Thesis (BA Communication Arts) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, 2018

Fear appeal is one way to communicate health risks and, in turn, promote healthier behaviors. According to the Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) of Kim Witte (1992), behavioral outcomes will depend on a person?s perceived threat and efficacy when processing fear-eliciting messages. Existing fear appeal literature supports this proposition, agreeing that threat and efficacy play an important role in accepting or rejecting a message. However, in these studies that have tested the concepts of EPPM, fear itself is rarely given a proper measure. This raises the need to investigate fear by measuring it based on both cognition (self-reports) and emotion (physiological reactions). The current study tests how graphic health images affect individual perceptions of fear, threat, and efficacy of a smoker and non-smoker. Their eye movements are analyzed to see how it pays attention to the images. Results show that self-reported fear is high for both smokers and non-smokers. There is an absence of attention aversion to the images, but this physiological response indicates that fear is felt by the subjects. This fear perceived is then predicted by their levels of response efficacy or the belief that doing the recommended response will work. While the images are equally rated as severe by both groups, perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy are what mainly varies between smokers and non-smokers. Results are able to validate EPPM's propositions.