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Promoting responsible drinking? A mass media campaign affects implicit but not explicit alcohol‐related cognitions and attitudes
Author(s) -
Glock Sabine,
Klapproth Florian,
Müller Barbara C. N.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of health psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.05
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 2044-8287
pISSN - 1359-107X
DOI - 10.1111/bjhp.12130
Subject(s) - psychology , implicit attitude , priming (agriculture) , young adult , social psychology , mass media , cognition , developmental psychology , advertising , psychiatry , botany , germination , business , biology
Objectives Rigorous tests are not usually applied to determine whether mass media campaigns that promote responsible drinking are useful, that is whether they lead to responsible drinking or not. In two experiments, we investigated the effectiveness of a mass media campaign that runs in G ermany since 2009. This campaign used posters, which emphasized negative alcohol‐related outcome expectancies and challenged the positive expectancies. Based on models of alcohol use, we investigated the influence of the campaign on alcohol‐related outcome expectancies, implicit and explicit attitudes, and drinking intentions. Design In Experiment 1, we investigated alcohol‐related outcome expectancies via ratings and response latencies among 81 young adult light drinkers. Employing an affective priming task, Experiment 2 was designed to assess implicit attitudes before and after mass media campaign exposure among 83 young adult light drinkers. In both experiments, the effects of the posters were investigated before and after poster exposure as well as compared to a control group. Results Experiment 1 revealed that the campaign affected only the implicit associations of young adult drinkers, whereas explicit outcome expectancies remained unaffected. Experiment 2 showed that implicit attitudes towards alcohol were turned into more negative ones, but explicit attitudes as well as drinking intentions were not influenced. Conclusions The mass media campaign was deemed effective even though its influence occurred on an implicit level. This research highlights the need for experimental investigations of mass media campaigns. Reasons that the findings were obtained on an implicit but not on an explicit level are discussed.Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject?Binge drinking has become a serious problem. Intervention campaigns are important. Mass media campaigns often work with positive and negative alcohol‐related outcome expectancies. Mass media campaigns are often not rigorously investigated before introduction.What does this study add?Two experiments investigated the effectiveness of already introduced posters of a mass media campaign promoting responsible drinking in G ermany. Implicit as well as explicit measures were considered. Posters only affected participants on an implicit but not on an explicit level.