Self-improvement messages to lose weight, quit smoking or eat more fruits and vegetables can fall on deaf ears if the intervention message is mixed, says new research from U. of I. psychology Dolores Albarracin. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Self-improvement edicts to lose weight, quit smoking or eat more fruits and vegetables can fall on deaf ears if the intervention message is mixed, says new research co-written by a University of Illinois expert in social psychology. When recommending multiple behavior changes, it's more effective if the messages are framed along similar polarities, according to a new paper from Dolores Albarracin , a professor of psychology at Illinois. "There are all these programs to get people to execute multiple behavioral changes in the area of health, which is especially important because something like a healthy lifestyle is a conglomerate of behaviors," Albarracin said. In other words, two actions or two inactions are more effective than a mix of positive and negative instructions. "What we found is that it's better to combine them in a homogeneous way," said Albarracin, also a professor of business administration. "If you tell people to engage in two behaviors and the behaviors are a mix of actions and inactions, it's likely that recipients will adhere less.
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