Educational influence of knowledge of the masked presence of alcohol on Instagram on behavior change

Abstract

The push strategy of anti-alcohol campaigns targeting young people, both in traditional media and on social media, has shown a limited capacity to contribute to the development of healthy behaviors. Even when young people know about the harmful effects of alcohol, they develop reactance attitudes, self-affirmation reactions, defensive responses, and neutralization of the persuasive attempts of institutional messages. It is necessary to seek new educational communication strategies that are effective in modifying behaviors favorable to alcohol consumption among young people. The aim of this research is to implement an educational method that favors this change toward healthy behaviors. On the basis of the Instagram campaign “Like my addiction,” 124 young people (age: M = 23.6 years, SD = 2.8 years) participated for 3 weeks in three phases to test whether the presence of alcohol on Instagram had an impact on their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, as well as the effectiveness of the educational method tested. Half of the subjects followed a process of becoming aware of the presence of alcohol in this Instagram campaign and then participated in an interactive process of discussion according to the critical–dialogical educational method. The results show that this educational method is effective. Subjects in the control group who did not follow the method did not modify their behavior on Instagram. In contrast, the experimental group became aware of the masked presence of alcohol on Instagram. These subjects exhibit self-persuasion that makes them modify their activity favorably between the pre-test and post-test phase as they change their attitudes and behaviors toward alcohol. The results show that the critical–dialogical formative method can be favorably applied to implement campaigns and educational actions to fight alcohol addiction among young people.