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The present study examines the self-reported impact of viewing more versus less eudaimonic Hollywood films using a retrospective study design. We investigate the role of three novel constructs in u...

Climate Matters is a localized climate change reporting resources program developed to support television (TV) weathercasters across the United States. Developed as a pilot test in one media market in 2010, it launched nationwide in 2013; in the autumn of 2019 more than 797 weathercasters were participating in the program. In this paper we present evidence of the impact of the Climate Matters program on Americans’ science-based understanding of climate change. We analyzed three sets of data in a multilevel model: 20 nationally representative surveys of American adults conducted biannually since 2010 (n = 23 635), data on when and how frequently Climate Matters stories were aired in each U.S. media market, and data describing the demographic, economic, and climatic conditions in each media market. We hypothesized that 1) reporting about climate change by TV weathercasters will increase science-based public understanding of climate change and 2) this effect will be stronger for people who pay more attention to local weather forecasts. Our results partially support the first hypothesis: controlling for market-level factors (population size, temperature, political ideology, and economic prosperity) and individual-level factors (age, education, income, gender, and political ideology), there is a significant positive association between the amount of Climate Matters reporting and some key indicators of science-based understanding (including that climate change is occurring, is primarily human caused, and causes harm). However, there was no evidence for the second hypothesis. These findings suggest that climate reporting by TV weathercasters, as enabled by the Climate Matters program, may be increasing the climate literacy of the American people.

Health warning labels (HWLs) on alcohol containers may help reduce population-level alcohol consumption. However, few studies have examined the most effective formats for alcohol HWLs. This study tested the effects of three different types of alcohol HWLs. In an online experiment, N = 1,755 Australian adult drinkers were randomly assigned to one of five conditions: (a) No HWL control; (b) DrinkWise control (industry-developed labels currently on some containers); (c) Text-Only HWLs; (d) Text + Pictogram HWLs; or (e) Text + Photograph HWLs. In the three intervention conditions, participants were exposed to eight HWLs, each depicting a different long-term harm. Exposure occurred during an initial session, and repeatedly over the subsequent eight days. Differences between conditions were assessed immediately following initial exposure and at nine-day follow-up. Compared to participants in the No HWL control, participants exposed to Text + Pictogram HWLs were more likely to have intentions to avoid drinking alcohol completely in the next month (post-exposure) and intentions to drink less alcohol in the next week (follow-up), and participants in all three intervention conditions reported stronger negative emotional arousal (follow-up) and weaker positive emotional arousal (follow-up). Compared to participants in the DrinkWise control, those exposed to Text + Pictogram HWLs had stronger intentions to drink less alcohol in the next week and intentions to avoid drinking alcohol completely in the next month (follow-up), participants in the Text + Photograph condition reported significantly weaker positive emotional arousal, and all three intervention conditions resulted in stronger negative emotional arousal. There would likely be benefits to public health if any of the three types of intervention HWLs were implemented. However, there is some evidence that Text + Pictogram HWLs should be recommended over Text-Only or Text + Photograph HWLs, given they were the only HWLs to increase intentions to drink less.

Although alcohol increases the risk of cancer, awareness of alcohol-related cancer risks is low. Alcohol use is prevalent among young adults, and understanding factors associated with awareness and perceptions of alcohol-related cancer risks in this group is critical for cancer prevention efforts. We examined the demographic, tobacco, and alcohol related correlates of young adults' awareness and perceptions of alcohol as a behavioral risk factor for cancer. We completed a secondary analysis of data collected in February 2020 in the U.S. from 1,328 young adults (ages 18-30) who completed a cross-sectional online survey. Participants reported (1) awareness of alcohol as a risk factor for cancer and (2) perceived risks of serious disease such as cancer. We analyzed demographic characteristics, alcohol use, and tobacco use associated with these outcome variables using multivariable regression. Overall, 18.5% of participants believed that alcohol does not increase cancer risk. Perceived cancer risk associated with alcohol use was moderate (

Motivated reasoning in response to disconfirming science information presents a challenging barrier to science communication. This article presents a novel approach to emphasis framing, in which functionally equivalent information is framed using ideologically consistent values and tailored to the audiences. In contrast to traditional framing approaches, science information is held constant across frames and only interpretations of the information are varied. Results from an experiment provide initial support for this ideology-based framing approach. Persuasive effects are stronger for an ideologically congruent frame than for an incongruent frame, and no boomerang effects were observed. We discuss implications and directions for future research.

