Self-Affirmation Effect on Risk Perception and the Moderating Role of Self-Efficacy in Anti-Alcohol Messages

Authors

  • Milena Stanojlović Ph.D, Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising II, School of Communication Science, Complutense University of Madrid,
  • Ubaldo Cuesta Cambra Ph.D, Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising II, School of Communication Science, Complutense University of Madrid,
  • Borja Paredes Ph.D, Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising II, School of Communication Science, Complutense University of Madrid,
  • Grigorio Lamprinakos Ph.D, Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising II, School of Communication Science, Complutense University of Madrid,
  • Maria Stavraki Ph. D , Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education, University of Castilla-La Mancha Ronda de Calatrava

Keywords:

anti-alcohol campaigns, self-affirmation, self-efficacy, risk perception, persuasive communication

Abstract

The beneficial effect of self-affirmation on the reduction of people’s defensive responses and the increase in message acceptance has been widely demonstrated in different health-related topics. However, little is known about the specific conditions in which self-affirmation strategies might be more effective. Our objective is to explore the interplay of self-affirmation and self-efficacy in the context of alcohol consumption. Recruited participants were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation group or a no-treatment group and exposed to a video describing several consequences of alcohol consumption. Following the message exposure, participant’s drinking refusal self-efficacy was measured together with their perceived risk of daily alcohol intake. In line with our predictions, self-affirmed individuals who reported higher drinking refusal self-efficacy perceived daily alcohol consumption as a significantly higher risk than those who were assigned to the no-treatment condition. In contrast, for individuals with low drinking refusal self-efficacy, there was no significant difference in the perceived risk between the self-affirmed and the non-affirmed. We predicted and showed that self-affirmation influences the risk perception of daily drinking only for the people who reported higher drinking refusal self-efficacy. This indicates that self-efficacy could be an important factor that moderates the effect of self-affirmation in alcohol consumption domain.

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Published

2023-04-04