This dissertation investigates how using an innovative text message-based approach to repeated public health messages can influence experiences of message fatigue, psychological reactance, and boomerang effects, as well as the mediating role that message fatigue plays between repetition and outcomes of psychological reactance and boomerang effects. Participants (N=179) were exposed to one of two health messages containing information related to either HPV or breast cancer risk, daily, over a four-day period by disseminating the message via text message. After each exposure, participants completed a survey measuring experiences of message fatigue, psychological reactance, and boomerang effects. Results indicate that message repetition leads to message fatigue, psychological reactance, and boomerang effects, although the rate at which these are impacted vary. Further, results suggest that message fatigue may act as a precursor, or warning sign, of additional unintended outcomes of psychological reactance and boomerang effects, and that message fatigue mediates the relationship between message repetition and experiences of reactance and boomerang effects. These data show that message fatigue provides a useful lens to further understand unintended effects of public health message repetition. Both implications for public health communication practice and communication theory are discussed, as well as future directions for this line of research.℗
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