Promoting the avoidance of high-calorie snacks: priming autonomy moderates message framing effects

Area of Science:

• Health Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Framing effects in health messages yield inconsistent results.
• Moderating variables are crucial for effective framed health promotion.
• Autonomy (choice) versus heteronomy (coercion) may influence message effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how autonomy and heteronomy influence snack avoidance based on message framing.
• To examine the interaction between message frame (gain vs. loss) and autonomy/heteronomy primes.
• To determine if message relevance moderates these effects.

Main Methods:

• Two studies were conducted with participants (N=152, N=242).
• Methods included autonomy/heteronomy priming and exposure to gain-framed or loss-framed health messages.
• Snacking intentions and behavior were assessed after seven days.

Main Results:

• Gain-framed messages with highlighted autonomy led to stronger intentions to avoid snacks and lower consumption.
• This effect was more pronounced in Study 2 for participants with a BMI > 25.
• Heteronomy primes did not yield similar effects, suggesting autonomy is key.

Conclusions:

• Autonomy-supportive messaging, particularly gain-framed, enhances persuasive impact on healthy eating.
• Message framing and autonomy should be aligned for optimal health behavior promotion.
• Relevance (e.g., BMI) can moderate the effectiveness of framed health messages.