Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Frontiers in Communication |
| Volume | 3 |
| Early online date | 10 Aug 2018 |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
Medical communication and health care intervention programs often include testimonials (i.e., an account of individuals' experiences) when addressing health-related topics. Numerous findings provide evidence of the effectiveness of such testimonials on intentions for health behavior change. However, little is known about whether and how testimonials affect healthy lay people's reception of health information (e.g., in journalistic reports about medical innovations). The present studies tested whether using patients vs. doctors as testimonial protagonists in communication affects unconcerned recipients' affective experiences and their memory performance regarding text content. Two experiments (Prestudy: N = 43; Main Experiment: N = 97, university student samples) demonstrated that using patients as protagonists elicited stronger negative and weaker positive emotions in recipients than using doctors as protagonists. Results of one of the experiments further suggested that the affective experience influenced recipients' memory performance so that less positive and more negative DBS-related information was remembered when patients were protagonists, due to elicited negative emotions. The findings are discussed with regard to their implications for medical communication.
Keywords
- Deep brain stimulation, emotions, medical communication, memory, testimonials
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Communication
- Social Sciences(all)
- Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
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In: Frontiers in Communication, Vol. 3, 08.2018.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Are you concerned? Patient testimonials in medical communication affect healthy recipients' emotions and memory
AU - Sassenrath, Claudia
AU - Greving, Hannah
AU - Sassenberg, Kai
N1 - Funding Information: Research reported in this article was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Grant number: 01GP1306B).
PY - 2018/8
Y1 - 2018/8
N2 - Medical communication and health care intervention programs often include testimonials (i.e., an account of individuals' experiences) when addressing health-related topics. Numerous findings provide evidence of the effectiveness of such testimonials on intentions for health behavior change. However, little is known about whether and how testimonials affect healthy lay people's reception of health information (e.g., in journalistic reports about medical innovations). The present studies tested whether using patients vs. doctors as testimonial protagonists in communication affects unconcerned recipients' affective experiences and their memory performance regarding text content. Two experiments (Prestudy: N = 43; Main Experiment: N = 97, university student samples) demonstrated that using patients as protagonists elicited stronger negative and weaker positive emotions in recipients than using doctors as protagonists. Results of one of the experiments further suggested that the affective experience influenced recipients' memory performance so that less positive and more negative DBS-related information was remembered when patients were protagonists, due to elicited negative emotions. The findings are discussed with regard to their implications for medical communication.
AB - Medical communication and health care intervention programs often include testimonials (i.e., an account of individuals' experiences) when addressing health-related topics. Numerous findings provide evidence of the effectiveness of such testimonials on intentions for health behavior change. However, little is known about whether and how testimonials affect healthy lay people's reception of health information (e.g., in journalistic reports about medical innovations). The present studies tested whether using patients vs. doctors as testimonial protagonists in communication affects unconcerned recipients' affective experiences and their memory performance regarding text content. Two experiments (Prestudy: N = 43; Main Experiment: N = 97, university student samples) demonstrated that using patients as protagonists elicited stronger negative and weaker positive emotions in recipients than using doctors as protagonists. Results of one of the experiments further suggested that the affective experience influenced recipients' memory performance so that less positive and more negative DBS-related information was remembered when patients were protagonists, due to elicited negative emotions. The findings are discussed with regard to their implications for medical communication.
KW - Deep brain stimulation
KW - emotions
KW - medical communication
KW - memory
KW - testimonials
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85106626107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fcomm.2018.00018
DO - 10.3389/fcomm.2018.00018
M3 - Article
VL - 3
JO - Frontiers in Communication
JF - Frontiers in Communication
ER -