The Linear Interaction Model of Personality Effects in Health Communication

The recent growth of research in message tailoring has opened up new avenues for researchers to use personality variables for message delivery. This article builds on research on idiocentrism and self-monitoring to propose a framework for message appeal construction. Based on a scheme for appeal categorization borrowed from commercial marketing, the article suggests that low and high idiocentrics differ from each other in the way they respond to appeal types. Similarly, significant differences are demonstrated between low and high self-monitors in the realm of their response to message appeals. A linear interaction model is proposed to document the combined effects of self-monitoring and idiocentrism.