Background: Mass media messages have the potential to reduce alcohol-related harm through increasing support for alcohol-control policies. Objectives: In Study 1, we experimentally examined the incidental effects of alcohol mention in news articles about accidents and crime and found evidence that messages mentioning alcohol as a causal factor in the accident or crime can activate empathic and emotional responses, which in turn increase support for alcohol control policy. In Study 2, anti-drinking and driving public service announcements (PSAs) were edited to either portray consequences of drinking and driving for the driver only or for both the driver and innocent others. Results: The versions of the PSAs that showed consequences to others were more successful at eliciting alcohol-control policy support than the versions showing only consequences to the self. As hypothesized, empathy that was directed toward victims (but not drivers under the influence) and negative emotions were supported as mediators of this relationship. Although negative affect and feelings of empathy for the victims of drunk driving are not pleasant emotions to experience, they appear to play an important role in increasing support for public policies to increase safety without having a negative impact on viewer's evaluations of the PSA. Conclusions: Results from the two studies provide evidence that empathy and emotions can play a mediating role between message characteristics (either intentional or incidental) and alcohol control policy support.

Using the mediated wisdom of experience (MWOE) theoretical framework, this study examines how eudaimonic testimonials versus comparable didactic presentations, and the presence or absence of modeling target behavior, influence death acceptance and intentions to converse about end-of-life care preferences. Effects for testimonials on attitudes and behaviors proved contingent on modeling. When testimonials incorporated modeled behavior, individuals were more likely to intend to carry out conversations about end-of-life conversations. However, when the testimonials did not provide modeled examples of conversations about death, individuals were more likely to experience anxiety and less likely to intend to engage in such conversations. Mediation analyses found that testimonials indirectly increased attitudes and intentions to have end-of-life conversations through emotional range and death acceptance. Mediation analyses also indicated modeling such conversations increased attitudes and intentions toward having end-of-life conversations via identification and self-efficacy.

OBJECTIVES: The tobacco industry has a history of making “natural” claims in advertisements. We report how viewing advertisements with such claims affected what adolescents found memorable. METHODS: Adolescent boys (N = 1220; 11–16 years old) were randomly assigned to view a Natural American Spirit (NAS) or other brand cigarette advertisement, and were asked what they remembered about the advertisement. Survey-weighted logistic regression models assessed whether memorability of advertisement components differed by NAS advertisement exposure. RESULTS: Adolescents viewing a NAS advertisement (vs another brand) had lower odds of finding memorable the advertisement’s warning (OR = 0.58; 95% CI: [0.34, 0.98]) or brand (OR = 0.25; 95% CI: [0.11, 0.54]). They had higher odds of mentioning tobacco (OR = 2.33; 95% CI: [1.49, 3.63]) and packaging (OR = 2.57; 95% CI: [1.51, 4.37]). An estimated 6.7% of those viewing an NAS advertisement said the product was not addictive. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced-harm claims on cigarette advertisements may affect what adolescents find salient about the advertisement. As the FDA’s agreement with Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company to remove these claims is not inclusive of all reduced-harm claims and does not apply to other companies, findings underscore the need for prohibiting all reduced-harm claims from cigarette advertisements.

