= 504), US adults viewed an activism message shared by a racial minority group member addressing racial bias in mental health care. Results showed that a high (vs. low) anger appeal directly increased policy support and indirectly enhanced both policy support and activism intention through message-elicited anger. Also, an efficacy cue independently promoted activism intention. Additionally, a significant three-way interaction emerged: Racially minoritized participants reported the strongest activism intention when a high anger appeal was paired with efficacy information. These findings contribute to the persuasion literature by revealing an identity-based boundary condition of anger appeal and provide practical implications for advocacy messaging in addressing mental health inequities.
Yang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.