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Item does not contain fulltext Resistance toward persuasion has received more and more attention in the past decades to explain the ineffectiveness of (threatening) health messages. In the literature, several motivations for resistance and strategies to resist health messages (i.e., defensive responses) have been identified and studied. Moreover, research on persuasive strategies like self-affirmation, entertainment-education, and empathy arousal have found positive results on decreasing or overcoming resistance. New lines of research on these topics should focus on the relationships between resistance motivations, resistance strategies, and resistance-overcoming persuasion strategies.

Health communication campaigns and messages often contain information that makes people aware that they engage in unhealthy behaviors and therefore can be perceived as threatening by people. As a result, people often respond defensively to such information and do not change their unhealthy behaviors. Self-affirmation theory suggests that people respond defensively because the health information poses a threat to people’s self-integrity, that is, their view of themselves as being a good and adequate person. Importantly, self-affirmation theory further proposes that defensive responses to health information can be reduced by giving people an alternative opportunity to maintain self-integrity before exposing them to the health information. This alternative opportunity is called self-affirmation (i.e., an act that demonstrates one’s adequacy). Empirical studies and meta-analyses suggest that self-affirmation can have small but positive effects on reducing defensive responses and can positively influence health message acceptance, intention formation, and health behavior. Important areas for future health communication research are to investigate the mechanisms through which self-affirmation reduces defensive responses to health information, how self-affirmation works in combination with typical communication variables (e.g., message and source factors, medium and audience characteristics), and how self-affirmation can be used in real-world health communication settings.

Figurative language is a form of non-literal language that consists of two subtypes: (i) schemes like alliteration and rhyme that focus on excessive regularity and (ii) tropes like metaphor and irony which emphasize irregularity. In the classical perspective, figurative language was mainly seen as an ornamental packaging cue, by presenting a literal statement in a more attention-grabbing way. The contemporary perspective on figuration acknowledges that rhetorical devices like metaphor, hyperbole, and irony can also contain conceptual content and serve as frames. Such figurative frames can serve various communicative goals, including sensemaking and behavior change. In terms of sensemaking, figurative frames can make complex and abstract health issues more concrete and easier to understand. This can occur in a variety of settings, such as health campaigns, illness narratives, and health policies. Figurative frames can be used for sensemaking in empowering and disempowering ways. In the latter case, figurative frames may be explicitly resisted or actively reframed. In health campaigns, figurative language can be used for behavior change. In such cases, the figurative devices are often novel and creative, and present recipients with a small puzzle to solve. Solving this puzzle can generate positive feelings, which can transfer to the campaign message. In some cases, using figuration in health campaigns can backfire, for instance when recipients do not understand or incorrectly interpret the figurative message. Figurative language thus has an important potential in health communication, but this message strategy can also lead to resistance and unintended consequences.

Health informatics (also referred to as medical informatics or biomedical informatics) is an interdisciplinary field that deals with health-related data in healthcare and with the technologies that are used to support healthcare services. While the goal of some health informatics systems is to automate processes, the more common goal is to help clinicians, patients, policymakers, and others to manage health information, and to communicate that information efficiently and effectively to end users. Thus, there is considerable overlap between the fields of health informatics and health communication, and this intriguing intersection between the two fields opens many opportunities for innovation. Health communication is often visible in health informatics in the area of patient communication. Examples of this include patient self-management tools that support behavior change. Correspondingly, health informatics is often visible in health communication in the use of computational methods and “big data” to build on communication theory. Future research in health communication will likely involve more and more intensive use of information technology. This can bring exciting new possibilities for both interventions and analytical techniques, yet researchers should ensure that information technology interventions respect participants' privacy and guarantee their safety. Investigating the effect of information technology on communications between healthcare professionals and with patients also offers interesting opportunities for collaborative research.