Encouragement of cervical cancer screening via an evolutionary theoretical approach: A randomized controlled study in Japan

•This is the first study of evolutionary approaches to encourage cancer screening.•We tested the effect of a message targeting the fundamental human motive of kin care.•Kin care messages are such as “get cervical cancer screening for future childbirth.”•A message targeting the fundamental motive of disease avoidance was also tested.•The kin care message was as effective as the disease avoidance message. The introduction of an evolutionary perspective into public health research has received attention in recent years. We aimed to examine the effects of messages that target the fundamental human motive of kin care (i.e., childbirth and parenting) on cervical cancer screening recommendations, based on an evolutionary theoretical approach. A randomized controlled study was conducted in Japan. Female participants (n = 969) were randomly assigned either to a group that received an intervention message that targeted the fundamental motive of kin care (recommending cervical cancer screening for future childbearing), or that targeted the fundamental motive of disease avoidance, or a control message. Intention to obtain cervical cancer screening was assessed both before and after reading the messages. A one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s or Games–Howell test was conducted. Each of the intervention message targeting the fundamental motive of kin care and of the message targeting disease avoidance significantly increased intention to obtain cervical cancer screening versus a control message (M = 0.76 vs. M = 0.17, p