Temporarily expanded boundaries of the self (TEBOTS) proposes underlying motivations for engaging with stories. TEBOTS points out that fundamental human drives for agency, autonomy, and connectedness are imperfectly attainable. As a result, human beings turn to transcendent experiences that offer self-expansion, especially engagement with mediated worlds and the stories and characters they provide. TEBOTS provides unique hypotheses about how the self-concept relates to the selection, processing, and effects of media entertainment. Confirmatory evidence for TEBOTS shows that threats to the self can increase responsiveness to narratives, and that effects are attributable to a boundary expansion mechanism. Recent studies demonstrate that boundary expansion during media use can facilitate positive outgroup perceptions and attitude change. The TEBOTS framework also provides testable propositions regarding the influence of life stressors such as finance, health, and relationships on narrative engagement and enjoyment, carrying potential implications for narrative influence on stressed populations.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that audience members frequently engage in imaginative thinking of entertainment messages they have consumed. Manifestations of such retrospective imaginative involvement (RII) may range from short episodes of daydreaming or mind wandering in which entertainment content (e.g., characters, locations, events) play a central role to more elaborate and even organized activities such as writing fan fiction or engaging in cosplay. The chapter explicates the concept of RII as a novel approach to describe and explain this under researched element of media entertainment. It builds on the temporarily expanded boundaries of the self (TEBOTS) model to derive motivational explanations for the appeal of and intentions behind RII activities, and employs the model of narrative comprehension and engagement to elaborate the foundational cognitive mechanisms that enable and facilitate RII. Finally, it connects RII to contemporary notions of hedonic and eudaimonic entertainment and offer perspectives for future thematic research.

Highlights • We describe communication campaigns in an intervention to reduce opioid deaths. • The community-engaged model includes three phases. • Five campaigns will focus on naloxone, MOUD, and stigma reduction. • Community surveys and fidelity measures gauge process and impact. • Our model could help communities address other public health issues., Background The HEALing Communities Study (HCS) is testing whether the Communities that Heal (CTH) intervention can decrease opioid overdose deaths through the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in highly impacted communities. One of the CTH intervention components is a series of communications campaigns to promote the implementation of EBPs, increase demand for naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), and decrease stigma toward people with opioid use disorder and the use of EBPs, especially MOUD. This paper describes the approach to developing and executing these campaigns. Methods The HCS communication campaigns are developed and implemented through a collaboration between communication experts, research site staff, and community coalitions using a three-stage process. The Prepare phase identifies priority groups to receive campaign messages, develops content for those messages, and identifies a “call to action” that asks people to engage in a specific behavior. In the Plan phase, campaign resources are produced, and community coalitions develop plans to distribute campaign materials. During the Implement stage, these distribution plans guide delivery of content to priority groups. Fidelity measures assess how community coalitions follow their distribution plan as well as barriers and facilitators to implementation. An evaluation of the communication campaigns is planned. Conclusions If successful, the Prepare-Plan-Implement process, and the campaign materials, could be adapted and used by other communities to address the opioid crisis. The campaign evaluation will extend the evidence base for how communication campaigns can be developed and implemented through a community-engaged process to effectively address public health crises.

ObjectivesConduct a head-to-head experimental test of responses to alcohol harm reduction advertisements developed by alcohol industry Social Aspects/Public Relations Organisations (SAPROs) versus those developed by public health (PH) agencies. We hypothesised that, on average, SAPRO advertisements would be less effective at generating motivation (H1) and intentions to reduce alcohol consumption (H2) but more effective at generating positive perceptions of people who drink (H3).DesignOnline experiment with random assignment to condition.Participants2923 Australian adult weekly drinkers (49% high-risk drinkers) recruited from an opt-in online panel.InterventionsParticipants viewed 3 of 83 advertisements developed by PH agencies (n=2174) or 3 of 28 advertisements developed by SAPROs (n=749).Primary outcome measuresParticipants reported their motivation to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed; behave responsibly and/or not get drunk; and limit their drinking around/never supply to minors, as well as intentions to avoid drinking alcohol completely; reduce the number of drinking occasions; and reduce the amount of alcohol consumed per occasion. Participants also reported their perceptions of people who drink alcohol on six success-related items and four fun-related items.ResultsCompared with drinkers exposed to PH advertisements, those exposed to SAPRO advertisements reported lower motivation to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed (β=−0.091, 95% CI −0.171 to −0.010), and lower odds of intending to avoid alcohol completely (OR=0.77, 0.63 to 0.94) and to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed per occasion (OR=0.82, 0.69 to 0.97). SAPRO advertisements generated more favourable fun-related perceptions of drinkers (β=0.095, 0.013 to 0.177).ConclusionsThe alcohol harm reduction advertisements produced by alcohol industry SAPROs that were tested in this study were not as effective at generating motivation and intentions to reduce alcohol consumption as those developed by PH organisations. These findings raise questions as to whether SAPROs should play a role in alcohol harm reduction efforts.

