Influence of cultural values on Asian women’s perceptions about gynecological exams and the effects of message-culture congruency in message framing of PSA promoting gynecological exams.

Abstract

This study (1) examined the differences in cultural values and gynecological health-related perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors between Asian and Anglo American groups; and (2) tested the effects of message-culture congruency in a health advertising campaign targeting Asians, by comparing the recipients’ responses to culturallycongruent message framing vs. culturally-incongruent message framing. An experiment was conducted with a group of Asian women and a group of Anglo American women, using three different advertising messages promoting gynecological exams: (1) a message focused on preventing a disease that does not carry strong social stigma for Asian women (i.e., cervical cancer) was considered a culturally-congruent message; (2) a message focused on preventing a disease that carries great social stigma and is considered a taboo for Asian women (i.e., STDs) was considered a culturally-incongruent message; and (3) a message focused on preventing common gynecological problems without mentioning any particular symptoms or diseases was considered a culturally-neutral message, and served as the control condition. The findings suggest that Asians, compared to Anglo Americans, held stronger cultural values emphasizing collectivism, women’s traditional roles, and chastity, showed lower levels of perceived susceptibility to STDs, exhibited greater social stigma and barrier to getting gynecological exams, and had lower prior gynecological exam rates. Additionally, culturally more sensitive or congruent message framing tends to generate better communication outcomes among Asian women. In particular, the culturallycongruent message, compared to the culturally-incongruent message, was more effective in generating more message-related cognitive responses, more positive attitudes toward getting gynecological exams, and higher behavioral intention to get gynecological exams for the Asian group. However, such message-culture congruency effects were not observed for the Anglo American group.