Introduction
At the Appalachia in West Virginia, the miners were an interest group. They worked in places that caused them to experience noise pollution. As a result, a majority of them had hearing problems. The research would seek to determine if they voluntarily accept the hearing protection aids.
In America, more than 30 million citizens experience noise pollution. In fact, there is a belief that as long as one is a worker, he or she will have a hearing problem sometime in his or her lifetime. Once the occupational hearing problem sets in, the patient experiences social isolation and the inability to take safety precautions.
Other Studies
However, there were new noise standards established towards the end of the year 2000. The Mine Safety and Health Administration now sets the new noise standards for the employers of miners. With the support of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, there was a study to develop voluntary behaviors among the coal miners (Stephenson et al., 2009). The study used persuasive messages in the research. Whereas there were very few sources to determine the use of positive, persuasive messages, the availability of fear appeals was immense (Kai, 2010).
The study explored the effectiveness of positive, negative, and neutral effects of persuasive appeals (Kai, 2010). The three appeals could be effective on the addictiveness to hearing protective behaviors, attitudes, and intentions of Appalachian coal miners (Stephenson et al., 2009). They would also be critical for the defensive mechanisms that relate to defensive avoidance, perceived manipulation, and message derogation. For effective research, there was a need for a fourth control group with a no-message.
The affect-based persuasive messages had three camps. The research on the rational-emotional attitudes towards adverts and life seemed not to be providing conclusive evidence. But the negative or fear-based message researchers appear to have had a field day. The fear arousing messages have worked well to provide adaptive behaviors. They help to bring up beneficial health outcomes when it comes to AIDS and cancer.
Another research dealt with discrete emotions like anger, fear, and happiness. The discovery was that the more negative emotions led people to action more than happy messages. The effectiveness of the negative messages is very high in the three studies.
Persuasion skills vary with mood. One would need a strong argument to persuade a sad person. On the contrary, a weak argument would easily sway a happy person (Stephenson et al., 2009). Negative fear-based messages work more effectively to persuade someone and elicit the change of behavior than positive ones.
The Coal Mine Study
At the coal mine, three message types were available for use to determine their effectiveness towards increasing hearing –protection behaviors (Kai, 2010). They were positive, negative, and neutral messages. A no-message experimental control group was available to provide sufficient report. The study produced postcards with messages to provoke behavior in the coal miners.
Conclusion
The answers to this research contributed to new knowledge about the efficacy of different emotional appeals. The study assessed actual behaviors. The positive and neutral messages were more successful than the negative ones. The no message control condition also performed fairly better than negative words. Intentions of people propelled behavior. The positive and neutral affect words also help to elicit and maintain the health protective behaviors.
References
Kai, L. (2010). Proceedings of the 2009 international conference on chemical, biological and environmental engineering, CBEE 2009, Singapore, 2009. Singapore, Singapore: World Scientific Pub. Co.
Stephenson, M., Quick, B., Witte, K., Vaught, C., Booth-Butterfield, S., & Patel, D. (2009). Conversations among coal miners in a campaign to promote hearing protection. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 37(3), 317-337.