12 Hope Appeals: Persuasive Hope Theory
Amber K. Worthington
Acknowledgements: The examples used in this chapter were provided by Jordan Q. Ahgeak. The examples were adapted for use in this chapter by the author.
Hope has the potential to persuade people to adopt various behaviors. Indeed, hope is a discrete, future-oriented emotion that can motivate people’s behavior by focusing their thoughts on opportunities to achieve future rewards (Chadwick, 2015).
A hope appeal is a message strategy that attempts to persuade people to adopt a specific action by arousing hope. Hope appeals are a relatively recent addition to the study of persuasion (see Chadwick, 2010), and this chapter focuses on Persuasive Hope Theory (Chadwick, 2015). Persuasive Hope Theory defines hope and describes the message features needed for an effective hope appeal. The image below depicts Persuasive Hope Theory:
Persuasive Hope Theory begins with a hope appeal message, which includes message content related to a specific opportunity and the efficacy of a specific recommended behavior to achieve a desired outcome. This part of the theory is highlighted in the figure below:
For example, Jordan Q. Ahgeak (see Acknowledgements) noted that one opportunity in Alaska might be to reduce light pollution in Utqiaġvik (also known as Barrow), and a specific recommended behavior to achieve that outcome might be to lessen the amount of insignificant artificial lighting (for example, turning off porch lights and turning off lights of unoccupied buildings/offices). Here is an example message:
According to Persuasive Hope Theory, the first thing someone does when reading the message is to appraise the opportunity. This includes assessing the opportunity using perceptions of importance, goal congruence, possibility, and future expectation. In the above example, this would be whether or not someone reading the message perceives that reducing light pollution in Utqiaġvik is important, congruent with their goals, possible, and would lead to a better future.
Perceived importance includes an assessment of whether the future outcome is personally relevant. Perceived goal congruence refers to whether the future outcome is consistent with and favorable to their personal goals or motives. Perceived possibility includes an assessment of the likelihood of the future outcome, and perceived future expectation refers to whether the outcome would lead to a better future.
The message component designed to lead to appraisals of importance and goal congruence connects reducing light pollution to preserving “the beauty of the night sky” and showing “respect for nature.” This was done because Jordan Ahgeak noted that her Utqiaġvik community follows a traditional set of twelve values: Avoidance of Conflict, Compassion, Cooperation, Family and Kinship, Humility, Humor, Hunting Traditions, Knowledge of our Language, Love and Respect for our Elders and One Another, Respect for Nature, Sharing, and Spirituality. The comm