The effectiveness of targeted visuals: Improving awareness of acral lentiginous melanoma among Hispanic and African American participants

Acral lentiginous melanoma (ALM) is an aggressive type of melanoma that disproportionally impacts people of color, with rising incidence among Hispanic/Latino populations and the highest mortality rate among African Americans. Given these disparities, innovative strategies for communicating ALM risk are critically needed, especially to Hispanics/Latinos and African Americans. To address this need, the current study investigated the implications of targeted visuals to conveying ALM risk for Hispanic/Latino and African American participants through a 3 (Skin tone of models in patient education materials: white, light brown, or dark brown) × 2 (Race/Ethnicity of the participants: Hispanic/Latino vs. African American) message experiment. The findings revealed that Hispanic/Latino participants reported higher ALM knowledge when they were exposed to patient education materials depicting light or dark brown models, whereas African American participants performed better with either dark brown or white skin models. Additionally, there was an indirect effect of exposure to the patient education materials on ALM knowledge via memorability for Hispanic/Latino participants. The findings align with the theorizing on demographic targeting and memorable messages as both Hispanic/Latino and African American populations responded more positively to targeted models and memorability once again materialized as the key mechanism of effect.