Marketing AIDS Prevention: The Differential Impact Hypothesis Versus Identification Effects

Abstract

Social marketing may be used to change people's AIDS risk perceptions. Two competing hypotheses address those perceptions. First, the impersonal impact hypothesis proposes that mass communication affects judgments of societal risk while interpersonal communication affects judgments of personal risk. Second, the differential impact hypothesis proposes that the media affect personal risk judgments when the message involves a personalized depiction. Identification is proposed as the mechanism. These predictions were investigated in two studies of Magic Johnson's announcement that he was HIV positive. The first study compared the effects of naturally occurring mass and interpersonal communication. The second study assigned students to watch tapes of the news story or to participate in interpersonal discussion. The results are generally inconsistent with the differential impact hypothesis. Because respondents’ identification with Magic Johnson was a determinant and mediator of social and personal concern in both studies, the results support the importance of the identification process.