Using media for the prevention of drug use and substance abuse

1. Using media for the prevention of drug use and substance abuse Prof. William Crano UNODC ConsultantProfessor of Psychology,Claremont Graduate University, USA

2. Can Mass Media Reduce Illicit Substance Use?

3. Characteristics of successful media campaigns • Always based on established theories of persuasion, not whim or “common sense” • Usually used subtle message appeals, not extreme threats or extremely directive language, which often had adverse effects • Often appealed to parents, or were associated with parental monitoring • Sometimes were designed to educate parents about the dangers of substance misuse • Sometimes involved larger efforts, including school & community

4. Why have our media-based efforts often failed? • The recipe for failure. Unsuccessful campaigns were: • Never based on established theories of message-based persuasion, but rather apparently reasonable ideas about what to say, and how to say it • Almost always obviously manipulative • Often used fear-based appeals, that made unrealistic threats, that were easily disproved or inconsistent with experience • Never appealed to, or involved parents, schools, or the larger community

5. What to do? A quick review of the process of persuasive change

6. Assume resistance by the audience • If your suggestion is contrary to the beliefs or intentions of the audience, they will resist by: • Disconfirming the logic of the message • Debasing source of the message • Distorting the message (biased misunderstanding)

7. How can a message be persuasive? • Raise question in receiver’s mind about the advisability of an action or belief, with strong communications that are difficult to counter • Provide an answer to the question • Target or tailor the persuasive message to unique susceptibilities of the group or individual to enhance message effects

8. The signature ad of the National Youth Anti-drug Media Campaign – What do you think of it?

9. The goals • Make counter-argumentation difficult, impossible, or apparently unnecessary. • Ensure message source is viewed as expert. • Tailor the persuasive message to unique susceptibilities of the group or individual to enhance message effects. Choose your target! • Do you want to reinforce resolute nonusers? • Or, persuade those who are contemplating drug use to resist? • Or, influence users to quit?

10. How to beat counter-argumentation • Use sources who have nothing to gain by audience’s agreement (expert, scientist, trusted media person, etc.) • Make counter-arguing difficult by media overload or distraction (highly media active presentation that captures attention and lowers ability to counter-argue) • Misdirection: vary the apparent target of persuasion; good chance of persistent change if message is strong.

11. Example of misdirection • “Parents [Students], I’d like to talk to you today about an important issue…message attacked illicit substance use • Middle-school youth significantly more persuaded by “Parents” ad. Why counter-argue a message to Mom? • Arizona anti-smoking campaign – • Second hand smoke ads directed to parents worked… on adolescents as well as parents! • Both of these studies succeeded because the audience did not recognize the need to counter-argue

12. The “Parents” Campaign • Parents – the anti-drug • Unlike more costly campaigns, this smaller scale national campaign had a positive impact on adolescents’ drug use • Why? • Most obviously, parents became more aware and monitored children more closely • Less obviously, children saw the ads, and did not counter-argue – why bother? The ad was directed at Mama

13. Can parents really have a major impact on their adolescent children? If so, can insights from studies of parents’ effects be transferred to mass media campaigns?

15. Effects of parental monitoring • Analysis combined data of 17 studies involving 35,000 (parent and child) pairs of respondents • Studied link between parental monitoring and their adolescent children’s marijuana use • Results indicated a significant relation between monitoring and adolescent marijuana use: Greater monitoring = less use • Stronger association in girls than boys • Stronger when monitoring was defined strictly in terms of open communication between parents and children • Strong evidence against chance (7,358 studies of nil effects required to render overall result statistically non-significant).

16. Implications for policy makers (1/2) • Choose and target your audience [users, intenders, resolute nonusers] • Message must: • Raise question • Provide answer • Reinforce acceptance • Carefully work to overcome counter-arguments. • Do not over-promise or over-threaten: the scalpel is more effective than the axe

17. 22 Implications for policy makers (2/2) • Involve experts on theories of persuasion and communication (the ‘creative people’ are not enough!) • Use formative research and evaluate, evaluate, evaluate • Involve research institutions and universities • Involve parents if possible • If it is not possible, make it possible

18. The requirements I have discussed are not difficult, but they are unforgiving. They require knowledge and motivation. I have tried to provide some knowledge and hopefully, much motivation Creative ads are wonderful, if they follow these rules; if not, they are a waste of time, energy, and scarce resources Thank you for your kind attention. I wish you all the best in your important work Prof. William Crano, Professor of Psychology, Claremont Graduate University, USA. A parting note from the author of these slides