Beïnvloedt de NIX18-campagne impliciete en expliciete cognities van volwassenen?

Does the NIX18-campaign influence implicit and explicit cognitions in adults? Research has shown that often, the effectiveness of anti-alcohol mass media campaigns is not experimentally tested, meaning that it is unclear whether such campaigns are successful in altering alcohol-related cognitions. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated whether the Dutch NIX18-campaign is successful in influencing implicit associations (measured with an affective priming task) and explicit cognitions (i.e., alcohol outcome expectancies) concerning alcohol. Additionally, a possible relationship with negative evaluations of the campaign and psychological reactance was investigated. Participants implicit and explicit cognitions were measured before they were presented with either three NIX18-campaign movies or no movies (control condition). Subsequently, their implicit and explicit cognitions were measured again. Results show that whether participants watched the movies or not had no influence on implicit associations but increased alcohol outcome expectancies. No effect on evaluation and reactance was found. Possible theoretical and practical explanations are discussed.