The Role of Agency and Threat-Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals

Tilburg University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Excessive Drinking

Treatments: Other: High agency and immediate threat; Other: Low agency and distant threat; Other: High agency and distant threat; Other: Low agency and immediate threat

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05321238

2020.141

Details and patient eligibility

About

Aims:

The first aim of the study was to assess the effect of agency, i.e. the perception of making meaningful decisions, in an interactive digital narrative fear appeal on self-efficacy beliefs concerning the ability to reduce alcohol intake among college students. Second, we assessed whether the communicated timeframe (short-term / long-term) of the threat presented in the narrative moderates the effect of agency on self-efficacy. Lastly, to validate the effect of the intervention on behavioural outcomes we assesed whether self-efficacy has an effect on behavioural intention measures.

The study was a 2 (agency: low / high) x 2 (time-frame: immediate / distant) between-subjects online experiment.

Enrollment: 178 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• above 18 years of age
• 480 seconds survey completion time
• both attention checks relating to narrative content passed
• correctly identified their experimental condition in the manipulation check
• did not choose to 'drink an alcoholic drink' for all decisions in the interactive narrative
• did not show signs of alcohol abuse

Exclusion criteria

• under the age of 18
• completed the questionnaire in an unreasonably short amount of time
• they failed one of the two attention checks
• failed the manipulation check asking them to recall whether they were presented with short- or long-term (high / low immediacy) consequences of excessive drinking
• chose an alcoholic drink for all decision points
• showed signs of alcohol dependence as measured above 15 on the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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178 participants in 4 patient groups

High agency and immediate threat

Experimental group

Description:

Participants were asked to make decisions within the interactive digital narrative and were presented with acute alcohol poisoning of the main character in the story.

Treatment:

Other: High agency and immediate threat

High agency and distant threat

Experimental group

Description:

Participants were asked to make decisions within the interactive digital narrative and were presented with multiple organ failure after years of alcohol consumption of the main character in the story.

Treatment:

Other: High agency and distant threat

Low agency and immediate threat

Experimental group

Description:

Participants were presented with a fixed (passive) narrative without decisions and were presented with acute alcohol poisoning of the main character in the story.

Treatment:

Other: Low agency and immediate threat

Low agency and distant threat

Experimental group

Description:

Participants were presented with a fixed (passive) narrative without decisions and were presented with multiple organ failure after years of alcohol consumption of the main character in the story.

Treatment:

Other: Low agency and distant threat