Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of fear arousal and distraction upon comprehension of a communication message. The two experiments reported here were designed to replicate the earlier experiments by Janis and Milholland, Jr. (1954), and by Duke (1967).
In an experiment I of Janis and Milholland, Jr. type, the subjects were given only the printed message. On the other hand, Ss in the Duke type experiment II were exposed to illustrated taperecordings in addition to the printed material. The degree of fear arousal was varied by manipulating the amount of fear communication (ex- periment I & II), and the number of fear slides presented (experiment II). Moreover, the degree of distraction was varied by manipulating the amount of information units contained in the message (experiment I & II), and the total number of slides presented (experiment II). The topic used in experiment II was exactly the same as in experiment I. Immediately after exposure to the communication, each experimental group was given a comprehension test consisting of 12 items in five-alternative multiple-choice form.
The main results were as follows:
1. High fear appeals did not affect test performance in the comprehension test about factual contents.
2. Large distraction version lowered test results in the comprehension test more than a small distraction, which confirmed the earlier findings of Duke (1967).
3. Additional findings from the present study indicate that the group exposed to a large distraction was more likely to perceive the issue as important and to generally evaluate the articles and author more positively.
Further research will be required to examine the causal relationship between comprehension of a communication and the acceptance of recomendation in the context of an attitude change via fear-arousing communications.
