Perceived Effectiveness of Anti-Marijuana Messages in Adult Users and Nonusers: An Examination of Responses to Messages About Marijuana’s Effects on Cognitive Performance, Driving, and Health

Abstract

Marijuana useisassociatedwith negative cognitive and health outcomes and riskydriving. Giventhe rapidly changing policies regarding legalrecreational and medicinal marijuana use, it is important to examine what types of marijuana prevention messages may be effective in minimizing such outcomes. This study examined cognitive andaffective responses to anti-marijuana public health messagesin as ample of adult marijuana users and nonusers to determine the correlates of perceivedm essage effectiveness. Method: Participants (N = 203; mean age =3 7.7 years) were adult marijuana users and nonusers recruited via AmazonMechanicalTurk (August2017).After completing self-reportm easures of marijuana use, theyv ieweds ix anti-marijuana messages presentedinarandom order,addressing marijuana'seffects in each of three topic areas: cognitive performance, driving, and adverse health outcomes (e.g., twomessages per topic). Participants completed assessments of cognitive and affective perceptions after viewing each message. Foreach message topic, alinear regression model wasused to determine which cognitive and affective perceptions were most predictive of perceivedmessageeffectiveness. Results: Forall messagetopics, nonusers perceivedt he messages as more effective than did users (p < .001). In the majority of analyses, greater message effectivenessw as associated with increased perceivedh armo fm arijuana and increased liking of the message. Fordriving and health messages, greater message effectiveness wasalso significantlycorrelated with lowerpleasantaffect. Conclusions: Thefi ndings suggest that audience perceptions mayb e uniquelyp redictive of message effectiveness, depending on the topic.

Risk Factors Associated With Driving After Cannabis Use Among Canadian Young Adults

“…Beyond prevention, their implication in studies using a participative approach will help complement and intensify current interventions to ensure that the services meet more of their needs more accordingly. Without their participation in development prevention or intervention programmes, any message aimed towards them will not be heard, be perceived as credible or be accepted by them (Stevens et al, 2019).…”

The importance of psychology for shaping legal cannabis regulation.

“…In this regard, regulators are advised to begin curtailing the use of scientifically unsubstantiated health claims in advertisements, product packages, and product labels. In place of such claims, regulators could consider requiring large, unambiguously worded, centrally located warnings that inform consumers specifically about (a) harms to normal cognitive development (e.g., “WARNING Regular use of this product may impair brain development in individuals under the age of 25”) and (b) risks while driving under the influence (e.g., “WARNING Chance of motor vehicle accident almost doubles while under the influence of this product;” Goodman, Leos-Toro, & Hammond, 2019; Mutti-Packer, Collyer, & Hodgins, 2018; Orenstein & Glantz, 2018; Shi, Cao, Shang, & Pacula, 2019; Stevens et al, 2019). These two specific topics—impaired driving abilities and cognitive development—are supported by data and seem to be the most broadly convincing.…”

“…Furthermore, sparsely worded product labels may be preferable as labels that contain too much information are ignored or poorly understood by consumers (Kosa, Giombi, Rains, & Cates, 2017). Finally, it may be useful for regulators to consider developing and testing the impact and efficacy of multiple message types across subgroups of the population because there likely is not a “one-size-fits-all” message (Stevens et al, 2019).…”