Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-4000, USA.
Soc Sci Med. 2010 May;70(9):1441-9. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.12.036. Epub 2010 Feb 12.
After 14 years of rising death rates due to unintentional injuries in the U.S., it is time to ask how safety messages can be redesigned to have a greater impact on risky behavior. To this end, many researchers have called for a new, narrative approach to prevention messages-based on persuasive stories about people who have suffered injuries and illnesses in the past. Still, there is scant evidence that story-based communications are more effective than equivalent non-narrative messages at changing actual (rather than self-reported) safety and health behavior. Our research examined the impact of injury stories on actual safety behavior in a controlled experimental setting at a US university. Teams of participants assembled a product (a child's swing) using written instructions. The instructions contained safety messages targeting assembly mistakes that have been linked to serious injuries in children who play on swings. Participant teams were randomly assigned to three conditions: assembly instructions containing story-based safety messages, instructions with concrete (but non-anecdotal) safety messages, and instructions with traditional abstract safety messages. After adjustment for covariates, story-based messages resulted in a 19 percent improvement in safety behavior, compared with non-narrative communications. Importantly, injury stories did not create undue fear of the message object, demonstrating that brief anecdotes about accident victims can convince people to take reasonable precautions without creating unwarranted alarm about risks.
在美国，非故意伤害导致的死亡率持续上升 14 年后，是时候重新审视安全信息的设计方式了，以确保其对危险行为产生更大的影响。为此，许多研究人员呼吁采用一种新的、基于叙述的预防信息方法——以过去受伤和患病的人的引人入胜的故事为基础。尽管如此，几乎没有证据表明基于故事的传播在改变实际（而非自我报告的）安全和健康行为方面比同等的非叙事信息更有效。我们的研究在美国一所大学的控制实验环境中检验了伤害故事对实际安全行为的影响。参与者小组根据书面说明组装产品（儿童秋千）。说明中包含了针对组装错误的安全信息，这些错误与在秋千上玩耍的儿童的严重受伤有关。参与者小组被随机分配到三种条件：包含基于故事的安全信息的说明、包含具体（但非轶事）安全信息的说明以及包含传统抽象安全信息的说明。在调整协变量后，基于故事的信息使安全行为提高了 19%，与非叙事信息相比。重要的是，伤害故事并没有造成对信息对象的不必要恐惧，这表明关于事故受害者的简短轶事可以说服人们采取合理的预防措施，而不会对风险产生不必要的恐慌。
