Abstract
In this study, we assess an alternative strategy for health interventions, namely, two-sided messages. A 3 × 2 between-subjects factorial experimental design investigates the effect of three different anti-binge drinking messages (i.e., one-sided, two-sided non-refutational, and two-sided refutational) on strongly and weakly issue-involved adolescents’ binge drinking intentions after exposure to peer pressure. A sample of 185 adolescents between the age of 15 and 19 participated in the experiment. The results show that when adolescents’ involvement with binge drinking is strong, a two-sided refutational as well as non-refutational message result in lower binge drinking intentions than a one-sided message. When adolescents’ involvement with binge drinking is weak, binge drinking intentions are not influenced by message sidedness.
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