Abstract
The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States. In June of 2006, a vaccine aimed to protect young women against major strands of the HPV virus was licensed. Although the vaccine is widely available, an insufficient number of young women have taken the necessary steps to get the vaccine so that they might protect their health. One strategy to increase the number of young women getting the vaccine is to engage in a persuasive message campaign. Message framing is one persuasive strategy that health communication scholars have found to be effective in positively changing health behavior attitudes and intentions. The current thesis examined the potential interaction effect between message framing (loss vs. gain) and perceived action risk (low vs. high), on attitudes towards and behavioral intentions to get the HPV vaccine. This study utilized a 2x2 factorial experimental design in which message framing (loss vs. gain) and perceived action risk (low vs. high), were manipulated. In addition to the four experimental conditions, a no message control group was utilized as a baseline comparison. Participants consisted of 475 female students, of which 373 fulfilled the screening requirements and were included in the main experiment. These data indicate no interaction effect between message framing and perceived action risk on attitudes towards and behavioral intentions to get the HPV vaccine. Furthermore, no main effect for message framing was revealed. However, a main effect for perceived action risk was found with each of the outcome variables. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.