Women get the health message, but not from men

Women are much more likely to be persuaded to either eat healthily or undertake dangerous dieting by other women, not men, according to new ANU research. The research by PhD student Tegan Cruwys, released during National Psychology Week, found that both healthy, and unhealthy, messages delivered by men had little effect. Additionally, she found that when a healthy eating message is delivered by someone women identify with, it was likely to change their behaviour. The findings highlight the importance of carefully targeted health messages. To conduct the research, Ms Cruwys, a PhD student in the ANU Department of Psychology, showed female participants four health promotion videos in an online experiment, with either a pro-health or pro-dangerous dieting message, delivered by either a male or a female. 'We found that the women who watched the videos with the woman speaking were far more persuaded by the message,' said Cruwys. 'That is, women planned to engage in healthier behaviours after seeing a pro-health message from a woman, and less healthy behaviours after seeing a pro-dangerous dieting message from a woman.' She added that the videos which were delivered by a male presenter had little effect on the female participants in the study.