Using role sets to engage and persuade visitors of websites that promote safe sex.
Steehouder, M. (2007). Using role sets to engage and persuade visitors of websites that promote safe sex. In: G. Hayhoe and H. Grady (Eds). Connecting People with Technology: Issues in Professional Communication. Amityville. NY: Baywood.
Promoting safe sexual behavior is difficult because of the face threatening nature of such messages. Too much facework involves the risk of the message to become unclear and noncommittal, while too little facework might end in the reader resisting the message, and even boomerang effects (reactance). In this paper, it is argued that creating appropriate author and reader roles (role sets) might be an effective way to escape from this dilemma. Some examples are analyzed to identify different role sets and to discuss how they can help. The paper concludes with some considerations on the effect of creating role sets on the persuasiveness of websites.
The research is part of the Epidasa project. Click here to learn more about this project.
This article is a revised version of the paper presented at the International Professional Communication Conference (IPCCC) 2005 in Limerick. Click here to se details about this paper
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