ABSTRACT
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) has a high prevalence in Germany. Tailored health communication campaigns are part of preventing T2DM at a societal level, with narrative approaches as a promising communication strategy. The aim of this study was to qualitatively examine identification with characters as a potential narrative effect mechanism within a national T2DM communication campaign (Slogan: "Diabetes - not only a question of type"). In doing so, characters' liking and perceived similarity were explored as antecedents of identification. For this purpose, nine focus groups comprising a total of 76 participants diagnosed with T2DM were conducted. Two of these focus groups consisted entirely of participants of Turkish descent. An assessment was developed to measure the extent to which participants liked, perceived themselves to be similar to, and identified with different characters presented via three videoclip formats (live action, animated cartoons, and celebrity testimonials) from a national diabetes communication campaign. Live action and celebrity testimonial characters were mostly perceived as likeable. However, level of identification was low, and participants felt an overall lack of similarity regarding both personal and disease-related characteristics as compared to these characters. Animated cartoons were perceived as less stigmatizing, but also as less engaging. The study indicates that liking without a feeling of similarity to a character is not sufficient to elicit identification. Further, the reinforcement of harmful T2DM stereotypes should be avoided in health communications to prevent reactance and to increase generalizability.
ABSTRACT
Background: Sedentary behavior (SB) is highly prevalent among university students and has increased during COVID-19 pandemic. As SB is associated with negative health outcomes, appropriate prevention measures in the university setting are needed. Objective: This pilot study aimed at investigating the effects of videos using different message strategies to interrupt SB in the collective of university students during online lectures. Methods: During online lectures, university students (N = 96) were shown one of three videos on the interruption of SB. The videos differed in their message strategies with regard to evidence type (statistical vs. narrative) and vividness (static vs. animated images). Demographics, health variables (SB intentions, SB attitudes) and selected media reception variables (identification, homophily, counterarguing) were examined as possible influence factors on the interruption of SB evoked by watching the video. Results: Approximately half of the students interrupted sedentary behavior during watching the videos and students of the older age group (cut-off: median = 22 years) interrupted SB significantly more often (p = 0.046). The interruption of SB was predicted by SB intentions (p < 0.05). Identification with characters significantly predicted the intentions to reduce SB (p < 0.001), with a large effect of the overall regression model (R2corr = 0.47). Conclusion: Considering the increased digitalization in general and restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic, videos seem to be a useful tool to interrupt SB among university students during online lectures. Narrative formats could facilitate the intention to reduce SB, which in turn could have a positive impact on the interruption of SB. However, further research on effective communication and message strategies is needed.