What makes a video promoting tobacco cessation effective?

What is it about?

Some have argued that to make a video message effective requires the message to be high in sensation seeking (SS) qualities that can draw the attention of the viewer. We have found that in the context of smoking cessation, such videos are actually not as effective as ones that simply contain good arguments that are explained in a non-confusing manner. High SS videos may sacrifice persuasiveness for attention getting properties. The present study demonstrates that videos with strong arguments gain their persuasiveness by integrating the audio with the video content and that this shows up in the connectivity between audio and video processing centers in the brain while viewing smoking cessation videos.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The study provides guidance for the development of smoking cessation videos and encourages designers of such messages to not sacrifice the coherence of a message for the sake of grabbing the viewer's attention.