Sensation Seeking and the Effectiveness of Physical and Social Threat Drug Prevention PSA Messages

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the responses of high and low sensation seeking high school students to drug prevention PSAs featuring either social or physical threat messages. One hundred eight high school students participated in a 2 (social or physical threat message)x 2 (high or low sensation seeking) experiment. As hypothesized, social threat messages were viewed more favorably than physical threat messages. In addition, the findings support that high sensation seeking teens are the appropriate target audience for anti-drug PSAs, and these individuals differ with respect to their response to physical and social threat messages.