An Exploratory Study Examining Fear Appeals in Print Advertisements: A Comparison between China and Canada
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis compares the fear appeal usage frequency differences between Chinese and Canadian magazine advertisements. Through comparing the Canadian and Chinese fear appeal magazine ads, the author wants to try to find some features for academic fear appeal research and for marketing practice, such as, to which kind of industries the fear appeals are intensively applied, which types of fear appeals (social, physical, economy, and self-esteem) are mostly used in each country, and what kind of the information is most often used in each country. It is surprising to realize that “text” is the most frequent fear appeal, perceived threat, rewards, efficiency and cost carrier in these two countries’ magazine ads. The second half of the research questions and hypotheses are proposed based on the Protection Motivation Model. The paper discusses the different use frequency of perceived threat, perceived rewards, perceived efficiency and perceived costs found in Chinese and Canadian magazine ads. The findings reveal Canadian fear appeal ads use more both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards; Chinese and Canadian ads both focus on expressing protective behavior in two perceived rewards.
Author: Weiluo Hu
Language: English
Subfield: Applied Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2471817090