The relationship between audience mentality and attitudes towards healthy lifestyle promotion in the mass media

Abstract

Health promoters who use the mass media to encourage people to change their health behaviours usually underestimate the importance of audience’s mental predispositions, which may determine their susceptibility to such influences. This paper presents research findings that show how some elements of an audience’s mentality are related to their attitudes towards healthy lifestyle promotion in the mass media (HLPMM). The research project, undertaken between 2007 and 2009, comprised: a qualitative study using in-depth interviews ( N=30); a self-administered survey on a purposive sample ( N=237) and a computer-assisted personal interview or interviewing (CAPI) survey on a representative sample of Polish adult population ( N=934). The findings from the first two studies were used to construct a scale to investigate the attitude towards HLPMM. This scale was applied in a nation wide survey and, as a result, four dimensions of the attitude were identified: (1) appraisal of the idea of HLPMM; (2) appraisal of HLPMM practice; (3) propensity to receive media messages promoting healthy lifestyle and (4) propensity to avoid such messages. Moreover, the survey results confirmed the hypotheses whereby a higher degree of individualism, a higher degree of authoritarianism, a weaker demanding orientation and generalised trust are related to a more positive attitude towards HLPMM. The aforementioned relationships indicate that producers of media messages promoting a healthy lifestyle need to take account of their audience’s mentality, since knowledge of mental predispositions of the target audience may help them make the message more suitable for specific recipients.