Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination

Until now, health communication has largely failed to debunk fears and caveats related to vaccination. This study aims to investigate the effects of different text types used in health communication in an experimental study design. A neutrally formulated text was compared to a humorous text using th...

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Main Authors:	Florian Fischer, Franziska Carow, Stefanie Gillitzer
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-01
Series:	Frontiers in Public Health
Subjects:	humor health communication science herd immunity vaccine
Online Access:	https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.649507/full

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spelling	doaj-9e81078d1a9d4acb8e6fc632e3adea642021-04-27T04:56:10ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652021-04-01910.3389/fpubh.2021.649507649507Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood VaccinationFlorian Fischer0Florian Fischer1Franziska Carow2Stefanie Gillitzer3Institute of Public Health, Charité—Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, GermanyInstitute of Gerontological Health Services and Nursing Research, Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences, Weingarten, GermanySchool of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, GermanySchool of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, GermanyUntil now, health communication has largely failed to debunk fears and caveats related to vaccination. This study aims to investigate the effects of different text types used in health communication in an experimental study design. A neutrally formulated text was compared to a humorous text using the formula of a fairytale. Overall, the study indicates no additional value in using the humorous format as an innovative and target-group-oriented approach to inform readers about scientific evidence related to vaccination. Although the effects of the two text types do not differ, the credibility of the neutrally formulated text was much more likely to be judged as high. This indicates that the perception of credibility is not the only criterion in health communication leading to knowledge gains and changes in health-related attitudes and behaviors.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.649507/fullhumorhealthcommunicationscienceherd immunityvaccine
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Florian Fischer Florian Fischer Franziska Carow Stefanie Gillitzer
spellingShingle	Florian Fischer Florian Fischer Franziska Carow Stefanie Gillitzer Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination Frontiers in Public Health humor health communication science herd immunity vaccine
author_facet	Florian Fischer Florian Fischer Franziska Carow Stefanie Gillitzer
author_sort	Florian Fischer
title	Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination
title_short	Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination
title_full	Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination
title_fullStr	Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination
title_full_unstemmed	Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination
title_sort	humor and fear—two sides of the same coin?: experimental evidence on humor appeals in health communication related to childhood vaccination
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
series	Frontiers in Public Health
issn	2296-2565
publishDate	2021-04-01
description	Until now, health communication has largely failed to debunk fears and caveats related to vaccination. This study aims to investigate the effects of different text types used in health communication in an experimental study design. A neutrally formulated text was compared to a humorous text using the formula of a fairytale. Overall, the study indicates no additional value in using the humorous format as an innovative and target-group-oriented approach to inform readers about scientific evidence related to vaccination. Although the effects of the two text types do not differ, the credibility of the neutrally formulated text was much more likely to be judged as high. This indicates that the perception of credibility is not the only criterion in health communication leading to knowledge gains and changes in health-related attitudes and behaviors.
topic	humor health communication science herd immunity vaccine
url	https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2021.649507/full
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Humor and Fear—Two Sides of the Same Coin?: Experimental Evidence on Humor Appeals in Health Communication Related to Childhood Vaccination

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