Defensively Biased Processing Among Alcohol-using College Students

Some approaches to the cessation of negative behaviors assume that increasing knowledge about the risk associated with high-risk behaviors plays an integral part in ending negative behaviors. Also assumed is that persuasive messages aimed at stopping negative behaviors are accepted and processed by the intended recipients. Research indicates that messages are processed differently based on whether the audience is doing the negative behavior or not. For example, individuals who drink coffee will be more critical of a medical report linking coffee to cancer when compared with non-coffee drinkers. This difference in processing is called defensively biased processing. Leffingwell et al. (2007) sought to understand whether alcohol-using college students would respond to risk messages about alcohol use with a defensive bias.

Method

The authors did a study with three hundred thirty-five alcohol-using (N=244) and non-using (N=91) undergraduate college students. They measured attitudes and believes about alcohol use, and the frequency and quantity of alcohol use and consumption.

The students were invited to participate in an internet-based study where they read a brief summary of alcohol risk information intended for college students. The alcohol risk information was taken from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) web site. After reading the information the participants completed attitude and belief measures.

Results

Defensively Biased Processing

• Alcohol-using college students viewed college drinking as a less important problem.
• Also have less confidence in the scientific merit of the NIAAA information than non-using students.
• Alcohol-using students did not report greater personal risk for alcohol-related negative consequences, which indicates defensively biased processing of risk information.

Defensively Biased Processing: Depends On Drinking Patterns

• Results indicated that as drinking patterns increased, scientific merit and problem importance attitudes decreased while personal risk perceptions increased.
• Also, there is a pattern of increasingly biased responding as message relevance (e.g., binge drinking) increased.

Discussion

Overall alcohol-using college students were more likely to rate college drinking as a less important problem than non-using students. Further increasing amounts of defensively biased responding were observed as message-relevance increased. More frequent binge drinking students rated the problem as less important and were more skeptical of the scientific integrity of the message. This bias is likely to reduce the effectiveness of alcohol risk messages among individuals for whom the message is more relevant – heavy, frequent alcohol-using students. One explanation for this is that the messages may end up “preaching to the converted.”

One limitation of the study should be mentioned. There is a lack of diversity in the sample collected as most were Caucasian female college students. The lack of diversity means that the findings may not generalize to other populations.

Implications for Intervention and Prevention Campaigns

Since alcohol-using college students are likely to respond to alcohol-risk information in a defensive way, it is imperative that strategies be implemented to reduce defensive bias. One approach suggested by the authors is the self-affirmation task which involves writing about an important personal value before health-risk information is given. Engaging alcohol-using college students in an affirmation task before presenting alcohol-risk information may be one way to decrease defensive bias thereby increasing the impact of a persuasive message.

Authors' Biographies

Alison C. Babitzke

A proud resident of Arkansas, Alison C. Babitzke, MS, LPE obtained a BS with honors in psychology and sociology from East Central University in Oklahoma (2000) and a MS in psychology from the clinical psychology graduate program at Oklahoma State University (2004). While in graduate school, Ms. Babitzke began conducting research with a focus on health and behavior change. She has presented research findings at multiple national and regional conferences, has published several journal articles, and eagerly anticipates conducting research again in the future. Currently, however, Ms. Babitzke is devoting the majority of her time to clinical practice. At present, she is employed as the Coordinator of Emergency Services at Counseling Associates, Inc. in Russellville, Arkansas. In this position, her primary duties include conducting emergency assessments and facilitating appropriate treatment referrals for individuals at hospitals, detention centers, and other locations across three counties in central Arkansas. 

Melissa Leedy, M.S.

Melissa Leedy, M.S. is a native of Oklahoma and earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology at the University of Oklahoma. She went on to earn her Masters degree in psychology at Oklahoma State University (OSU). Currently, she is a doctoral candidate in the clinical psychology program at OSU. Currently, she is completing her clinical internship at the James A. Haley VAMC in Tampa, FL where she provides clinical services to veterans with primary medical problems. Ms. Leedy’s research interests include health related behavior change and college alcohol use.

Thad R. Leffingwell, Ph.D.

Thad R. Leffingwell, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at Oklahoma State University.  Dr. Leffingwell earned a masters degree in sport and exercise psychology from the University of Arizona and completed his doctoral training in clinical psychology at the University of Washington including a pre-doctoral internship at the Puget Sound VA Healthcare System – Seattle.  Dr. Leffingwell’s research interests include brief motivational interventions, motivational predictors of self-directed and assisted behavior change, and the impact of health-risk information upon health behavior change.  He has worked on six different federal, state and privately funded intervention projects that investigated adaptations of motivational interviewing.  Dr. Leffingwell may be contacted at Oklahoma State University, 215 North Murray, Stillwater, OK  74078-3064 (e-mail: thad.leffingwell@okstate.edu).

Christopher Adam Neumann

Dr. Neumann received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Oklahoma State University in 2005. He completed his internship at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and is currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Community-Based Intervention Research Group at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. Dr. Neumann’s research interests involve advancing the theory and practice of brief motivational interventions. He is currently involved in two NIAAA-funded grants designed to test the efficacy of a school-based motivational intervention targeting adolescent alcohol use. Dr. Neumann also recently submitted a pilot grant as part of an NIAAA Alcohol Research Center grant. His pilot grant is designed to examine the role of motivational factors on treatment outcome for alcohol using adolescents.

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