Guarding against threatening HIV prevention messages: an information-processing model

Previous research has suggested that fear-provoking HIV prevention messages can lead to defensive coping strategies among sexually active students who encounter such messages. An information-processing model of defensive responses is proposed that identifies and operationally defines four mediating processes--attention avoidance, blunting, suppression, and counterargumentation--that may lead to the rejection or denial of threatening health messages. Attention avoidance occurs when people indiscriminately avoid all messages; blunting is the use of distraction to avoid only threatening information in the message. Suppression occurs when people try to stop thinking about the information and avoid forming inferences about its self-relevance; counterargumentation is the biased assessment that follows comprehension and arises along with self-relevant elaboration. Situational influences on people's choice of defensive coping strategy are considered, and implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.