Fear Appeals Fear Is a

Fear Appeals Fear is a natural response that each normal human being has and will always express when the conditions facilitate the expression of the response.

It is a profound response that great people like Franklin Roosevelt indicated and firmly believed that the only thing that Americans should fear is fear itself in his famous First Inaugural address, he is widely quoted as having said that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance" (Fred Culberston, 2011). This aspect of fear has been used in various places to help manipulate the outcome from an individual or a group of people.

It has been used to encourage, discourage, impact positivity as well as discourage negativity. Fear has proven to be a weapon that can be used in various directions. One of the fronts that the fear factor has been effectively used is in the changing of the behaviors of people trough inducing fear into them. The advertisers of harmful products like tobacco and alcohol will always try to sail their advertisements in the direct opposite direction to fear.

They will include lines that are likely to paint an easy life and fun in their advertisements. This is because they are aware that fear can easily deter people from talking their products, or even paying attention to their advertisements. Fear can therefore be harvested and used in changing the behaviors of people. Peer educators, the health programs and the positive change agencies have widely used the fear appeal to attract people out of these harmful behaviors. According to Kaylene C.

Williams (n.d), the fear appeal has three main components that make it an effective tool in changing behavior or habit; fear, threat and perceived efficacy. Fear is the negative emotion, threat being the external stimulus that brings out the perception among the listeners that they are exposed to some negative situation or outcome, perceived efficacy is the belief that the content of the message will be effective in the listener who will implement the message hence reduce the threat.

Fear appeal has been used in persuading people to change using some substances that are harmful to health like tobacco. This has been done by having universally agreed upon diagrams and pictures to convey the message. There are ugly diagrams for instance; with the body organs badly damaged used to discourage people from smoking and showing them the extent to which smoking can damage the organs of the body. These diagrams and the talk or explanation that follows exploit the fears that the.