Highlights • HEALing Communities Study is a parallel-group cluster randomized controlled trial. • Communities That HEAL intervention’s goal is to reduce opioid overdose deaths. • Structured consensus decision-making strategy guided study measure development. • More than 80 study measure specifications and a common data model were developed. • The study will provide methodology and longitudinal community data for research., Background Opioid overdose deaths remain high in the U.S. Despite having effective interventions to prevent overdose deaths, there are numerous barriers that impede their adoption. The primary aim of the HEALing Communities Study (HCS) is to determine the impact of an intervention consisting of community-engaged, data-driven selection, and implementation of an integrated set of evidence-based practices (EBPs) on reducing opioid overdose deaths. Methods The HCS is a four year multi-site, parallel-group, cluster randomized wait-list controlled trial. Communities (n = 67) in Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York and Ohio are randomized to active intervention (Wave 1), which starts the intervention in Year 1 or the wait-list control (Wave 2), which starts the intervention in Year 3. The HCS will test a conceptually driven framework to assist communities in selecting and adopting EBPs with three components: 1) A community engagement strategy with local coalitions to guide and implement the intervention; 2) A compendium of EBPs coupled with technical assistance; and 3) A series of communication campaigns to increase awareness and demand for EBPs and reduce stigma. An implementation science framework guides the intervention and allows for examination of the multilevel contexts that promote or impede adoption and expansion of EBPs. The primary outcome, number of opioid overdose deaths, will be compared between Wave 1 and Wave 2 communities during Year 2 of the intervention for Wave 1. Numerous secondary outcomes will be examined. Discussion The HCS is the largest community-based implementation study in the field of addiction with an ambitious goal of significantly reducing fatal opioid overdoses.

Insecure attachment places enduring limitations on one’s ability to satisfy important intrinsic needs. An increasing body of literature suggests that such barriers may motivate engagement with stories such as absorption into fictional worlds, sharing experiences and forming relationships with characters, and even pursuing vicarious satisfaction of unmet needs. Moreover, this sort of engagement has been demonstrated to drive narrative influence, further suggesting that barriers to intimacy in relationships such as those characterized by insecure attachment may render one more susceptible to the influence of entertainment media. A cross-sectional survey ( N = 1,039) revealed an interaction between the anxiety and avoidance dimensions of attachment wherein avoidance was negatively associated with parasocial relationships, boundary expansion, and transportability, as well as self-reported proclivities to reflect on and be impacted by story-based movies and television when anxiety was low but was associated with increased engagement when anxiety was high. The potential interplay between attachment and narrative influence is discussed with respect to targeting and tailoring media literacy and narrative-based interventions.

The homophily principle, that perceived similarities among people produce positive reactions, is a cross-cultural, global phenomenon. This study aimed to test the prediction that photographs that depict models similar to the target population improve health communication by increasing perceived identification in three racial/ethnic populations. Three separate nationally representative stratified samples (n = 1638) of African American, Hispanic and Native American adults were drawn from GfK’s Knowledge Panel(�). Participants read a message advocating increased physical activity and improved diets and completed measures on behavioral intentions, outcome and self-efficacy expectations and identification. The message contained photographs from a stock photograph service or photographs created for the research project to match the three minority populations, Real Health Photos (RHP). Structural equation modeling confirmed the theoretical hypothesis that RHP which matched the minority population increased behavioral intentions and was mediated by identification (P < 0.05) in all three racial/ethnic minority samples. Messages with only half of the matched RHP images had these same positive indirect effects among African Americans and Hispanics (P < 0.05). The impact of matching visual images in health messages to recipients derived from identification with the characters in images. Homophily and identification are hardwired, evolutionary, biological phenomena that should be capitalized on health educators with minority populations.

