This study was conducted to investigate the influence of four methodological variables - topics, media, subjects and criteria-on the inconsistency among the findings regarding relative persuasive effectiveness of high fear versus low fear in the fear appeal studies. Analysis showed that topics and media had some influence on main effects of fear on persuasion, but it was impossible to interprete those results. Additionally, it was showed that recipients' personality variable and recipients' relevance-to-threat variable facilitated interaction effects between fear and either of the variables on persuasion.