Leveraging Dynamic Norms to Reduce College Student Alcohol Use: A Test of Four Mediators.

Social norms are common in persuasive messaging. For norms trending in a positive direction, it may be beneficial to emphasize change (i.e. dynamic norm) rather than the status quo (i.e. static norm). To test this proposition, we examined college students' responses to social norm messages encouraging moderate alcohol use. Undergraduates (N = 842) were randomly assigned to view a dynamic norm ("More college students drinking in moderation"), a static descriptive norm ("Most college students drink in moderation"), or a no message control. Four mechanisms were examined as potential mediators, three of which have been examined in previous work (preconformity, perceived importance, self-efficacy) and one of which was novel (psychological reactance). Results revealed that exposure to either social norm message (dynamic or static descriptive) was associated with more favorable attitude relative to a no message control. Attitude did not differ between the dynamic norm and static descriptive norm conditions. Only psychological reactance mediated the relationship between message condition (dynamic vs. static descriptive norm) and favorable attitude. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Inoculating Black/African American and LGBTQ Communities Against the Tobacco Industry: The Role of Community Connectedness and Tobacco Denormalization Beliefs.

The purpose of this study was to explore how connectedness to Black/African American or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) communities can promote anti-tobacco industry beliefs and to examine the role of targeted anti-tobacco industry messaging (i.e., tobacco industry denormalization [TID] messages).We hypothesized that community connectedness would predict anti-tobacco industry motivation (H1) and that this effect would be mediated by community-specific anti-industry beliefs (H2). We also hypothesized that these effects would be greater (i.e., moderated) for individuals exposed to targeted TID messages (H3). This study was a secondary analysis of data from a web-based experiment focused on the effects of counter-industry messages (data collected in 2020). The sample consisted of 430 Black/African Americans and 458 LGBTQ young adults. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling. In support of hypothesis 1, community connectedness was associated with anti-tobacco industry motivation for both the LGBTQ and Black/African American subsamples. Hypothesis 2 was also supported. The associations between community connectedness and anti-industry motivations were partially mediated by anti-industry beliefs. Hypothesis 3 was not supported. Exposure to counter-industry messages did not modify the structural model; however, counter-industry messages increased anti-industry beliefs in both subsamples. Fostering community connectedness may help to mobilize community-based tobacco control efforts. Furthermore, interventions targeting anti-tobacco industry beliefs may be effective at reducing tobacco-related disparities. Anti-tobacco industry beliefs can be increased using brief targeted TID messages. Collectively, these findings suggest that community-based approaches rooted in consciousness-raising action may provide a useful model for future tobacco control interventions.

Youth and Young Adult-targeted E-cigarette Warnings and Advertising Messages: An Experiment with Young Adults in the US.

Warnings specifically focused on harm to younger users have been understudied in vaping warning research, even while vaping products may appeal specifically to a younger population through implicit advertising strategies. This study examined how youth and young adult-focused e-cigarette health warning messages and implicit advertising strategies influence affective responses, risk perceptions, cognitive elaboration about e-cigarette harms, and willingness to vape in the future. We recruited young adults (who, at the time, were not smoking combustible cigarettes) aged 18-25 to participate in an online survey experiment with a 3 (warning label type: current FDA/youth and young adult risk-focused/none) × 3 (advertising health message strategy: explicit/implicit/none) + 3 (non-vaping products control) design. The results show a main effect for warning such that both FDA and targeted warnings increased negative affect and decreased positive affect compared to no warning. Moreover, the youth and young adult-focused warning boosted youth-specific harm beliefs and cognitive elaboration relative to control and the FDA warning, which did not differ from one another. Implicit health messages produced greater positive affect relative to explicit messages and no message, but the ad strategy manipulations did not influence other outcomes. While the population studied here with a single exposure reported no effects of either manipulation on willingness to vape, previous research has associated similar emotions and cognitions with lowered intentions to vape. Regulatory bodies should consider further exploration of vaping warnings that emphasize youth and young adult-specific harms to educate young people about relevant risks.

Targeted Truth: An Experiment Testing the Efficacy of Counterindustry Tobacco Advertisements Targeted to Black Individuals and Sexual and Gender Minority Individuals.