Purpose Research indicates that tobacco marketing contributes to higher pro-tobacco attitudes and behaviors among adolescents, but no studies have been able to assess the impact of real-world tobacco marketing exposures in real-time. The purpose of this study was to examine the magnitude and impact of tobacco marketing exposure on adolescents using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Our primary hypotheses were that (1) youth would most frequently report tobacco marketing at the retail points-of-sale and (2) greater exposures to tobacco marketing would be associated with more favorable tobacco-related attitudes, use, and expectancies. Methods Participants were adolescent males from rural and urban Ohio (N = 176, ages 11–16). For ten days, these adolescents were prompted at two—three random times/day to complete a brief smartphone-based survey about their exposures and responses to tobacco-related advertising. Results Adolescents reported exposures to tobacco marketing an average of 1.9 times over the 10-day EMA period, with over 10% seeing a tobacco advertisement 5 or more times. Reports of marketing exposures occurred most frequently at the point-of-sale; exposures were higher among tobacco users and rural adolescents. Consistent with hypotheses, marketing exposure was related to more positive attitudes to the tobacco advertisements, more tobacco use, and higher expectancies to use in the future. Conclusions Overall, these findings signal the magnitude of tobacco marketing exposures and their pernicious impact on youth. Findings underscore the importance of federal, state, and local-level tobacco regulatory policies to protect youth from the marketing that puts them at risk for a lifetime of nicotine addiction and tobacco-related diseases.

We propose that the dark triad of personality predicts how recipients respond to eudaimonic narratives (stories dealing with purpose in life, the human condition, and human virtue). Matched...

The homophily principle, that perceived similarities among people produce positive reactions, is a cross-cultural, global phenomenon. The prediction that photographs depicting models similar to the target population improve health communication was tested. Three nationally-representative samples (n=1,796) of adults who are disabled, seniors, or considered overweight/obese were selected from GfK’s Knowledge Panel(®). Participants read a message promoting physical activity and improved diets and responded to assessments of behavioral intentions, outcome and self-efficacy expectations, and identification. Photographs from a stock photograph service versus photographs created for the research project to match the three populations, Real Health Photos (RHP), were included in the message. Structural equation modeling confirmed that RHP which matched the population increased behavioral intentions mediated by identification (p

There is growing concern about the polarizing impact of citizens primarily choosing sources of political information consistent with their existing partisan perspective. Although research has begun...

OBJECTIVES: In the U.S., print advertisements for smokeless tobacco (SLT) feature a large black-and-white text warning covering 20% of the advertisement space. Cigarette and e-cigarette advertisements feature a small warning covering approximately 4% of advertisement space. We explored how warning size affects adolescent boys’ spontaneous recollection of the warning, brand-relevant advertisement features, and product risks. METHODS: 1,220 adolescent males (ages 11–16) viewed SLT, cigarette, and e-cigarette advertisements. After each advertisement, boys were asked to recall what they remembered most. Coders identified recalls of the warning label, brand-relevant advertisement features, and risks associated with the product in responses. RESULTS: Participants were less likely to recall warnings in the cigarette vs. SLT (OR=0.30, p3.50, p’s

Interest in the meaningful sides of media entertainment has blossomed over the last decade, with numerous scholars examining how certain media content can enhance social good and well-being. Because social scientific work in this area is relatively new and is rapidly evolving, numerous conceptualizations of meaningful media experiences have been introduced. In this paper we argue for the importance of recognizing a unique form of media experience that causes us to look beyond our own concerns, to recognize moral beauty, and to feel unity with humanity and nature-what we label here as "self-transcendent media experiences."

