The persuasive power of peer guides in websites that promote HIV/AIDS voluntary counselling and testing

Abstract

This study investigates the persuasive power and cultural appropriateness of a personal agent in websites intended to persuade university students to go for Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT). Three versions of the same website were presented to Dutch and South African university students. The results show that visual personalization had more effect than verbal cues and that South African students estimated all versions of the websites as more persuasive than Dutch students. The huge intercultural differences make clear that personalization cues can he effective in sensitive health-related communication. The results stress the importance of cross-cultural research in developing culturally appropriate websites. © 2005 IEEE.