Strong health messages have impact

KENT, Ohio, July 20 (UPI) -- Strong health messages create more favorable attitudes than weak messages and are more effective, found a U.S. study.

Dr. John Updegraff of Kent State University; Dr. David Sherman of the University of California, Santa Barbara; and Dr. Traci L. Mann of the University of Minnesota examined whether the strength of health messages regarding the importance of dental flossing had any effect on the recipient's attitude or behavior.

Specifically, recipients received messages that either emphasized the potential benefits of regular flossing or messages that reviewed the potential dangers of not flossing. Both strong and weak versions of each message type were used.

"When we varied how convincing the messages were, we found that only those who received messages matching their motivational orientation were paying enough attention to notice the difference between strong and weak messages," Updegraff said in a statement.

Particularly, strong messages created more favorable attitudes towards flossing and were more effective in changing behavior, according to the study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

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