1. Moderated Mediation
It was hypothesized that the effectiveness of health appeals would vary as a function of whether the appeal was a detection or prevention appeal and what incidental emotional state the recipient was in.
Four emotions were investigated: positive, certain emotions (happiness); negative, certain emotions (disgust); positive uncertain emotions (hope); and negative uncertain emotions (anxiety).
The appeal encouraged taking a supplement that would help detect or prevent high blood pressure. The dependent variable was intention to get tested for high blood pressure.
Two mediators of the predicted effect on persuasion were considered:
Positive thinking
Risk seeking

2. Moderated mediation (cont’d)
The specific hypotheses tested were as follows:
For detection appeals
positive thinking will mediate the effect of emotional valence on persuasion in the case of uncertain emotions and
risk seeking will mediate the effect of emotional valence on persuasion in the case of certain emotions.
For prevention appeals incidental emotions will have no effect on persuasion.