Tailoring Web Pages for Persuasion on Prevention Topics: Message Framing, Color Priming, and Gender

On the Web, as in more traditional influence contexts, the most effective persuasive strategies often depend on the individual characteristics of the message recipient. Unfortunately, most persuasive technology applications currently employ a one-size-fits-all approach to interventions. The study we illustrate investigates two different techniques (message framing and color priming) that can be used in tailoring a persuasive Web page about a prevention topic. The findings of our study highlight interactive effects between message framing and color priming, and advance the results in the literature by showing that red enhances the effects of framing in a gender-based fashion. The obtained results also provide practical guidance for automatic tailoring of persuasive Web pages about prevention topics, suggesting a strategy based on gender, an information about the user that is typically readily available in social network profiles, and other Web sites to which people register.