Temporal framing and persuasion to adopt preventive health behavior: moderating effects of individual differences in consideration of future consequences on sunscreen use.

OBJECTIVE: Previous work on temporal framing of health communications has focused upon detection behaviors that possess an inherent immediate risk of negative consequences. The present studies evaluate the role of temporal frame for a preventive behavior, using sunscreen.
DESIGN: Two experimental field studies manipulated the temporal frame in which positive and negative consequences of using sunscreen were presented. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Cognitive responses, intention, and behavior (experiment 2).
RESULTS: Consistent with hypotheses, Experiment 1 showed that individual differences in consideration of future consequences (CFC; A. Strathman, F. Gleicher, D. S. Boninger, & C. S. Edwards, 1994) moderated (a) the processing of long- versus short-term consequences and (b) the persuasive impact of the different temporal frames on behavioral intentions. In Experiment 2, the balance of positive versus negative thoughts generated by reading the persuasive communications was shown to mediate the effects of the Temporal Frame x CFC interaction on a behavioral measure.
CONCLUSION: Findings extend previous work by demonstrating the importance of individual differences in CFC to the processing of health communication about a preventive health behavior and to a behavioral outcome.