4.2. Practical Implications
breast cancer
BREAST CANCER
This research sheds light on Internet-based public health campaigns. First of all, to arouse the intention to recommend breast cancer screening, a high-threat message may not be the best option. A viable strategy is to avoid the boomerang effect or defensive avoidance that may be caused by overemphasizing threat [Furthermore, virality matters when inducing message involvement in the low-threat, high-efficacy message setting. Prior studies suggested that online messages that are emotionally charged or contain strong visual appeal [Besides, our results show that threat, efficacy, and virality, along with their interactions, are not directly associated with recommendation intention. Message involvement is indispensable to bridging the association. Hence, public health communicators’ duties are not limited to presenting tailored messages but also stimulating users to think messages over. To fulfill those duties, explicit cues to action need to be valued. For instance, some tips such as “If you find this article helpful, please leave a comment and share it with your friends” could be beneficial to prompt deeper thinking and facilitate health information diffusion.Additionally, the possibility of a bottom-up daughter-to-mother health communication process is further validated in the current study. Family members, especially offspring, are critical persuaders in breast cancer screening promotion—their involvement and endorsement make recommended health behaviors more credible [