Mitigating Identity Threat in Health Messaging
A Social Identity Complexity Perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21617313 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xun Zhu (0000-0003-1000-8324, University of Kentucky, corresponding author), Youllee Kim (0000-0001-9843-5712, University of Denver) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 608-619 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Health Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1041-0236 • E-ISSN: 1532-7027 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/10410236.2024.2358275 |
| PMID | 38778581 |
| OpenAlex | W4398287220 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 42 |
Health messages aiming to reduce red meat consumption may threaten multiple social identities because people’s dietary choices are intertwined with personal, social, and cultural aspects of their lives. Leveraging social identity theory and the concept of social identity complexity, this experiment tested how identity-threatening messages affect people’s intention to reduce red meat consumption and how the effect of identity threat may be moderated by messages highlighting the relationships between multiple identities that define a person. Participants (N = 409) read messages that varied identity threat (i.e. the extent to which people feel devalued because of their membership in a social group) and identity complexity (i.e. the extent to which people perceive multiple identities as independent). The study found that identity-threatening messages decreased intentions to reduce red meat consumption when people perceived their dietary identity as overlapping with other identities, but increased the intentions when the dietary identity was seen as independent from other identities. Further, the effects of identity threat and complexity were limited to people with high (vs. low) levels of red meat consumption. We discuss the role of identity complexity in alleviating identity threat and increasing persuasion
Identity formation · Persuasion · Self-concept · Social group · Social identity approach · Social identity theory · Sociology · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Communication · Computer Science · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
Antecedents and Consequences of Social Identity Complexity
Weighed Down by Stigma
Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis
Self and Social Identity
Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations
Too close for comfort
Are We More Reactive to Persuasive Health Messages When They Appear in Our Customized Interfaces? The Role of Sense of Identity and Sense of Control
Are You Threatening Me? Identity Threat, Resistance to Persuasion, and Boomerang Effects in Environmental Communication
Identification With Characters and Discussion of Taboo Topics After Exposure to an Entertainment Narrative About Sexual Health
Social Identity Complexity
Rediscovering the Social Group
Social Identity Complexity and Outgroup Tolerance
A meta-analysis of weight stigma and health behaviors
How Americans eat red and processed meat
Reducing meat consumption in the USA
Complex Social Identities and Intergroup Relations
Intergroup attitudes between meat-eaters and meat-avoiders
Reducing Group Alignment in Factual Disputes? The Limited Effects of Social Identity Interventions
Social Identity, Self-Categorization, and the Communication of Group Norms
Message Properties, Mediating States, and Manipulation Checks
The unified model of vegetarian identity
Explaining intention to reduce red and processed meat in the UK and Italy using the theory of planned behaviour, meat-eater identity, and the Transtheoretical model
Meat, myself, and I
Perceived Message Effectiveness of the Meatless Monday Campaign
Resistance to persuasion as self-regulation
Self-uncertainty, social identity prominence and group identification
Correlational study and randomised controlled trial for understanding and changing red meat consumption
Social movements as agents of change
Anthropological Perspectives on Diet
Attitude Change in Hierarchical Belief Systems and Its Relationship to Persuasibility, Dogmatism, and Rigidity
When Similarity Strikes Back
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |