“This is What a Speculum Looks Like!” Effects of Medical Instrument Demonstration and Message Framing in Pap Test Videos on Social Media

The rise of social media short-form videos has led to an increase in health professionals demonstrating medical procedures online, including Pap tests for cervical cancer screening. This study uses an online experiment to investigate the effects of showing the vaginal speculum in short-form social media videos (i.e. TikTok videos) encouraging Pap tests, alongside the impact of framing the content to address common barriers to testing. The findings reveal the presence of the speculum led to significantly higher ratings of fear though the level of fear was modest. Videos framed to address knowledge barriers (i.e. providing information about the importance of Pap tests and screening guidelines) were perceived as more effective than those framed to address psychological barriers (i.e. providing information about avoiding pain and discomfort during the test) and increased the likelihood of getting a Pap test. The knowledge barrier frame also resulted in less defensive avoidance compared to the psychological barrier. Most importantly, the study's examination of the combined influence of the two-message features shows that the presence of the speculum can either help or hinder the persuasive outcomes of the message depending upon the video's framing. Likelihood of getting a Pap test was greatest when the speculum was shown in conjunction with knowledge barrier framing and lowest when the speculum was shown in videos with psychological barrier framing, suggesting a possible cognitive overload effect. These findings provide practical and theoretical insights into how emotionally evocative imagery can influence message outcomes, sometimes unintentionally eliciting fear and undermining persuasive effects.