Fear Appeals in Anti-Knife Carrying Campaigns: Successful or Counter-Productive?

In the UK, knife crime continues to be a persistent and worrying concern. Media campaigns are often used by police and anti-knife crime organisations in an attempt to discourage young people from picking up a weapon. Many focus on the potentially devastating consequences associated with carrying a w...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Hobson, Zoë (VerfasserIn)
Beteiligte: Yesberg, Julia A. ; Bradford, Ben
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Veröffentlicht: 2022
In: Journal of interpersonal violence
Jahr: 2022, Band: 37, Heft: 23/24, Seiten: NP21573-NP21598
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Schlagwörter:
fear appeals
knife crime
media campaigns
mortality salience
Terror Management Theory
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:In the UK, knife crime continues to be a persistent and worrying concern. Media campaigns are often used by police and anti-knife crime organisations in an attempt to discourage young people from picking up a weapon. Many focus on the potentially devastating consequences associated with carrying a weapon, with the aim of provoking fear and thus a deterrent effect. In this paper, we present the findings from two experimental studies exploring the effects of exposure to fear-based knife crime media campaigns on young people?s intentions to engage in knife-carrying behaviour. Utilising a terror management theory perspective, in both studies we found that exposure to knife-related campaign imagery increased mortality salience, but there was no effect of campaign condition on willingness to carry a knife or on perceived benefits of knife-carrying. Although knife-related self-esteem/cultural worldviews predicted attitudes towards knife-carrying, such views did not moderate the effect of exposure to knife-related campaign imagery, and there was no effect of priming participants? to consider the value of behaving responsibly. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
ISSN:1552-6518
DOI:10.1177/08862605211064237