Media Manipulation of Adolescents' Personal Level Judgments regarding Consequences of Smokeless Tobacco Use

Videotapes were developed to try to impact on personal level judgments of concern and risk in the context of smokeless tobacco use, a growing substance use problem in adolescents. In a within-and-between-subjects design, convincingness (i.e., dramatic portrayal) of the videotaped message (high and low) and perceived probability of consequences portrayed in the message (high and low) were manipulated. Both manipulations were done by varying presentation style of the same, accurate information. The manipulation of convincingness did not alter the impact of the message on most judgments, whereas the manipulation of probability of consequences did. Two individual difference predictors, prior use of smokeless tobacco and male sex role orientation, were also found to enhance the amount of change in personal level judgments, but these variables did not interact with the message manipulations. These results suggest that a media manipulation of probability of consequences would be more effective than a manipulation of convincingness of message on impacting adolescent judgments of concern and risk regarding the use of smokeless tobacco.