The Relative Effects of a Health-Based versus an Appearance-Based Intervention Designed to Increase Sunscreen Use

Abstract

As the incidence of all types of skin cancer continues to rise, 1 it is important to attempt to increase our arsenal of effective messages for convincing individuals to protect themselves against the primary risk factor for skin cancer: excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation. 2 Most educational messages, and most research, regarding safe-sun practices have focused on the risk of developing skin cancer) However, repeated sun exposure is also responsible for photoaging--premature aging of the skin in the form of wrinkles and age spots. The primary purpose of this experiment was to determine whether focusing on the appearance-based consequences (i.e., the prevention of photoaging) might be an effective technique for getting individuals to use sunscreen more frequently. Emphasizing the prevention of photoaging might be at least as effective for getting individuals to use sunscreen as emphasizing the prevention of skin cancer because (1) individuals may feel relatively more vulnerable to developing wrinkles and age spots because they are more common and more easily noticed4,5; (2) the motivation to get and maintain a tan has been demonstrated to be appearance-based4,6; thus, emphasizing the negative effects of sun exposure on appearance may be important for motivating protective measures; and (3) it may have more impact because the information is likely to be more novel. This study also sought to determine whether individu-