tend to (a) identify socially‐appropriate expectations and adapt to them, and (b) seek to fit in with others, which results in them behaving differently in public versus private environments (DeBono 2006a, 2006b). High self‐monitors are easily influenced by advertising tactics that help them fit in (DeBono and Packer 1991; Shavitt, Lowrey, and Han 1992; Snyder and DeBono 1985), and they are more willing to try and maintain favorable attitudes toward products that help them look socially appropriate (DeBono and Packer 1991; Snyder and DeBono 1985). They need to look good in others’ eyes (Smith, Lair, and O'Brien 2019), they are notorious status seekers (Fuglestad and Snyder 2010), and impression managers (Kudret, Erdogan, and Bauer 2019), extrinsically motivated buyers (Shao, Grace, and Ross 2019), and more easily persuaded by attractive sources over expert sources (Evans and Clark 2012). In many respects, high self‐monitors are similar to individuals with high impression‐relevant involvement (Johnson and Eagly 1989). Conversely, low self‐monitors are less driven by social expectations or belonging, and their public and private behaviors are quite consistent with each other (DeBono 2006a, 2006b). Given these contrasts, health messages tailored to high self‐monitors ought to emphasize public gratification for the individual, improved social image, status, and need for belonging, and should be delivered by attractive sources. Such messages may involve a public pledge or affiliation with a visible cause, such as Susan G. Komen’s breast cancer awareness’ pink merchandize and fundraising runs (Susan G. Komen Foundation, n.d.), as well as organ donation logos and blood donation stickers for recognition. When addressing low self‐monitors, health communication campaigns may focus on intrinsically derived values, satisfaction, and using an expert source. Individuals with a range of self‐monitoring tendencies can create a host of challenges and opportunities for our priority audience. The final individual difference variable discussed in this chapter is sensation seeking.
Sensation Seeking
Sensation seeking refers to people’s need to satisfy their desire for stimulating, exciting, and novel experiences (Zuckerman 1994). Individuals high in sensation seeking enjoy such experiences as riding extreme thrill rides (e.g. sky diving), and as a result, experience what they describe as a “rush” (Bardo, Donohew, and Harrington 1996). Since sensation seekers enjoy novel and intense experiences, they seek gratification in taking financial, legal, physical, and social risks (Zuckerman 1979, 1994). With relation to health behaviors, sensation seekers engage in risky behaviors such as drug use (Donohew 1990) and unsafe sexual activity (Donohew et al. 2000). Given their need and desire to perform risky behaviors, not surprisingly, sensation seeking has been recognized by health communication researchers and practitioners as an effective audience segmentation variable (e.g. Palmgreen et al. 2001).
The activation model of information exposure provides the theoretical framework for much of sensation seeking research (Donohew, Lorch, and Palmgreen 1998; Donohew, Palmgreen, and Duncan 1980), which stipulates that an individual has an ideal level of arousal at which they feel optimal comfort and that individuals seek to achieve and maintain this level of arousal when they are in situations of information exposure. Stephenson (2002) argued that individuals will continue paying attention to a stimulus that meets their arousal threshold. Otherwise, they look for another source of excitement to fulfill such a need. Therefore, the activation model of information exposure provides an explanation of how low and high sensation seekers react differently to health campaign messages, such that messages with structural and content features that are adequately arousing will appeal more to sensation seekers, whereas non‐sensation seekers may attend more to messages that cater more to their optimal level of arousal. Donohew, Lorch, and Palmgreen (1991) assert that “only when the message satisfies a desired level of arousal that individuals are likely to stay with it” (p. 207). It follows that a marketing message that appeals to non‐sensation seekers may not be adequately stimulating for sensation seekers to maintain attention to it. Conversely, messages that sensation seekers find stimulating may be perceived as too arousing by non‐sensation seekers. Hence, perceived message sensation is a determinant of the attention to and processing of messages.
Sensation seeking has also been studied in the contexts of HIV/AIDS prevention messages (Hull and Hong 2016), risky driving behaviors (Lemarié, Bellavance, and Chebat 2019; Zhang, Qu, Tao, and Xue 2019), student procrastination (Chen 2019), food supplement use (Hatch et al. 2019), and body piercing (Hong and Lee 2017). Among these studies, previous research investigated the role of sensation seeking on message processing with some finding no difference between low and high sensation seekers (Stephenson and Palmgreen 2001) and others reporting an interaction between sensation seeking and message processing and attitude (Stephenson 2002). An explanation for the mixed findings lies in topic differences. Stephenson (2002) argued that message topics which normally have more severe consequences tend to be of a higher sensation value. Messages considered high in sensation value are characterized as being dramatic, emotional, and novel (Palmgreen et al. 2001). On the other hand, messages with less severe consequences may be of a moderate sensation value, which makes it harder to detect message processing differences between low and high sensation seekers. Much like the previous individual difference variables introduced in this chapter, we see sensation seeking as an important segmentation variable to consider when advocating the health consequences associated with performing a risky behaviors.
Conclusion
Carefully disseminating promotional messages to the priority audience can be improved by considering the role of the individual difference variables. For decades, social marketing professionals have recognized the value of targeting specific audience segments in the greatest need of a behavioral change (Lee 2016; Lee and Kotler 2020). The impetus behind the current chapter is not to do away with or discourage tailoring messages to a specific audience segment based on demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral variables. Rather, we are advocating for a handful of individual difference variables to be considered as additional audience segmentation variables, with a history of moderating how an audience processes promotional messages. Specifically, future health campaigns should consider segmenting priority audiences along the dimensions of involvement (Petty and Cacioppo 1979), health literacy (Aldoory 2017), locus of control (Rotter 1966), reactance proneness (Hong and Faedda 1996), self‐monitoring (Briñol and Petty 2015; Snyder 1979), and sensation seeking (Zuckerman 1979). Inclusion of these factors will likely shed light into a more nuanced understanding of the priority audiences’ perceived barriers, benefits, and competition as each relate to the desired behavior (Andreasen 1995). With a greater understanding of these factors, social marketers and health campaign professionals’ ability to design, implement, and evaluate campaigns will only improve (Finnell and John 2017).
References
1 Aldoory, L. (2017). The status of health literacy research in health communication and opportunities for future scholarship. Health Communication, 32, 211–218. doi:10.1080/10410236.2015.1114065
2 Allport, G. W. (1943). The ego in contemporary psychology. Psychological Review, 50, 451– 478. doi:10.1037/h0055375
3 Ancker, J. S., Grossman, L. V., & Benda, N. C. (2019). Health literacy 2030: Is it time to redefine the term?” Journal of General Internal Medicine. doi:10.1007/s11606‐019‐05472‐y
4 Andreasen, A. R. (1995). Marketing social change: Changing behavior to promote health, social development, and the environment. San Francisco, CA: Jossey‐Bass.
5 Armitage, C. J. (2003). The relationship between multidimensional health locus of control and perceived behavioural control: How are distal perceptions of control related to proximal perceptions of control? Psychology & Health, 18(6), 723–738. doi:10.1080/0887044031000141216
6 Atkin, C. K., & Salmon, C. (2013). Persuasive strategies in health campaigns. In J. P. Dillard & L. Shen (Eds.), The Sage handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice (pp. 278–295). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
7 Bardo, M., Donohew, L., & Harrington, N. G. (1996). Psychobiology of novelty‐seeking and drugseeking behaviour. Brain and Behaviour, 77, 23–43. doi:10.1016/0166‐4328(95)00203‐0
8 Berkman,