Effects of Self-Efficacy and Vividness on the Persuasiveness of Health Communications

Abstract

We use the literature on self-efficacy and vividness to predict and explain the conditions under which vivid information will be more persuasive than nonvivid information in a health communication. Our results on sexually transmitted diseases (Experiment 1) and skin cancer (Experiment 2) demonstrate higher preferences for vivid over nonvivid material when participants believe they can follow the recommendations in the message (high self-efficacy). This vividness effect disappears under low self-efficacy. In addition, vivid information was considered more persuasive among high rather than low self-efficacy participants. The pattern of thoughts about the recommendations and consequences contained in the message provides insight on the process underlying the self-efficacy by vividness interaction.