Fear, guilt and the psychology of risk

Fear and guilt appeals are often premised on notions of risk: that by communicating the risk involved in specific behaviours, the target audience will engage with the message (Eagle et al., 2020). Exploring this theme in more detail, Vos et al. (2017), in a study of gamblers in Australia, found that fear, in particular, evokes threats such as isolation and loss of self-esteem and identity, which can be powerful motivators to act.

One particular campaign that combined both fear and guilt was the UK NHS ‘Second-hand smoke is a killer’ campaign that not only drew attention to the risks of smoking to the smoker (fear appeal) but also the impact it might have on others, such as family members and friends (guilt appeal). Watch an advert from the campaign here:

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Transcript: Video 10: NHS ‘Second-hand smoke – the invisible killer’ advert

NARRATOR:

Most cigarette smoke in a room comes from the lit end. Unfiltered and even more toxic, it attacks vital organs of everyone who breathes it, increasing their chances of heart disease by a quarter, even if they’ve never smoked. But the scariest thing is, you can’t even see it. 85 per cent is invisible. Second-hand smoke – the invisible killer.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

Secondhand Smoke

The Invisible Killer

gosmokefree.co.uk or call 0800 169 0169

End transcript: Video 10: NHS ‘Second-hand smoke – the invisible killer’ advert

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Video 10: NHS ‘Second-hand smoke – the invisible killer’ advert

De Pelsmacker et al. (2017) identified six types of risk that marketers employ, shown in Table 6.3.