Fear Appeals and Social responses

The Karnataka Government's communication campaign to spread awareness on wearing seat belts and not using the Mobile Phone while driving is laudable. The number of accidents on Indian roads are on the rise. Road rage is too.

For a social awareness campaign that uses 'fear appeal' to work, it must take into consideration four cognitive appraisal processes (Protection Motivation Model) that mediate an individual's response to the threat; ie., the individual's appraisal of ,

a. information available regarding severity of perceived threat
b. perceived probability that the threat will occur
c. perceived ability of a coping behaviour to remove the threat
d. perceived ability to carry out the coping behaviour.

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