Cognitive dissonance theory and alcohol awareness messages : college student reactions

College students--Alcohol use--Prevention;College students--Attitudes

Mettille, ThomasWelch, S.A. ;

University of Wisconsin

关键词: College students--Alcohol use--Prevention;    College students--Attitudes;   

Others  :  https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/30552/Mettille2008.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: University of Wisconsin

【 摘 要 】

College students spend more money on alcohol than they do on books, coffee,tea, juice and soda, combined (Wechsler & Wuerthrich, 2002). Recent studies haveshown that binge drinking rates range from 34 to 44% of college students (Douglas etal., 1997; Wechsler, Davenport, Dowdall, Moeykens & Castillo, 1994; Wechsler, Lee,Kuo, Seibring, Nelson & Lee, 2002). Alcohol is so prevalent in the collegeenvironment, that students, parents and even professors link the college experience withexcessive drinking (Butler, 1993; Lederman, Stewart & Russ, 2007).Yet, the risks of binge drinking (Lederman, Stewart, Goodhart & Laitman,2003) are serious. Research has identified a wide variety of harmful consequences as aresult of excessive drinking among college students. These risks include: unprotectedsexual behavior (Desiderato & Crawford, 1995), blackouts (Perkins, 2002), and evendeath (Hingson, Heeren, Zakocs, Kopstein & Wechsler, 2002). Perhaps even morealarming is the annual frequencies of these negative consequences, identified byHingson et al. (2002), including 600,000 student assaults, 500,000 accidental injuriesand 1,400 deaths.In an attempt to deal with this alarming information campus administrators havedeveloped campaigns and programs designed to curb college drinking. However,results have been elusive, as dangerous drinking has not declined over the past decade(Faden & Fay, 2002; Wechsler et al., 2002; Hingson et al., 2005; Larimer & Crone,2002; Peele, 2006; Wechsler, Lee, Kuo & Lee, 2000). In order to craft the mosteffective message, one must consider the reaction of the intended audience.Festinger’s (1957) Cognitive Dissonance Theory provides insight into thecognitive processes individuals experience when they receive information that iscounter to their beliefs. Festinger states that information that challenges the beliefs orbehavior an individual already has will create psychological discomfort. The theorycontinues to suggest there are predictable responses that form individuals experiencethat discomfort, or dissonance: they will accept the information as accurate but make nochanges, accept the information as accurate and make changes, they will attack themessenger as incredible or they will rationalize the information in some way to relievethe discomfort.The present study applied Festinger’s (1957) Cognitive Dissonance Theory toalcohol public service messages. Participants were measured to determine whether theywere currently in a state of dissonance concerning their alcohol use. The participantsthen viewed three alcohol public service announcements, concerning alcohol poisoning,date rape and drunk driving. The researcher captured responses the participants had inorder to determine if particular dissonance-reducing strategies were utilized.Three conclusions are offered. College students appear to be utilizing ;;attackthe messenger” regarding messages of binge drinking and drunk driving, while utilizingrationalization when viewing messages of date rape. Additionally, for all messagecontents, the students responded that they did not intend to change their behaviorsbased on the information presented. The results of this study can be illuminating toalcohol educators, campus administrators and future scholars.