“Just as if it Happened to Me”: The Impact of Vivid and Self-Relevant Information on Risk Judgments

Campaigns to make people aware of their susceptibility to health and safety risks reflect the assumption that people's perception of susceptibility can be influenced by exposure to information about such risks. However, such attempts to encourage precautionary behavior are seldom effective in influencing people's personal risk judgments. Tyler and Cook's (1984) impersonal impact hypothesis and Weinstein's (1980) work on unrealistic optimism suggest that information campaigns can only exert influence on societal level judgments, but not on personal level judgments (people's beliefs about their personal lives). Based on the notion that direct experience of harm is often a powerful stimulus to action, the two studies reported in this article demonstrate that indirect experience may be as powerful as direct experience when it shares some of its properties. The results of these studies show that vivid and self-relevant information can influence both personal and societal level judgments. Implications for use of risk information in public service campaigns are discussed.