The purpose of this thesis is to determine how fear appeals influence consumer behavior. The paper investigated ads divided into emotional and rational, with high and low levels of fear appeal. The same appeals were observed in three categories: traffic safety, smoking and environmentally (un)acceptable behavior. The research was conducted using the focus group method and reminders, i.e. forms with questions for each of the mentioned topics. The test was divided into three phases. In the first phase, the goal was to find out the general attitudes and experiences of the focus group participants about the subject of the research. The next phase was related to their previous familiarity and contact with the media on the given topic. The goal was to find out what attitudes respondents have about advertisements and their influence on their behavior. In the last phase, the participants of the focus group were shown photos, more precisely advertisements, and they were asked to comment on them, compare them and state which they think would have a stronger influence on their behavior. Respondents had to declare whether they prefer more emotional or rational ads and ads with a more or less pronounced fear appeal. The impact of fear appeals on male and female gender, as well as consumer involvement and the level of fear appeals used, were also considered and compared. The results showed that the respondents preferred emotional ads with fear appeals, which they said gave them a better picture of the problem, made them more aware of reality, and the same result was obtained for fear appeals of higher levels compared to those of lower levels. Also, the assumption that greater consumer involvement requires the use of a lower degree of fear appeals is rejected. Furthermore, the results showed that people who do not use the product are more sensitive to fear appeals and are therefore more effective. Finally, although some responses showed that fear appeals have a greater impact on changing behavior in the female population compared to the male population, a final conclusion cannot be made that the mentioned appeals really have a stronger impact on the female population compared to the male population.