When Do Public Health Epilogues Correct the Influence of Alcohol Story Lines on Youth? The Interplay of Narrative Transportation and Persuasion Knowledge
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online July, 2019
When Do Public Health Epilogues Correct the Influence of Alcohol Story Lines on Youth? The Interplay of Narrative Transportation and Persuasion Knowledge
Youth drinking is a major public health problem. Entertainment content that positively depicts alcohol consumption is often implicated as a factor shaping youths’ attitudes and beliefs about drinking alcohol. This research examines whether and under which conditions corrective epilogues can counteract the influence of a television episode featuring positive consequences of drinking. Building on recent research that demonstrates how consumers’ persuasion knowledge can increase acceptance of a message, this study finds that persuasion knowledge enhances receptivity to epilogues but only among viewers who are highly transported into the story. The research points to a promising approach to remedy the potentially harmful influence of a story line depicting undesirable behaviors on a vulnerable population.
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