Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
10-2013
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Abstract
Two basic social processes, persuasion and social comparison, have figured prominently in the development and implementation of health communications since the early 1950s. This chapter reviews relevant theory and evidence from basic persuasion and comparison research to demonstrate the centrality of the self-concept for understanding changes in personal belief, opinion, self-efficacy, and behavior change. Then, selective evidence and implications from health communications research are reviewed: Interventions using self-affirmation; gain-loss framing and graphic warning labels/fear appeals from the persuasion area; and interventions using normative provision, social comparison interventions, and support groups from the comparison area. In the final section, personalized, tailored health-communication approaches that capitalize on both persuasion and comparison paradigms are described. For intervention and public-policy purposes, it is recommended that communications that increase personal relevance, cognitive elaboration, and assimilation to health role-models have the strongest potential for creating lasting health behavior change.
Chapter of
The Oxford Handbook of Health Communication, Behavior Change, and Treatment Adherence
Editor
Leslie R. Martin
M. Robin DiMatteo
Recommended Citation
Suls, J., & Bruchmann, K. (2013). Social comparison and persuasion in health communications. In L. Martin & R. DiMatteo (Eds.). Oxford Handbook of Health Communication, Behavior Change, and Treatment Adherence. NY: Oxford University Press.
Comments
Copyright © 2013. Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.
This material was originally published in The Oxford Handbook of Health Communication, Behavior Change, and Treatment Adherence edited by Leslie R. Martin & M. Robin DiMatteo, and has been reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. For permission to reuse this material, please visit http://www.oup.co.uk/academic/rights/permissions.