Tailored visuals, implementation interventions, and sun safe behavior: A longitudinal message experiment

Area of Science:

• Health Communication
• Behavioral Science
• Dermatology

Background:

• Communicating skin cancer risk often involves ultraviolet (UV) photographs.
• Tailored UV visuals, showing the individual, may be more impactful than stock images.
• Longitudinal research is needed to compare tailored UV photos with other sun safety interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the longitudinal impact of tailored UV photographs versus stock UV photographs and an implementation intervention on adolescent tanning behavior.
• To compare the persuasive effectiveness of different visual and intervention strategies for promoting sun safety.

Main Methods:

• A longitudinal experiment with 654 high school students (ages 14-18) in Utah.
• Interventions included stock and tailored UV photographs or stock UV photographs with an implementation intervention.
• Data collected at pretest, posttest, and 1-month follow-up, measuring fear, norms, self-efficacy, reactance, and tanning behavior.

Main Results:

• Tailored UV photographs increased fear and freedom threat, and decreased perceived appearance benefits of tanning.
• Participants exposed to tailored UV photographs showed reduced outdoor tanning behavior at 1-month follow-up.
• Indirect effects showed tailored UV reduced tanning via appearance benefits and increased tanning when fear triggered reactance.

Conclusions:

• Tailored UV visuals are effective in influencing lay reactions and promoting sun-safe behaviors.
• Findings contribute to understanding the indirect effects of affect and cognition in health interventions.
• The study highlights the utility of tailored visuals in skin cancer prevention efforts.