Discussion
SE, cognitive and affective, eating disorders, cognitive, affective, and behavioural
As measures of pre-test muscularity, weight, and shape dissatisfaction were unrelated to interest in men, a univariate ANOVA was conducted to examine the differences between video conditions on interest. There was no significant effect of video condition on interest, As measures of pre-test weight satisfaction, shape satisfaction, and muscularity satisfaction were related to relevance in men, an ANCOVA controlling for these variables was conducted to examine the differences between video conditions on relevance. Pre-test shape satisfaction was significantly related to relevance; Holm corrections revealed that the information only video (M = 70.61, SE = 2.18) resulted in significantly greater relevance than the narrative only video (M = 59.93, SE = 2.18; adjusted As measures of pre-test muscularity, weight, and shape dissatisfaction were unrelated to compassion in men, a univariate ANOVA was conducted to examine the differences between video conditions on compassion. There was a significant effect of video condition on compassion, The aim of this study was to compare participants’ reported engagement with different forms of persuasive communication about body dissatisfaction, focusing on informational, narrative, and direct persuasive appeal. We proposed two research questions. The first was whether a particular persuasive approach resulted in superior engagement over other approaches in the context of body dissatisfaction mental health literacy. It was found that there was some advantage for both persuasive appeals and information-only approaches over a narrative approach for both gender groups, and some advantage for the information approach with the addition of a persuasive appeal for men. The second was to understand whether different persuasive communication approaches impacted cognitive, affective, and behavioural domains of engagement differently. It was found that there were some domains impacted differently depending on the communication approach, in particular for cognitive and affective domains.Overall, while all communication types were engaging, there appeared to be some advantage for persuasive appeals and informational videos across both men and women. This is only partially consistent with the previous literature around persuasive communication, which has found benefits overall for both informational and narrative approaches [The benefits observed from viewing a persuasive appeal (relative to the narrative videos) are a novel finding, as to our knowledge the effects of viewing a standalone persuasive appeal were previously unexamined in the literature. This finding may indicate that the nature of a persuasive appeal is appropriate for use on social media or in other forms of media. The message is short, clear, and action-based, giving viewers a specific call to action to learn more about body dissatisfaction as an important mental health issue. This appeal bears resemblance to very successful strategies commonly used in social media (e.g. call to action) which are intended to generate engagement [Different impacts on domains of engagement were found, which were partially consistent with literature on processing communication [Inconsistent with theories of processing and attitude bases [Notably, although short videos showed differences for compassion and relevance (for men) and compassion (for women), no videos appeared to produce superior results in all domains of engagement across genders. This finding is not especially concerning in itself, particularly when examining the findings for relevance and interest in women (i.e., both relevance and interest were fairly high among women regardless of video condition). It should be of note, however, that interest (i.e., behavioural engagement) was moderate among men, which may indicate less intent to engage with body image content more generally as body dissatisfaction and eating disorders are perceived to be feminine issues [The findings of this study have implications for social marketing campaigns within the body image field, and research into their efficacy. First, it is clear that further research exploring the impact of persuasive appeals should be conducted, as they were more engaging than narrative approaches within some contexts. Second, contextualising the current study’s findings with our previous work, social marketing campaigns that aim to educate and promote awareness through engagement may take a different approach from those aimed at improving body satisfaction. There may be some advantages to informational and persuasive appeals relative to narrative approaches within the context of engagement. Campaigns may wish to use expert information, or direct appeals to the audience, particularly to generate interest online. Third, research should further examine the impact of particular persuasive communication approaches on domains of engagement. For instance, a call to action may best be used to impact affective engagement. Further examination of persuasive communication approaches on specific domains of engagement would be beneficial for social marketers and researchers.