INTRODUCTION: Some groups disproportionately suffer from tobacco-related illnesses-in part, because the tobacco industry has strategically targeted these groups. To combat industry targeting, antitobacco media campaigns (eg, the truth campaign) have used analogous messaging strategies, describing the industry's targeted marketing practices to reach these vulnerable groups. We tested the efficacy of counterindustry tobacco advertisements targeted to vulnerable groups (Black individuals and sexual and gender minority [SGM] individuals). AIMS AND METHODS: From March to July 2020, we recruited N = 1161 young adults in the United States, including n = 430 Black young adults and n = 452 SGM young adults (with n = 108 identifying as Black and SGM). In a web-based, between-subjects experiment, participants were randomized to watch one of four types of advertisement ("ad"): (1) ads from the truth antismoking campaign not targeted toward a specific vulnerable group, (2) Black-targeted truth ads, (3) SGM-targeted truth ads, or (4) unrelated control ads. We examined effects on support for tobacco control policies, counterindustry motivation, counterindustry beliefs, perceived effectiveness, and anger toward the industry. RESULTS: Relative to control, non-targeted ads increased policy support, and Black-targeted ads increased motivation and beliefs. Targeted ads elicited anger regardless of the audience targeted. However, in general, neither Black identity nor SGM identity moderated the effects of the targeted ads. CONCLUSIONS: We offer little evidence that targeted counterindustry ads are especially influential for their intended group. However, targeted counterindustry appeals may be successful at evoking industry anger regardless of the audience targeted. IMPLICATIONS: Counterindustry advertisements from the truth campaign targeting Black individuals and SGM individuals had limited effect on tobacco control policies, counterindustry motivation, and counterindustry beliefs. However, counterindustry ads evoked anger toward the industry regardless of ingroup status, which in turn was positively associated with anti-industry outcomes. These results, considered alongside the extant literature, suggest little benefit to developing targeted counterindustry tobacco campaigns for specific groups and instead point to the utility of developing campaigns that appeal to broader audiences.

Should Graphic Warning Labels Proposed for Cigarette Packages Sold in the United States Mention the Food and Drug Administration?

INTRODUCTION: Under the US Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has the authority to implement graphic warning labels (GWLs) on cigarette packages. Neither the original labels proposed by the FDA nor the revised labels include a source to indicate sponsorship of the warnings. This study tests the potential impact of adding a sponsor to the content of GWLs. METHODS: We recruited adult smokers (N = 245) and middle-school youth (N = 242) from low-income areas in the Northeastern US. We randomly assigned participants to view one of three versions of the original FDA-proposed warning labels in a between-subjects experiment: no sponsor, "US Food and Drug Administration," or "American Cancer Society" sponsor. We tested the effect of varying sponsorship on source attribution and source credibility. RESULTS: Compared to unsponsored labels, FDA sponsorship increased source attributions that the FDA sponsored the labels among both middle-school, largely nonsmoking youth and adult smokers. However, sponsorship had no effect on source credibility among either population. CONCLUSIONS: We found no evidence that adding FDA as the source is likely to boost source credibility judgments, at least in the short term; though doing so would not appear to have adverse effects on credibility judgments. As such, our data are largely consistent with the Tobacco Control Act's provisions that allow, but do not require, FDA sponsorship on the labels. IMPLICATIONS: This study addresses the FDA's regulatory efforts by informing the possible design and content of future cigarette warning labels. Our results do not offer compelling evidence that adding the FDA name on GWLs will directly increase source credibility. Future work may test more explicit FDA source labeling and continue to examine the credibility of tobacco message content among high-priority populations.

What's at Stake: Evaluating a Run-Hide-Fight® Intervention Video through the Lens of Vested Interest Theory.

The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have encouraged colleges and universities to create emergency preparedness interventions that prepare students, faculty, and staff for any conceivable campus crisis. In this investigation, we tested the efficacy of a professionally produced Run-Hide-Fight® video to accomplish such a goal with a convenience sample of college students. Drawing on Vested Interest Theory (VIT) to guide our evaluation, we observed significant gains in stake, salience, and self-efficacy for students exposed to the emergency preparedness video compared to those not exposed to the video. We find evidence not only for short-term gains immediately after message exposure but also persisting effects two weeks after exposure. In addition, greater perceptions of stake and salience in response to the video predicted more favorable attitudes toward emergency preparedness over time. These findings demonstrate the potential for brief messages shown in university classrooms to encourage students to feel vested in emergency preparedness on campus. They also shed light on promising messaging strategies to foster favorable attitudes toward emergency preparedness.

Communicating Inequalities to Enhance Support for Obesity-Prevention Policies: The Role of Social Comparisons, Age Frames, and Emotion.

With certain populations in the United States at higher risk for obesity than other populations, public health advocates have attempted to draw attention to these inequalities to galvanize support for obesity-mitigation policies. Yet research comparing different messages about social inequalities indicates that not all social comparisons are persuasive. Drawing on Weiner's (1986) theory of perceived responsibility and social motivation, I experimentally tested promising message frames about obesity disparities. Participants (N = 653) read one of six messages following a 3 (social comparison frame: geographic vs. racial vs. no-comparison) × 2 (age frame: child vs. adult) between-subjects design. Unexpectedly, geographic frames (rural/urban) indirectly decreased policy support relative to the control frame by way of increased counterarguing. Compared to adult frames about obesity inequalities, childhood frames evoked more sympathy and less internal attribution, which in turn positively predicted support for obesity-prevention policies. Practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

You Mad? Using Anger Appeals to Promote Activism Intentions and Policy Support in the Context of Sugary Drink Marketing to Kids.

