“Appealing to fear” in order to persuade? A review of the literature and research perspectives

Many health professionals broadcast preventive messages designed to scare or shock. The goal is to “appeal to fear” in order to warn people of the dangers they could incur by adopting certain behaviors and to get them to perform more appropriate actions. Is this an effective strategy and what are its effects? For over sixty years, research on appeals to fear has directed many works and proposed various theoretical models (Girandola 2000). This paper presents these pieces of research. We will first review the main models in this field of study, before presenting the most recent research (1998–2014) oriented toward cognitive processes related to information processing. Finally, research perspectives and a proposal for a new model will be addressed and discussed.