One example that comes to mind indicates that fear appeals fail to have a lasting effect. Remember the program “Scared Straight?” Teenagers who have broken the law spend a day in a prison where tough, “in-your-face” inmates give them a taste of prison reality in an attempt to “scare them straight.”
Most of these teens are alarmed and horrified by their prison experience. But when they return to their neighborhoods and peer groups, many (if not most) continue their destructive and/or illegal behavior patterns. Why?