One proposed solution to address childhood obesity is to limit children's exposure to advertising for sugar-sweetened beverages. Might persuasive appeals be able to channel anger toward the soda industry in order to promote support for marketing regulations and increase intentions to engage in activism around this issue? This study sought to answer this question by drawing on research in communication and psychology about the relationships between anger, persuasion, and activism-related outcomes. Participants (N = 551) were randomly assigned to read one of four messages about sugary drink marketing to kids, following a 2 (anger: high vs. low) × 2 (efficacy: high vs. low) design, or to a no-exposure control group. There was a main effect of the anger manipulation on policy support, which was driven by support for punitively oriented policies. Although no main effects were observed for activism intentions, mediation analyses indicated indirect effects of the anger and efficacy appeals on intentions by way of evoked anger and perceived efficacy, respectively. Contrary to expectations, messaging effects did not differ for pro-attitudinal and counter-attitudinal groups. Implications for public health advocacy and persuasion research are discussed.

Effects of 30% and 50% Cigarette Pack Graphic Warning Labels on Visual Attention, Negative Affect, Quit Intentions, and Smoking Susceptibility among Disadvantaged Populations in the United States.

Introduction: Though the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) calls for the implementation of large graphic warning labels (GWLs) on cigarette boxes, the courts have blocked the implementation of 50% labels in the United States. We conducted an experiment to explore whether changing the size of GWLs is associated with changes in visual attention, negative affect, risk beliefs, and behavioral intentions. Method: We recruited adult smokers (N = 238) and middle-school youth (N = 237) throughout the state of New York in May 2016. We randomly assigned participants to one of three between-subject conditions (no GWL [control], 30% GWL, 50% GWL). Results: Adult and youth participants looked at the GWLs longer when the GWL covered 50% versus 30% of the pack's front. Increasing GWL size from 30% to 50% did not influence negative affect or risk beliefs, though both GWL sizes increased negative affect relative to the no-GWL control group. Exposure to 50% GWLs increased adult smokers' intentions to quit compared to no-GWL, but smokers exposed to 30% GWLs did not differ from control. There were no differences between 50% GWLs, 30% GWLs, and control on youth smoking susceptibility. Conclusions: Findings provide some evidence of the benefits of a 50% versus 30% GWL covering the front of the pack for adult smokers and at-risk youth from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds-though not on all outcomes. Implications: This research shows that 30% GWLs on cigarette packages increase negative affect relative to packages without front-of-package GWLs. Larger GWLs on cigarette packages (50% vs. 30%) increase visual attention to the warning and its pictorial content among low-SES smokers and at-risk youth but do not further increase negative affect. A 50% GWL increased adults' quit intention compared to no GWL at all, but we were underpowered to detect modest differences in quit intentions between a 50% and 30% GWL. Future work should thus continue to explore the boundary conditions under which relatively larger GWLs influence cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes.

Examining Mechanisms Underlying Fear-Control in the Extended Parallel Process Model.

This investigation sought to advance the extended parallel process model in important ways by testing associations among the strengths of efficacy and threat appeals with fear as well as two outcomes of fear-control processing, psychological reactance and message minimization. Within the context of print ads admonishing against noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and the fictitious Trepidosis virus, partial support was found for the additive model with no support for the multiplicative model. High efficacy appeals mitigated freedom threat perceptions across both contexts. Fear was positively associated with both freedom threat perceptions within the NIHL context and favorable attitudes for both NIHL and Trepidosis virus contexts. In line with psychological reactance theory, a freedom threat was positively associated with psychological reactance. Reactance, in turn, was positively associated with message minimization. The models supported reactance preceding message minimization across both message contexts. Both the theoretical and practical implications are discussed with an emphasis on future research opportunities within the fear-appeal literature.

The effects of self-disclosure and gender on a climate scientist's credibility and likability on social media.

To examine whether different types of disclosure made by climate scientists on social media influence perceived source credibility (i.e. competence, integrity, benevolence) and likability, we conducted a 2 (self-disclosure type: personal vs political) × 3 (proportion of posts including a self-disclosure: 20% vs 50% vs 80%) × 2 (gender identity of scientist: male vs female) between-subjects experiment (N = 734). We found that people liked the scientist more for a personal than political disclosure, rated them as being more competent for a political disclosure, and liked a female scientist more than a male scientist. However, scientist's gender did not moderate the effect of disclosure type or the effect of participants' gender. Our results suggest distinct benefits when scientists deliver different types of messages on social media, although disclosure is unlikely to have substantial effects on lay judgments of scientists' credibility.

