Impact of brief self-affirmation manipulations on university students' reactions to risk information about binge drinking

Objectives Binge drinking is associated with an array of negative health consequences and is particularly prevalent in university students. Health-risk messages about alcohol may fail to change such behaviour because they are dismissed or derogated. The present study sought to compare the effect of three brief self-affirmation manipulations on message processing, message acceptance, and subsequent alcohol-related behaviour in university students.

Design Participants (N = 307) were randomly allocated to condition (kindness questionnaire, values essay, attributes questionnaire, control questionnaire) before reading a health-risk message about binge drinking.

Methods After reading the message, participants completed measures of message processing (message reactance, message evaluation, counter-arguing) and message acceptance (perceived risk, intention, plans) as well as a manipulation check. Alcohol consumption was assessed 1 week later.

Results Participants in all three self-affirmation conditions scored significantly higher than participants in the control condition on the manipulation check measure. All other self-affirmation effects were non-significant.

Conclusions While the three self-affirmation manipulations were found to be self-affirming, they failed to impact on measures of message processing, message acceptance, or subsequent behaviour. The findings concur with previous research that questions the use of self-affirmation to reduce alcohol consumption in university students. Current self-affirmation manipulations may not be strong enough to overcome defensive processing of health-risk messages about alcohol in students and/or prime social goals that are related to the domain under threat (i.e., alcohol consumption), thereby nullifying any positive self-affirmation effects.