Repetition of educational AIDS advertising affects attitudes

Psychol Rep. 2011 Jun;108(3):693-8. doi: 10.2466/01.13.PR0.108.3.693-698.

Abstract

In educational AIDS campaigns, initiators often use advertisements to warn about the threat of AIDS. The present Internet study (N = 283) tested the assumption of an inverted U-shaped relationship between the number of educational AIDS advertisements in a magazine and the perceived threat of AIDS among different groups (i.e., homosexual men and heterosexual men and women). This expectation was primarily based on signaling theory, which assumes that recipients use repetition frequency as a cue for judgments about the message. Results provided support for the expected inverted U-curve.

MeSH terms

  • Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / prevention & control*
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Advertising*
  • Attention
  • Attitude to Health*
  • Cues
  • Female
  • Habituation, Psychophysiologic
  • Health Education*
  • Health Promotion*
  • Heterosexuality / psychology
  • Homosexuality, Male / psychology
  • Humans
  • Judgment
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Periodicals as Topic*
  • Signal Detection, Psychological
  • Social Marketing
  • Young Adult