The Social Life of Health-Promotion Messages: Alcohol Craving in Complex Information Environments

Objective: Within complex information environments, persuasive messages are often viewed in close proximity to other relevant and possibly contradictory content. While persuasion research focuses on optimizing individual message types (e.g. anti- or pro-alcohol messages), scarce knowledge about competition between message types hinders the prediction of message effects in real-world settings. We directly compared effects of competing message types to understand relative effects and underlying mechanisms. Methods: Across three studies, English-speaking convenience samples from online panels and our University’s student pool (N=468) viewed a large sample of alcohol-related messages (N=190) of different types (pro-, anti-, andnon-alcoholic messages from professional and peer sources). Using within-subject designs, we measured the relative impact of message types on alcohol craving and mechanisms driving these effects. Results: Pro-alcohol messages were more impactful than anti-alcohol messages, especially among frequent binge drinkers. Although emotional responses and familiarity with the alcohol-related content were relevant mechanisms for both pro- and anti-alcohol message effects, both mechanisms were more strongly coupled to craving in response to pro- (vs. anti-alcohol) messages. Conclusions: Accounting for a large variety of messages, our results suggest that restricting pro-alcohol content may be more effective in reducing consumption than producing anti-alcohol content within populations represented by our English-speaking convenience samples. The findings further raise specific concerns about the effectiveness of anti-alcohol messages that target familiarity and emotional processes, especially when viewed in direct competition with pro-alcohol information. Further research on the competition between related message types is crucial to support understanding and prediction of message effectiveness.SIGNIFICANCE: We examined how health promotion (professional anti-alcohol) messages perform relative to other relevant confirmatory (peer-produced anti-alcohol messages) and contradictory (professional/peer-produced pro-alcohol) information by comparing alcohol craving across message types. Understanding competition between message types will help improve predictions of message effects in modern, diverse information environments.