The Effects of Message Framing and Feelings of Susceptibility to Breast Cancer on Reported Frequency of Breast Self-Examination

Abstract

One of two types of pamphlets on breast self-examination (BSE) attitudes and behavior was administered to subjects who were classified as high or low in feelings of susceptibility to breast cancer. Half of the subjects received pamphlets stressing the positive consequences of doing BSE and the other half received pamphlets stressing the negative consequences of not doing BSE. A previous study found negatively framed pamphlets to be superior in BSE promotion and these results were explained in terms of Tversky and Kahneman's framing postulate. The original framing postulate includes characteristics of the decision-maker as well as the type of frame presented, thus, we hypothesized an interaction between pamphlet type and level of susceptibility with the largest effect on the group with low perceived susceptibility who received negatively framed pamphlets. The hypothesized interaction did not occur, nor was there a significant effect for pamphlet type. However, there were significant differences between the BSE performance at follow-up of women who were high or low in perceived susceptibility prior to the intervention. These results are discussed in terms of implications for BSE training in the future, more specifically—the need to consider perceived level of susceptibility as an important subject characteristic that could have a large impact on the effectiveness of training programs.