Aims To compare the immediate effects on drinkers of television advertisements focusing upon short- versus long-term harms with and without low-risk drinking guidelines. Design Between-participants on-line experiment, with random assignment to view: (a) alcohol product advertisements (ALC control); (b) advertisements unrelated to alcohol (NON-ALC control); (c) advertisements featuring short-term harms (STH) of alcohol; (d) advertisements featuring STH plus a STH guideline (STH+G); (e) advertisements featuring long-term harms (LTH); or (f) advertisements featuring LTH plus a LTH guideline (LTH+G). Setting Australia, 2016. Participants A total of 3718 drinkers aged 18–64 years (48.5% male). Measurements Post-exposure likelihood that participants provided a correct estimate of drinking levels associated with short- and long-term harms; post-exposure intentions to avoid alcohol or reduce consumption. Findings After exposure to STH+G or LTH+G advertisements, participants were more likely to estimate correctly rather than overestimate drinking levels associated with harm, compared with those exposed to STH (P

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have examined what adolescents find appealing in tobacco and alcohol advertisements and how different themes in advertisements are used to manipulate consumer behaviors. Yet, we know little about the relationship between the themes portrayed in advertisements and youth attitudes towards those themes. OBJECTIVES: This study compared attitudes towards advertisements for different products in a sample of urban and rural adolescent boys in order to examine how marketing themes impact adolescent attitudes towards those advertisements. METHODS: Participants were 11- to 16-year-old boys (N=1220) residing in either urban or rural Ohio Appalachian counties. Each participant viewed five print advertisements (one each for cigarettes, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), smokeless tobacco (SLT), non-alcoholic beverages, and alcohol), presented in a random order. All advertisements had appeared in magazines that adolescent males commonly read. Attitude towards each advertisement was assessed. The advertisements were then coded for the presence of various themes, including social acceptance and masculinity. Analyses were conducted to determine associations between advertisement type and the attitude measure, and between the presence of a theme and the attitude measure. RESULTS: Overall, participants preferred non-tobacco advertisements to tobacco advertisements, rural participants had less positive attitudes and participants who had peers who used tobacco had more positive attitudes. Social acceptance and entertainment themes increased the appeal of smokeless tobacco advertisements, and sex appeal increased the appeal of e-cigarette advertisements. CONCLUSIONS/IMPORTANCE: Findings suggest that advertisements that promote the social nature of use in SLT advertisements may be of particular concern for their influence on adolescent boys.

Exposure to tobacco advertisements is associated with initiation of tobacco use among youth. The mechanisms underlying this association are less clear. We estimated longitudinal associations between youths’ cognitive and affective responses to advertisements for cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco (SLT) and initiation of these products. N = 1220 Ohio-residing boys of ages 11–16 were recruited into a cohort in 2015 and 2016. Participants completed surveys every six months for four years. Surveys assessed cognitive and affective responses to tobacco advertisements (which included health warnings) and tobacco use after an advertisement viewing activity. We used mixed-effects Poisson regression models with robust standard errors to estimate risk of initiating use of each tobacco product according to participants’ cognitive (i.e., memorability of health risks) and affective (i.e., likability of advertisement) responses to advertisements for that product. No associations between affective responses to advertisements and tobacco use outcomes were detected in adjusted models. However, finding health risks memorable was associated with reduced risk of ever smoking initiation (aRR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.34, 0.95) and a reduced risk of ever SLT initiation that approached statistical significance (aRR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.36, 1.05). Measures to increase saliency of health risks on cigarette and SLT advertisements might reduce use among youth.

Engagement with narratives and identification with narrative characters is usually conceptualized as occurring during the narrative experience itself. However, much involvement with a story world and narrative characters may occur retrospectively and imaginatively. The present study, using a cross-sectional survey quota-sampled to represent U.S. demographic norms, provides conceptualization and measurement of parasocial relationships (PSR) that is clearly retrospective and conceptually distinct from parasocial interaction (PSI). Moreover, we distinguish PSR from another concept introduced and operationalized here, retrospective imaginative involvement (RII), and provide evidence for validity of these measures. We compare them to the related concepts of transportability and boundary expansion, and assess fit using measurement models and confirmatory factor analysis, refining measurement on half the data set and confirming fit on the other half. We demonstrate predictive validity with respect to a m...

