THE PROCESSING OF THREAT APPEALS IN THE PREVENTION OF OBESITY: A FOCUS ON GENDER AND WEIGHT DIFFERENCES.

This article focuses on differences in the processing of threat appeals in the prevention of obesity by different population segments, considering gender and perceived weight differences. The results reveal differences for the relation between evoked fear and behavioral intention. For men without perceived overweight there was a significant effect of evoked fear on behavioral intention but no such relation was found neither for women nor for men with perceived overweight. Acknowledging that threatening stimuli are processed in different ways by different consumer segments is an important finding for healthcare workers in particular and advertisers in general. This could help create more effective appeals for the different segments in order to fight obesity and stop the growing number of people with overweight.