Protective Message Strategies Against Binge Drinking Among College Students: Narrative and Inoculation Messages Comparison

This experiment examined preemptive strategies against binge drinking among college students. Given the pervasiveness of heavy drinking on college campuses, the study explored the potential to employ inoculation and narrative messages to protect preexisting negative attitudes about binge drinking from a pro-binge-drinking attack message. Utilizing a three-phase experiment, the current investigation explored the impact of different communication strategies (inoculation, narrative, control) on binge drinking attitudes. The experimental results indicated that for college students exposed to a pro-binge-drinking message, inoculation worked better than both narrative and control messages. As such, inoculation messages have the potential to protect attitudes toward binge drinking.