Showing vs. Telling Before-After Health Change: Persuasive Effects of Gain/Loss Framing in Morphing Visuals and Bite-Sized Text on Social Media via Emotional Responses

The rise of morphing visuals on visual-first social media offers health practitioners a new way to convey before-after health change. This study examines how platform-specific modality (morphing visuals vs. bite-sized text) shapes the appraisal of before-after framing (gain vs. loss) and influences persuasive outcomes. A preregistered 2 (framing) by 2 (modality) between-subjects, online experiment was conducted in two theoretically distinct health contexts: physical exercise promotion (N = 376), a promotion-oriented and more visualizable behavior, and smoking cessation (N = 147), a prevention-oriented and less visualizable behavior. Across both, gain/loss framing shaped persuasive outcomes via valence appraisals and positive emotions (hope, curiosity), while the effects of negative emotions (guilt, anger, fear) varied by context. Modality effects appeared only in the anti-smoking context, where morphing visuals were less effective than text. Implications for social-media-based strategic health communication are discussed.