Appealing to fear to promote self-care behaviors for stress: a web-based experimental study in middle-aged workers

Objective To experimentally investigate whether appealing to fear promotes Internet behaviors for stress and mental health in workers who highly underestimate the risk of stress. Methods Fearful and non-fearful information on stress and depression were provided to 424 middle-aged male workers with high stress underestimation in web settings (fear and control conditions). Immediately after the provision of the information, four web links were presented to test whether the participants approached information on stress and mental health (Internet behavior survey). Furthermore, their emotional reactions to the information provided and their performance on the recall test conducted a month later were investigated. Results In the analyses for all participants ( n = 424), there were no significant differences in any outcomes between the control and fear conditions, but in analyses for participants with a certain level of depressive symptoms (K6 score ≥ 1, n = 211), participants in the fear condition exhibited stronger emotional reactions (e.g., anxiety) and approached information on stress and mental health than participants in the control condition. There were no significant differences in the performance on the recall test between the two conditions. Conclusions Appealing to fear could be effective in facilitating Internet behaviors in the context of promoting self-care behaviors for stress and mental health in middle-aged male workers with high stress underestimation and a certain level of depressive symptoms.