Ease of imagination moderates reactions to differently framed health messages

Abstract Three studies test the hypothesis that the subjective ease of symptom imagination moderates the impact of differently framed messages on attitudes toward performing health behaviours. By drawing on the simulation heuristic, it is argued that the vividness of information is reflected in the subjective ease with which people can imagine having symptoms of an illness. This state of mind can be more or less congruent with the theme of a message, accentuating certain health‐related outcomes more than others. The results show that negatively framed messages are more persuasive when symptom imagination is relatively easy and that positively framed messages are more effective when symptom imagination is relatively difficult. Consistent with a dual‐process view, Study 3 showed a stronger impact of ease of imagination when relevance was low rather than high. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.