Binge Drinking PSAs May Encourage Students to Drink More

Public service announcements designed to shame college students out of binge drinking may instead only further encourage the behavior. A new study found that PSAs that associate binge drinking with guilt and shame foster resistance to the ad's intended message.

The study was conducted Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, and surveyed 1,200 undergraduate students. In the study, students were shown anti-alcohol ads relying heavily on the self-disgust associated with binge drinking to get across their point. One of the ads showed a young woman hugging a toilet bowl and the slogan "Best night of my life."

According to Kellogg professor Nidhi Agrawal, "defensive processing" may cause anyone who is already feeling shame or guilt to react against the PSAs that attempt to pile on even more guilt and shame, rejecting the message and resorting to the behavior the ad is trying to discourage.

But even if one isn't already feeling especially guilty about drinking for a PSA to send them out on a drinking binge. The study also shows that other shaming PSAs will drive students to drink. For example, Agrawal says:

"If you're talking to a student about cheating on an exam, and one of those ads comes up, you can bet they are headed straight to the bar."

Shame-based PSAs cover not only binge drinking, but also behaviors like drug and steroid use, sexually transmitted diseases, and smoking, are also often addressed. The study's authors believe that the money being spent on these PSAs could be put to better use, and instead of resorting to shame, they should tone down the messages and be "as possible as possible.