Effects of Gain- and Loss-Framed Quit Messages on Smokers: Test of the Ability to Process the Health Message as a Moderator.

Health messages can emphasize the benefits of engaging in healthy behavior (gain-framed) or the costs of failing to engage in it (loss-framed). Previous research revealed that gain-framed messages tend to be more effective in motivating smokers to quit. As a supplement to previous studies, we questioned whether the ability to process health messages moderates the size of the gain-frame advantage.