Regulatory Focus and Efficacy of Health Messages

Two studies support the premise that a person’s regulatory focus determines the salience of self-efficacy (perceived ease) or response efficacy (perceived effec-tiveness) of health behaviors. The findings indicate greater regulatory-efficacy fit (experiment 1) and higher intentions to perform the advocated behaviors (exper-iment 2) when self-efficacy features are paired with promotion focus and when response efficacy features are paired with prevention focus. The data support the premise that self-efficacy is weighed more than response efficacy when the reg-ulatory focus is promotion, whereas the reverse is true in prevention regulatory focus. People typically ask two questions when faced with anattempt to change health-related behaviors: Will the new behavior give me what I want (and not give me what I don’t want)? And can I undertake the behavior (Bandura 1982; Rogers 1975)? The literature suggests that the second ap-praisal, self-efficacy, is more closely associated with inten-tions to perform a new health behavior than the first ap-