Psychological Traits and the Persuasiveness of Lung Cancer Screening Health Messages.

Abstract Background Lung cancer screening remains underutilized despite its proven mortality benefit. Health systems have attempted to increase screening awareness through advertising. Psychological theories suggest that construal level (a personal orientation towards the big picture or the details) and regulatory focus (goals emphasizing acquisition of a good, or avoidance of a bad outcome) play a key role in health advertising effectiveness. These theories have not been examined in a screen-eligible population. Methods Using Amazon's crowdsourcing platform, Mechanical Turk, we identified screen-eligible individuals based on United States Preventive Services Task Force criteria. We randomly assigned participants to see one of four screening advertisement images in a 2 (construal level: high vs. low) X 2 (regulatory focus: promotion vs. prevention) between-subjects experimental design. We assessed willingness to undergo screening following the advertisement. Results A total of 191 individuals responded to our study invitation (mean age 61 years). We found that the high construal/promotion focus image led to a greater willingness to screen compared to images representing other psychological states (p-value=0.04). Regarding the personality traits of our respondents, high construal/promotion focus was the most prevalent (40%) trait combination, whereas low construal/prevention focus was the least prevalent (17%). Conclusions The psychological focus of health-related messages affect an individual's willingness to undergo lung cancer screening. Individuals eligible for lung cancer screening are more persuaded by "big picture" messages describing the benefits of screening. Health systems may use this knowledge to design more effective patient-facing communications that lead to higher rates of screening.