The Role of Agency and Threat-Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals

Aims: The first aim of the study was to assess the effect of agency, i.e. the perception of making meaningful decisions, in an interactive digital narrative fear appeal on self-efficacy beliefs concerning the ability to reduce alcohol intake among college students. Second, we assessed whether the communicated timeframe (short-term / long-term) of the threat presented in the narrative moderates the effect of agency on self-efficacy. Lastly, to validate the effect of the intervention on behavioural outcomes we assesed whether self-efficacy has an effect on behavioural intention measures. The study was a 2 (agency: low / high) x 2 (time-frame: immediate / distant) between-subjects online experiment.