Protection motivation theory (PMT; Rogers 1983) was originally developed to explain how
people respond to fear-arousing health threat communications or `fear appeals.' It can be
regarded as an adaptation of the HBM. Protection motivation refers to the motivation to
protect oneself against a health threat; it is usually defined operationally as the intention to
adopt the recommended action. Of the determinants of intention specified by the model, the
four that have received the most empirical attention are vulnerability and severity (equivalent
to perceived susceptibility and severity in the HBM), response efficacy (the belief that the
recommended action is effective in reducing the threat), and perceived self-efficacy (the belief
that one can successfully perform the recommended action; Bandura 1997
). Thus, a person
will be more motivated to protect himself or herself (i.e., have a stronger intention to adopt
the recommended action) to the extent that he or she believes that the threat is likely if the
current course of action is continued, that the consequences will be serious if the threat
occurs, that the recommended action is effective in reducing the likelihood or the severity of
the threat, and that he or she is able to carry out the recommended action.
In many studies using this model (e.g., Wurtele and Maddux 1987
), specific PMT variables
are experimentally manipulated in a factorial design and their effects on intention (and
sometimes behavior) are measured. In fact, PMT is unique among social cognition models
with respect to the relatively large number of experimental tests that have been conducted.
To date, two meta-analyses of PMT studies have been conducted (Floyd et al. 2000
, Milne et
al. 2000). The analyses used different study inclusion criteria and different effect size
measures. Floyd et al. analyzed 65 studies with about 30,000 research participants whereas
Milne and colleagues included 27 studies with about 8,000 participants. There were only 12
studies in common. Both analyses found support for each of the mainPMT variables as
predictors of intentions and/or behavior. Self-efficacy had the strongest, most consistent, and