We explored how adolescent marijuana edible users differ in regards to marijuana use and related beliefs from marijuana users who do not use edibles. We analyzed California Healthy Kids Survey data collected in one Northern California school district with a racially and ethnically diverse student population. Survey respondents were youth in grades 9 – 12. Overall, 33% of respondents reported having used marijuana in their lifetime, and 50% of lifetime marijuana users reported using marijuana in the past 30 days. Seventy-two percent of lifetime marijuana users and 82% of past month marijuana users reported having used edibles in their lifetime. Comparing marijuana users who have never used edibles to those users who have, we found that edible users reported using marijuana more frequently in their lifetime. Edible users were also more likely to have used marijuana in the past 30 days, more frequently in the past 30 days, more likely on school property and more frequently on school property. Edible users and non-users differed in their perceptions of risk; edible users were less likely to agree that edible use is very risky. Edible users also reported a younger age of first marijuana use and more attempts to stop using marijuana than non-edible users. Multi-level regression analyses indicate that prevalence of edible use among marijuana users was related to perceived risk of edible use. Perceived risk of edible use among marijuana users was higher among marijuana users who do not use edibles, females, and those youth who perceive school rules to be clear. The findings indicate that prevalence of edible use is high among marijuana users, especially frequent users.

ObjectiveBlu’s ‘Something Better’ advertising campaign ran in popular print magazines in 2017. The campaign included advertisements with fake warnings conveying positive messages, which mimicked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s warning requirements for electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) advertisements that took effect in 2018. We report adolescent males’ recall of these fake warnings and how exposure to fake warnings affected recall of other advertisement components, including the actual warning or health risks, brand and product.MethodsOhio males ages 12–19 years (N = 775; 73.8 % white non-Hispanic) were randomly assigned to view an e-cigarette advertisement with or without a fake warning. Afterward, they were asked what they remembered most about the advertisement. Responses were qualitatively coded. Statistical analyses included survey-weighted descriptive statistics and logistic regression.ResultsOf participants who viewed an e-cigarette advertisement with a fake warning, 27.0 % reported the fake warning was what they remembered most, and 18.8 % repeated the fake warning message. Participants viewing advertisements with a fake warning had lower odds of recalling the actual warning or health risks (OR = 0.29; 95% CI: 0.11 to 0.77) or brand (OR = 0.43; 95% CI: 0.22 to 0.85), compared with participants viewing other e-cigarette advertisements.ConclusionsAdolescents viewing an advertisement with a fake warning were less likely to recall the advertisement’s actual warning or health risks. Although e-cigarette advertisements now carry large FDA-mandated warnings, this tactic could be used for cigarette advertisements that continue to carry small warnings in the USA. Findings underscore the necessity of tobacco advertisement surveillance and study of advertisements’ effects on adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: We examined website formats to increase smokers’ recognition of harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) in cigarettes. METHODS: Adult, daily smokers (N = 279) were randomized to view a brief, single-page study website showing HPHC names and uses. The intervention site was tailored + interactive, labeled by cigarette brand/subbrand showing color imagery and pop-up boxes; the generic + static website (control) was unbranded in greyscale. Eye tracking equipment measured attention (dwell time) to precise website features. Linear regression analyses compared attention to HPHC descriptions and the correct recognition of 15 HPHC chemicals. A randomly selected sub-sample (N = 30) of participants qualitatively rated website usability. RESULTS: Despite spending less dwell time on the HPHC text and entire website, adult smokers who viewed the generic + static website had greater improvement in HPHC recognition compared to the tailored + interactive website (4.6 vs 3.6; p = .02); this finding contrasts with current literature on tailoring and interactivity. Both websites were rated highly on ease-of-use and readability. CONCLUSIONS: Basic formats and narrative HPHC Web-based content attracted less visual attention, yet increased recognition of these chemicals in cigarettes, compared to brand-tailored, interactive web-based content.

In this chapter the authors explore the intersection of media, self, and identity. They discuss various theories of media effects from the perspective of how media are affected by, and in turn affect, self and identity. They explore ways that the self informs media choices and ways that media content and use affect how our identities are shaped and how they evolve. They examine research on social comparison, identification and parasocial relationships, and how stories can be used to expand the boundaries of the self (TEBOTS). Finally, they present a discussion of the possibility that eudaimonic stories about deeply moving human emotions may impact human behavior by providing wisdom of experience (MWOE).