"When risk communication backfires: Randomized controlled trial on self-affirmation and reactance to personalized risk feedback in high-risk individuals": Correction to Schüz, Schüz, and Eid (2013)

Reports an error in "When risk communication backfires: Randomized controlled trial on self-affirmation and reactance to personalized risk feedback in high-risk individuals" by Natalie Schüz, Benjamin Schüz and Michael Eid (Health Psychology, 2013[May], Vol 32[5], 561-570). Several errors appear in the data in the Results section. The corrected information is provided. It is noted that, in all cases, the statistical conclusions remain the same. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2013-14977-010.) Objective: Health promotion often faces the problem that populations with high behavioral risk profiles respond defensively to health promotion messages by negating risk or reactant behavior. Self-affirmation theory proposes that defensive reactions are an attempt of the self-system to maintain integrity. In this article, we examine whether a self-affirmation manipulation can mitigate defensive responses to personalized visual risk feedback in the skin cancer prevention context (ultraviolet [UV] photography), and whether the effects pertain to individuals with high behavioral risk status (high personal relevance of tanning).

Method: We conducted a full-factorial randomized controlled trial (N = 292; age 11-71) following a 2 * 2 design (UV photo yes/no, self-affirmation yes/no). Follow-up period was 2 weeks. Subsequent tanning behavior, sun avoidance intentions, and risk perception.

Results: A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a three-way interaction between risk feedback, the self-affirmation manipulation, and risk status for the three outcome measures. Follow-up analyses of variance (ANOVAs) indicated that high-risk individuals receiving only the risk feedback intervention reacted defensively and reported higher exposure. A self-affirmation manipulation mitigates this reactance effect both on the level of cognitions and behavior.

Conclusion: Self-affirmation has influential implications not only for Social Psychology but also for health prevention measures. The findings support the effectiveness of self-affirmation in reducing reactant and defensive reactions to personalized visual risk feedback. Interactions with health risk status indicate that self-affirmation might increase the effectiveness of health promotion messages in high-risk populations. (PsycINFO Database Record