9 May 2017
Researchers:
Sunjeev Kamboj, Val Curran, Stuart Linke: University College London
Peter Harris: University of Sussex
Key findings
- Although there were no effects on drinking behavior, self-affirmation affected the processing of threatening alcohol-health information in a gender-dependent manner. Weak effects in line with the hypotheses were only found in men.
- Self-affirmed men showed less defensive responding to, and more engagement with, alcohol-health threat. Paradoxically, women who underwent self-affirmation showed a reduction in intention to reduce alcohol consumption.
- The self-affirmation procedure used here appears to be feasibly delivered via a web-based platform although effects may be diluted compared to lab-based procedures. The unexpected pattern of gender effects may relate to the population or ‘mode of delivery.’
- In conclusion, harmful drinkers may show different patterns of self-affirmation effects, depending on gender. These findings have implications for the design of theory-based eHealth interventions.
