Effects of Evidence Types on the Dissemination of Health Information on Avoiding Sedentary Behavior: The Moderating Role of Health Risk Perception and Construal Level

A quasi-experiment (N = 198) examined how evidence types (narrative, causal, statistical) influence dissemination intentions for health messages targeting sedentary behavior, with dual moderating roles of health risk perception (HRP) and construal level (CL). Results revealed that both narrative and causal evidence significantly outperformed statistical evidence in promoting information dissemination. Moderator analyses demonstrated that: (1) HRP amplified evidence-type effects, with significant differences emerging only when HRP exceeded threshold levels (4.12); (2) CL moderated processing efficacy, as evidence-type effects were pronounced under low CL but nonsignificant at high CL; and (3) a synergistic dual-moderation pattern emerged, where maximal dissemination occurred under high HRP + low CL conditions. These findings establish causal evidence as a distinct persuasive tool and propose a motivation-cognition fit framework for optimizing health message design.