals

Fear Appeals

A fear appeal is a message designed to elicit fear in an attempt to persuade an individual to pursue some pre-defined course of action. Fear appeals have been predominantly studied in the context of education, marketing, and health awareness campaigns, with the intent to alter intentions and motivate individuals to act on a message. Much of the research has been directed at establishing the relevant variables in both the target of the message, as well as the message itself. Over the years, several models of the influence of fear appeals on persuasion, have been proposed. These include Drive Theory, Protection Motivation Theory, Subjective Expected Utility Theory, the Parallel Process Model, and the Extended Parallel Process Model.