Do fear-arousing messages work? A social psychologist would probably say, "It depends." It depends on what?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: It depends on how much fear is aroused. If fear is strong enough to motivate people to attend (e.g., films about lung cancer shown to smokers), people will attend and process message contents centrally, so strong arguments will work well. If, however, too much fear is induced, people will grow defensive and will not attend or process the arguments, so few if any messages of any kind will work. It also depends on whether the message contains useful information. Fear-arousing messages can work well when they are accompanied by information that explains to the audience what to do to avoid a fear-arousing outcome (e.g., providing information on how to quit smoking).