Abstract
How individuals experience unintended effects of risk messages is an understudied area. Focusing on three types of unintended effects (i.e., message fatigue, risk tolerance, and psychological reactance) associated with health risk communication, we conducted an online survey among Italian adults (N = 507) to investigate how perceived message fatigue and risk tolerance might induce psychological reactance and whether trust in public health information might mediate this relationship. Results from mediation models revealed: (a) greater message fatigue and risk tolerance increased psychological reactance; (b) greater message fatigue and risk tolerance led to distrust in government-shared health information; (c) trust in public health information mediated the effects of message fatigue and risk tolerance on psychological reactance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
DOI
10.30658/jicrcr.4.3.3
Author ORCID Identifier
Youngji Seo: 0000-0001-9692-9022
Silvia Ravazzani: 0000-0002-0935-5719
Hyoyeun Jun: 0000-0002-5283-9831
Yan Jin: 0000-0003-4228-5529
Alfonsa Butera: 0000-0002-1161-9736
Alessandra Mazzei: 0000-0001-7242-4505
Bryan H. Reber: 0000-0002-9160-1471
Recommended Citation
Seo, Y., Ravazzani, S., Jun, H., Jin, Y., Butera, A., Mazzei, A., Reber, B. H. (2021). Unintended effects of risk communication: Impacts of message fatigue, risk tolerance, and trust in public health information on psychological reactance. Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research, 4(3), 517-544. https://doi.org/10.30658/jicrcr.4.3.3
Included in
Health Communication Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Psychology Commons