Message Framing and Perceived Risk of Blood Donation

ABSTRACT This paper builds on previous research into message framing, focusing on the persuasiveness of message framing on blood donation intention, moderating effect of perceptions of risk, and the role of previous experience of blood donation. A total of 273 participants took part in this between-subjects post-test only with control experiment. The researchers measured participants’ perceived risk (RISK-AB and RISK-EB) and past donation behavior before assigning the stimuli and measured blood donation intention after exposure to the stimulus. Positively-framed messages were found to be more effective when RISK-AB (perceived risk associated with blood donation) was high, and RISK-EB (perceived risk associated with non-donation of blood) was low, or RISK-AB was low, and RISK-EB was high or both RISK-AB and RISK-EB were low. Negatively framed messages were found to be more persuasive when people had high RISK-AB and high RISK-EB. People’s previous experience had no impact on the effectiveness of message framing. Based on these findings, the authors suggest designing persuasive blood donation messages according to RISK-AB and RISK-EB. The study emphasizes the impact of goal framing. Future studies can explore the impact of both goal and attribute framed messages on blood donation. Future research can also use the actual donation as an outcome measure. The study introduces components of perceived risk (RISK-AB and RISK-EB) as essential moderators of framed blood donation messages. In this study, we measured the impact of existing perceived risk, which is natural to an individual. It also confirmed no impact of prior donation experience.