Scaring Skydivers Into Safety: The Use of Fear Appeal
Some skydiving coaches and social media groups use disturbing, graphic videos in camps, seminars and online in an attempt to persuade skydivers to be safe. Displaying these kinds of graphic videos or photos to change behavior is called “fear appeal.” Well-known, pervasive ad campaigns have used this strategy, showing the raw results of smoking, drunk driving, heart disease, cancer and gambling to reduce unsafe attitudes, intentions and behaviors. Some organizations even use humor to persuade the public to follow certain recommendations, although most fear-appeal campaigns depict the darker side of not taking action.
But is fear appeal effective? Does showing graphic video create a change in people? The latest research findings may surprise you.
The topic of fear appeal has been both controversial and polarizing. Experts have not agreed on its effectiveness, and the findings from over 60 years of studies reflect this disagreement with positive, negative and null (i.e., neither positive nor negative) outcomes. Some believe it has power to persuade; others state that its use is counterproductive.
In addition to many individual studies, researchers have conducted several meta-analyses, which combine the results from a number of studies to reveal patterns or trends and construct generalizations. Through analyzing the results of many studies, researchers can say with far more certainty than they can with a single study that certain strategies do or do not work.
The latest and most comprehensive meta-analysis on the largest database of the fear-appeal research (“Appealing to Fear: A Meta-Analysis of Fear Appeal Effectiveness and Theories” by Melanie B. Tannenbaum, Justin Hepler, Rick S. Zimmerman, Lindsey Saul, Samantha Jacobs, Kristina Wilson and Dolores Albarracín, published in the Psychological Bulletin in 2015) reveals that the use of fear appeal can indeed positively influence attitudes, intentions and behaviors so people make better choices. After testing a wide variety of theories and hypotheses categorized into message, behavior and audience, researchers identified four variables that make the biggest impact on fear-appeal effectiveness: efficacy statements, stressed high susceptibility and severity, frequency of recommended behavior and the make-up of the target audience. Applied to skydiving, these four variables become two areas of opportunity and two areas of challenge.
Opportunity #1: Efficacy Statements
Participants who view a graphic video may feel fear, which then causes them to evaluate whether or not following the recommendations will protect them from the negative consequences depicted. An efficacy statement right after the video reinforces the message that 1) they are able to do whatever is recommended and 2) if they do it, their results will be positive.
Coaches leading seminars using fear appeal should include efficacy statements to increase effectiveness. The coaches should communicate an emphatic you-can-do-it message that conveys to participants that they can avoid dangerous situations by following certain safety guidelines.
Opportunity #2: Stressed High Susceptibility and Severity
Generic statements about risk are not usually effective because people generally assume that they will be OK. However, a message that conveys their high susceptibility to adverse consequences can persuade them that they are indeed at high-risk for negative consequences if they do not adopt sound safety measures.
A low-susceptibility message does not personalize risk, for example: “Nearly one in five deaths is due to cigarette smoking.” In contrast, the key to an effective message is to personalize the risk: “Nearly one in five deaths is due to cigarette smoking. This means you are at risk!”
Skydiving coaches must stress high-susceptibility by specifically emphasizing that every participant is at a high risk for the negative consequences shown in the fear appeal message and that those consequences will happen to them, individually, if they do not adhere to the recommendations.
In addition to susceptibility, statements need the element of severity. Severity refers to illustrating the intensity of the negative consequences of failure to take action. A message low in severity portrays a general or manageable consequence, for example, “Not everyone who gets lung cancer will die from it.” On the other hand, a message high in severity will show specific end results: “Lung cancer from smoking is a serious disease that causes death.”
Coaches must underscore the specific negative consequences that occur and avoid communicating low severity messages. Obviously, in skydiving the stakes are the highest: When participants don’t follow safety guidelines, the result can be death.
Challenge #1: Advocating for Repeated Behaviors
Research indicates that persuasive messages tend to be more effective when advocating for singular actions (e.g., vaccination) as opposed to behaviors requiring sustained repetition (e.g., exercise). Given that performing a task once demands less effort compared to its repeated execution, individuals tend to exhibit greater compliance when prompted to engage in a single behavior.
This finding is a significant challenge in skydiving because skydivers must follow the recommended safety actions on every jump. This repeated requirement over a prolonged duration makes it challenging to increase the effectiveness of the fear appeal.
Challenge #2: Make-Up of the Target Audience
Research has shown us that people can be either promotion- or prevention-focused; this means that some people place greater value on pursuing positive outcomes and others on avoiding negative ones. Thus, because fear appeals are prevention-framed messages, they emphasize avoiding negative outcomes and thus are tailored to align with those who are prevention-focused.
Research has also found differences between men and women in their motivational strategies regarding goal-directed behavior. Women generally exhibit a higher tendency toward prevention-focus as compared to men. This becomes another significant challenge when using fear appeal in skydiving, since targeted audiences typically include a large majority of men. According to USPA’s 2023 Annual Survey Results, only 14% of skydivers identified as female. Therefore, coaches face a substantial obstacle: how to effectively communicate a prevention-framed message to people who tend to be less prevention-focused.
Unanswered Questions
Although individual studies and meta-analyses include highly controlled experimental studies with encouraging results on how to increase fear-appeal effectiveness, there is much that we do not yet know. Here are some questions that still need answers:
Besides fear, are other emotions like disgust, anger and guilt evoked when a message is presented? If so, do they influence the person’s response?
Research has established that once a message depicts moderate fear, there is no value in depicting additional fear. However, the reason for this is unclear. Is there simply a point beyond which additional fear confers no benefit?
Do fear appeals vary in effectiveness for target populations that differ in age, education, social class or personality? Relatively little attention has been given to these questions.
Does the source of communication (e.g., expert vs. friend) make a difference in the effectiveness of fear appeals?
The most recent and thorough meta-analysis conducted on the extensive database of fear appeal research found specific factors that impact effectiveness regarding the content of the message, the behavior recommended and the characteristics of the audience.
Message. Fear appeals were more effective when the message depicted relatively high amounts of fear, included an efficacy message and stressed susceptibility and severity related to the concerns being addressed.
Behavior. Fear appeals were more effective when they recommended one-time-only behaviors.
Audience. Fear appeals were more effective when audiences included a higher percentage of women.
In skydiving, opportunities exist for maximizing the effectiveness of fear appeal messages by incorporating efficacy statements to empower individuals to take recommended actions and emphasizing high susceptibility and severity of consequences tailored to the audience. However, there are challenges with safety guidelines that require sustained repetition, as well as communicating prevention-framed messages to audiences that may be less prevention-focused, such as the predominantly male demographic in skydiving.
Despite progress in understanding fear appeal’s effectiveness, several questions remain unanswered. Researchers are exploring the role of other emotions besides fear—such as disgust, anger and guilt—in influencing responses to fear-appeal messages. Additionally, there is ongoing investigation into the optimal level of fear necessary for effectiveness and how fear appeals may vary in effectiveness across different demographic groups and sources of communication. These unanswered questions highlight the complexity of fear appeal as a persuasive strategy and the need for further research to refine its application.
About the Author
A former videographer for SDC Rhythm XP, Justin Wageman, D-34620, is a professor of education at North Dakota State University.