Persuading People to Drink Less Alcohol: The Role of Message Framing, Temporal Focus and Autonomy.
OBJECTIVE
Health information can be used to try to persuade people to follow safe drinking recommendations. However, both the framing of information and the dispositional characteristics of message recipients need to be considered. An online study was conducted to examine how level of autonomy moderated the effect on drinking behaviour of gain- and loss-framed messages about the short- vs. long-term consequences of alcohol use.


METHODS
At Time 1, participants (N = 335) provided demographic information and completed a measure of autonomy. At Time 2, participants reported baseline alcohol use and read a gain-framed or loss-framed health message that highlighted either short- or long-term outcomes of alcohol consumption. Alcohol consumption was reported 7 days later.


RESULTS
The results showed a significant three-way interaction between message framing (loss vs. gain), temporal focus (short-term vs. long-term) and autonomy. For low-autonomy (but not high-autonomy) individuals, the loss-framed health message was associated with lower levels of alcohol consumption than was the gain-framed message but only if the short-term outcomes were conveyed.


CONCLUSIONS
This research provides evidence that the interaction between message framing and temporal focus may depend on a person's level of autonomy, which has implications for health promotion and the construction of effective health communication messages.


OBJECTIVE
We examined how autonomy moderated the effect on drinking behaviour of gain- and loss-framed messages about the short- vs. long-term consequences of alcohol use. For low-autonomy individuals, the loss-framed health message was associated with lower alcohol consumption than was the gain-framed message but only if the short-term outcomes were conveyed.
Department of Psychology and Counselling, University of Chichester, College Lane, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 6PE, UK s.churchill@chi.ac.uk.
Susan
S
Churchill
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Kingston University, Penrhyn Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2EE, UK.
Louisa
L
Pavey
Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK.
Donna
D
Jessop
Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RH, UK.
Paul
P
Sparks
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
D000431:Ethanol