Negative anti-smoking ads are not effective for young anxious viewers
A new study found out that some types of anti-smoking ads are not effective for teen smokers, who are generally anxious. According to the University of Georgia these smokers tend to tune out anti-smoking videos that warn how smoking can cause some diseases and death and how secondhand smoke can harm others around.
“Usually health messages, contain a threat that makes you feel more scared,” says Jennifer Monahan, a professor of communication studies. “We suppose it is not a good strategy with people who are neurotic and therefore more likely to smoke in the first place.”
The way that health messages mention neurotic people is substantially unexplored, said lead author and doctoral student Christin Bates Huggins.
“Neuroticism is a normal part of a normal personality. But to someone who is highly neurotic, a normal, everyday stressful situation becomes a much bigger deal.” says Jennifer Monahan.
About 200 college students aged 18 to 31 took a part in the study. They completed a personality questionnaire and watched three different anti-smoking videos. The researchers found a strong association between high levels of neuroticism and a desire to avoid listening to or considering an anti-smoking message that caused fear, sadness or nervousness. Neurotic students also noticed that this type of message was biased and therefore it isn't reliable.
The researchers came to conclusion that positive messages can be much more effective at belief of neurotic smokers to get out of a habit.
“If an ad will show a person saying, ‘I’m a recovered smoker and look at how much energy I have now. Look at how wonderful my life is,’ then it could head off the negative response we’ve seen in our study,” Huggins said.
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