Seeing the funny side: Humor in pro-environmental communication.

Our review, drawing from various fields such as communication, psychology, marketing, and environmental studies, delves into the potential for humor in pro-environmental messaging to mobilize social change. The review examines different forms of humor, including satire, stand-up comedy, and scripted entertainment programming, and their impact on audience responses. We also highlight the possible drawbacks of using humor and factors that moderate its effects. Overall, the evidence paints a mixed picture whereby pro-environmental humor is largely successful in influencing proximal cognitive outcomes (attention, perceptions) but has more limited influence on distal outcomes (behavior) with the greatest benefits seen among low-interest groups. The need for more diverse samples and robust experimental designs is emphasized to fully comprehend the efficacy of humor in effecting environmental change.

Message Fatigue and Resistance to Anti-Binge Drinking Messages: Examining the Mediating Roles of Inattention and Reactance.

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined message fatigue as a theoretical explanation for college students' resistance to anti-binge drinking messaging. Specifically, inattention and psychological reactance were examined as mediators bridging the message fatigue and perceived message effectiveness relationship. METHOD: University students (N = 783, 60% female) were recruited by the university's SONA sampling system to participate in an online Qualtrics survey where they read a message discouraging binge drinking. RESULTS: In line with our predictions, structural equation modeling revealed that message fatigue was positively associated with both inattention and reactance (as mediated by freedom threat). In turn, inattention, but not reactance, was negatively associated with perceived message effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: The current findings suggest that there may be deleterious consequences of message fatigue when discouraging binge drinking. The current results also highlight the importance of pilot testing anti-binge drinking messages for message fatigue during formative research to avoid triggering maladaptive outcomes.

Independent or synergistic? Effects of varying size and using pictorial images in tobacco health warning labels.

INTRODUCTION: Legal challenges have blocked the implementation of large, pictorial health warning labels (HWLs) in the U.S. In light of future legal questions the U.S. Food and Drug Administration may face in proposing alternative HWLs, we examined whether less restrictive HWL versions on the front of packs-smaller HWLs and/or text-only HWLs that do not include pictorial imagery-may be sufficient to promote cognitive and affective outcomes associated with smoking cessation. METHODS: We recruited low-income smokers in two separate experiments through field-based recruitment methods (Study 1, N = 497) or Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (Study 2, N = 495). In both studies, we randomly assigned participants to a no-HWL control condition or one of four HWL conditions in a 2 (pictorial vs. text-only) × 2 (50% vs. 30% size) between-subjects design. RESULTS: Relative to text-only HWLs, pictorial HWLs increased negative affect but not risk belief acceptance, cognitive elaboration about smoking harms, or quit intentions. The 50% HWLs increased quit intentions relative to the control condition in both studies. The 50% HWLs also outperformed the 30% HWLs in promoting quit intentions in Study 2. Subsequent analyses revealed that this effect in Study 2 may have been driven by the 50% HWLs strengthening the relationship between risk-related thoughts and intentions, although there was no evidence for this pattern in Study 1. We found no evidence for interaction effects between the pictorial and size manipulations. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that 50% HWLs, whether pictorial or text-only, can encourage low-income smokers to consider quitting under some conditions.

Testing competing explanations for graphic warning label effects among adult smokers and non-smoking youth.

RATIONALE: The United States courts have blocked the implementation of graphic warning labels on cigarette packages (GWLs). This decision was based, in part, on the premise that GWLs are unnecessarily emotional and are meant to scare rather than inform consumers about smoking's health effects. However, research in judgment and decision-making suggests these relationships are more complex. OBJECTIVE: In this article, we draw on several theoretical frameworks that lead to competing hypotheses about the relationships between negative affect, health risk beliefs, and quit intentions (among adult smokers) or susceptibility to start smoking (among non-smoking youth). METHOD: We tested these competing mediation models using data from two experiments with two populations each-adult smokers (Ns = 313 and 238) and primarily non-smoking middle-school youth (Ns = 340 and 237). Using mobile recruitment methods, we focused specifically on individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in rural and urban areas of the Northeastern United States. RESULTS: The best fitting model across all four datasets was one in which label-induced negative affect (a) directly predicted intentions/susceptibility but also (b) indirectly predicted intentions/susceptibility via risk beliefs. Although mediation analyses did not demonstrate significant serial mediation effects of label exposure on intentions/susceptibility through negative affect then risk beliefs, there was some evidence that label exposure indirectly promoted adults' quit intentions through negative affect. Additionally, negative affect consistently mediated the indirect effect of label exposure on strengthened risk beliefs among adults and youth. CONCLUSIONS: These results speak to the importance of negative affect in directly motivating adult smokers' quit intentions but also serving an informational function, directing adult smokers and non-smoking youth to accept the health risks of smoking.