Explicit and implicit effects of anti-marijuana and anti-tobacco TV advertisements

• Published in: Addictive behaviors Vol. 32; no. 1; pp. 114 - 127
• Main Authors: Czyzewska, Maria, Ginsburg, Harvey J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2007; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Advertising as Topic; Analysis of Variance; Anti-drugs media campaign; Attitude; Attitudes; College students; Dissociative Disorders; Drug use; Explicit attitudes; Female; Health Promotion - methods; Humans; Implicit attitudes; Male; Marijuana; Marijuana Smoking - prevention & control; Marijuana Smoking - psychology; Psychiatry; Smoking - psychology; Smoking Prevention; Students - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Television; Television advertising; Tobacco; Marijuana; Tobacco; Implicit attitudes; Anti-drugs media campaign; Explicit attitudes
• ISSN: 0306-4603; 1873-6327
• DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2006.03.025

Abstract Effects of anti-tobacco and anti-marijuana TV advertisements on explicit (i.e., semantic differential ratings) and implicit (i.e. Implicit Association Test, IAT) attitudes toward tobacco and marijuana were compared. Two hundred twenty nine, 18- to 19-year-old U.S. college students were randomly assigned to anti-tobacco or anti-marijuana PSA viewing conditions. Participants completed a short survey on attitudes to tobacco and marijuana. Afterwards they watched 15 PSAs embedded in a 15-min science program. At the end, all participants completed IAT for marijuana, IAT for tobacco and the assessment of explicit attitudes. Results of ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction between type of TV PSAs watched and implicit attitudes, F (1,223) = 7.12, p < 0.01 when controlling for preexisting attitudes to both substances; the implicit attitudes were more negative toward the substance that corresponded to the content of advertisements watched (i.e., anti-tobacco or anti-marijuana). However, analogical analysis on explicit measures showed that attitudes to marijuana became less negative among students that watched anti-marijuana ads than the group with anti-tobacco ads, F (1,222) = 5.79, p < 0.02. The discussion focused on the practical and theoretical implications of the observed dissociation between implicit and explicit attitudes to marijuana after the exposure to anti-marijuana PSAs.