Humor Effects in Shame-Inducing Health Issue Advertising: The Moderating Effects of Fear of Negative Evaluation

Certain health issues such as mental illness and sexually transmitted infections evoke feelings of shame, which typically causes withdrawal coping, making it challenging for campaign planners to effectively communicate pertinent information in intervention messages. In three experimental studies, humor is tested as an advertising strategy that might attenuate the negative effects of shame and increase message persuasion. As an individual factor that correlates with social anxiety and vulnerability to shame, fear of negative evaluation (FNE) is found to be a significant moderator to shame and humor level interaction. Low FNEs favored humor ads over no-humor ads when shame induction was low but favored no-humor ads over humor ads when shame induction was high. This response pattern was in contrast to the patterns found for high FNEs. The results show the strongest humor benefits for socially anxious individuals (high FNEs) with high shame-inducing health issues. Theoretical and practical implications are given.