Can a Funny Story with an Ambiguous Role Model Promote Dental Hygiene in Children?

Abstract

This study used a randomized treatment control design. Participants were randomly assigned either to the control (factual information, from now on expository condition) or treatment (humorous fictional story, from now on story condition) condition. We employed three measurement points (T1, T2, T3) with approximately two week intervals among measurements. Self-reported dental measures were assessed at T1, T2 and T3. Biomedical measures of dental hygiene were assessed at T1 and T3. Self-reported responses to the text (i.e. wishful identification, parasocial interaction, perceived similarity, liking, moral judgement) were measured at T2. Native Dutch children between the ages of 4-10 years were invited to this study between 6 October 2017 and 16 May 2018. Apart from age and mother tongue, there was no other exclusion criteria introduced to guarantee a broader patient group.