Prawit Thainiyom1, Katherine Elder2. 1. PhD Candidate, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA;, Email: thainiyo@usc.edu. 2. PhD Candidate, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA;, Email: kelder@usc.edu.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether HIV/AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) that use emotional appeals have unintended effects of creating stigmatizing attitudes in their viewers. METHODS: We analyzed data for 240 respondents located in the United States who were recruited online. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of 3 conditions, where they viewed a PSA with hope appeals, fear appeals, or non-emotional appeals. Respondents then answered a series of questions about their attitudes about HIV/AIDS; testing behavior; engagement with HIV/AIDS-related people, organizations, and issues; and HIV/AIDS knowledge. We then performed MANOVA analyses and Pearson correlations. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in stigmatizing attitudes and behavior across the 3 conditions. However, once the data were split by sex, men exposed to the hope condition had significantly higher stigmatizing attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS than men in the other 2 conditions. CONCLUSIONS: This result was unexpected and suggests that further research needs to be conducted with a more robust sample size to account for any moderating influences that might explain why a hopeful message that communicates togetherness would have a negative attitudinal impact on male viewers.
RCT Entities:
OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine whether HIV/AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) that use emotional appeals have unintended effects of creating stigmatizing attitudes in their viewers. METHODS: We analyzed data for 240 respondents located in the United States who were recruited online. Respondents were randomly assigned to one of 3 conditions, where they viewed a PSA with hope appeals, fear appeals, or non-emotional appeals. Respondents then answered a series of questions about their attitudes about HIV/AIDS; testing behavior; engagement with HIV/AIDS-related people, organizations, and issues; and HIV/AIDS knowledge. We then performed MANOVA analyses and Pearson correlations. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in stigmatizing attitudes and behavior across the 3 conditions. However, once the data were split by sex, men exposed to the hope condition had significantly higher stigmatizing attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS than men in the other 2 conditions. CONCLUSIONS: This result was unexpected and suggests that further research needs to be conducted with a more robust sample size to account for any moderating influences that might explain why a hopeful message that communicates togetherness would have a negative attitudinal impact on male viewers.