The role of realism, similarity, and expectancies in adolescents' interpretation of abuse-prevention messages.
Scholars continue to identify the conditions under which exposure to alcohol-related messages predict related behaviors and outcomes. To examine this issue further, researchers used an experiment (n = 452) to investigate the role of participants' perceptions of prevention message realism, similarity, identification, and desirability in their expectancies regarding alcohol use and impaired driving. Results of the experiment indicated that exposure to the messages reduced participants' expectancies for drinking and driving and increased their efficacy for avoiding potentially dangerous situations only when the messages activated mediating variables. No overall difference existed between the treatment groups and the control group without accounting for participants' cognitive and affective reactions to the messages. These results indicate that campaign planners must consider individual differences in audience members' interpretation of messages in order to increase message effectiveness even within seemingly homogeneous target groups.
Pinkleton
Bruce E
BE
Edward R. Murrow College of Communication, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99163, USA. pink@wsu.edu
Austin
Erica Weintraub
EW
Van de Vord
Rebecca
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001334:Automobile Driving; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D012309:Risk-Taking; D055815:Young Adult