NCT05321238

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

The Role of Agency and Threat-Immediacy in Interactive Digital Narrative Fear Appeals for the Prevention of Excessive Alcohol Use: Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 178 (actual)
• Sponsor: Tilburg University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

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.

Conditions

• Excessive Drinking

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	High agency and immediate threat	Participants were asked to make several decisions for the main character in the interactive digital narrative that related to drinking / turning down alcoholic drinks.The decisions made lead to a ending consistent with the decisions of the participant. In the story presented, a character dies from acute alcohol poisoning after ingesting too much alcohol in a short period of time.
OTHER	High agency and distant threat	Participants were asked to make several decisions for the main character in the interactive digital narrative that related to drinking / turning down alcoholic drinks.The decisions made lead to a ending consistent with the decisions of the participant. In the story presented, a character dies from multiple organ failure after ingesting too much alcohol over a long period of time.
OTHER	Low agency and immediate threat	Participants were asked to read a narrative in which the main character turns down alcoholic drinks at a party. The participants can not influence the decisions of the main character and only consume the narrative passively.The decisions made lead to a ending consistent with the decisions of the participant. In the story presented, a character dies from acute alcohol poisoning after ingesting too much alcohol in a short period of time.
OTHER	Low agency and distant threat	Participants were asked to read a narrative in which the main character turns down alcoholic drinks at a party. The participants can not influence the decisions of the main character and only consume the narrative passively.The decisions made lead to a ending consistent with the decisions of the participant. In the story presented, a character dies from multiple organ failure after ingesting too much alcohol over a long period of time.

Timeline

• Start date: 2020-11-26
• Primary completion: 2020-12-18
• Completion: 2020-12-18
• First posted: 2022-04-11
• Last updated: 2022-04-22

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Netherlands