Denial of a sleep deprivation message: situational and dispositional influences on message rejection.

Two studies investigated situational and dispositional influences on rejection of a sleep deprivation warning message for young adults. The hassle of protection (Study 1) and the self-relevance of the problem (Study 2) were manipulated; the disposition to use denial (threat orientation) for warning messages was measured. In both studies, it was found that both dispositional denial and the situational manipulation (more protection-hassle or self-relevance) showed at least one denial effect by reducing perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, or credibility.

Monogamy, the Protective Fallacy: Sexual versus Emotional Exclusivity and the Implication for Sexual Health Risk.

The authors examined the hypothesis that many individuals define monogamy based on emotional rather than sexual fidelity. Participants, 373 heterosexual college students and 282 gay men, read three vignettes of decreasing mitigation in which they imagined committing an act of infidelity against a hypothetical partner and where half the participants were cued to their emotional attachment toward the partner. Despite the infidelity, relationships in the emotional attachment-cued vignettes were rated as monogamous to a greater degree than relationships in the vignettes where emotional attachment was not cued.

Undermining optimistic denial reactions to domestic and campus emergency warning messages.

Background: Individuals who prepare for public emergencies can mitigate the effects of an incident, but denial of personal susceptibility may reduce the likelihood of preparation. Some denial may be due to a positive self-image that is at odds with being "at risk". The potential for an enhanced warning message that included a positive image of a protector to circumvent this denial was tested in two studies.

Avoidance denial versus optimistic denial in reaction to the threat of future cardiovascular disease.

Two distinctly different denial-based threat orientations (avoidance denial and optimistic denial) were examined using a message about the future risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) for young adults. Participants (N = 101) completed measures of denial-based dispositional threat orientations, current eating, comparative risk, and objective risk for CVD. They then read a high-threat message about CVD and rated their reactions of threat, denial, and worry.

Reactions to a health threat: dispositional threat orientations and message characteristics.

Objectives: This study explored the interactive effects of dispositional threat orientation, type of message, and having children on reactions to a message about exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics.

Design: The study used a 2 (message: Fear Arousal or Plain)×2 (parenting status: child or no child)×2 (threat orientation: high or low) mixed factorial design.

Methods: Adults (N= 200) recruited via the Internet completed measures of threat orientations, reported whether they were a parent, and read either a low or high fear-arousal message about the risks of BPA exposure.

Psychological predictors of college students' cell phone use while driving.

Despite the known risk, many people talk on a phone while driving. This study explored psychological predictors of cell phone use while driving. College students (final N=69) completed a survey and predicted their driving performance both with and without a simultaneous phone conversation.

Control, denial, and heightened sensitivity reactions to personal threat: testing the generalizability of the threat orientation approach.

The threat orientation model proposes three dispositional responses to threats: control, heightened sensitivity, and denial. Two studies explored the psychometric properties of the previously developed threat orientation scales and the relationship between the orientations and the responses to a variety of threats. Study 1 found that the control-based and heightened sensitivity-based scales are reliable and were related to perceptions of health, financial, and terrorist threats with a nationally representative sample.

The measurement of threat orientations.

Objective: To develop measures of 3 threat orientations that affect responses to health behavior messages.

Method: In Study 1, college students (N = 47) completed items assessing threat orientations and health behaviors. In Study 2, college students and community adults (N = 110) completed the threat orientation items and measures of convergent and discriminant validity.

Increasing condom use by undermining perceived invulnerability to HIV.

An intervention to increase condom use by undermining perceptions of invulnerability to HIV was tested in a sample of 128 college students. Participants were randomly assigned to the invulnerability undermined (IU) condition or a demand characteristic control (DCC) condition. The IU condition used tasks that highlighted past failures to protect oneself and the failure of illusory protection strategies.