Is a success story of an underdog more powerful than one of a similar other? examining effects of model similarity and success attribution on intention to exercise

ABSTRACTABSTRACTSuccess stories are often used to promote health behaviors. This study examined how different features of others’ success stories about achieving an exercise goal influence observers’ intentions to exercise. The specific factors examined were success stories’ model similarity (similar vs. underdog model) and success attribution type (internal vs. external attribution message) on individuals’ expectations of their success and intentions to exercise. The results of an online experiment (N = 282) showed that success stories of similar models led to greater success expectancy than those of underdog models through the increased perception of model similarity. Further, success stories focusing on external – as opposed to internal – attribution resulted in greater success expectancy through increased external attribution of models’ success. Success expectancy then increased intention to exercise. This study concludes by discussing the theoretical implications for social cognitive theory and attribution theory as well as practical implications for designing health promotion messages.KEYWORDS: Success storiesunderdog storiesmodel similarityattributionsuccess expectancy Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea [NRF-S-2021-2015-000].Notes on contributorsLihong QuanLihong Quan (M.A., Sungkyunkwan University) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Media and Communication at Sungkyunkwan University. Her research interests include health communication and computer-mediated communication.Sungeun ChungSungeun Chung (Ph.D., University of Maryland) is Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea. His research focuses on persuasion and social influence. His research has been published in the field’s premier journals including Communication Monographs, Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Health Communication and Media Psychology.Youllee KimYoullee Kim (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at University of Denver. Her research focuses on health communication, social influence, and community-based health interventions.Jiyeon SoJiyeon So (Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara) is an associate professor at the Department of Communication at Yonsei University. Her research focuses on health communication, persuasion, and unintended message effects.