The Lemming-effect: harm perception of psychotropic substances among music festival visitors

Abstract

Previous authors have recognised the need for a re-characterisation of risk assessment as a lived experience which is constructed in, and influenced by, the social context. In this article, we examine the impact of perceived drug consumption norms on perceived drug-related harm in a social context encouraging drug use. We hypothesised that cognitive accessibility of perceived peer behaviour leads to a trivialisation of perceived harm. To test this hypothesis, we surveyed a sample of 367 visitors of the Open-Air St. Gallen music festival 2009 (Switzerland) about the perceived harm of heroin, cocaine, cannabis, alcohol and tobacco. We used a split-ballot experiment to manipulate the cognitive accessibility of high drug consumption prevalence among visitors. We assessed subjects’ blood alcohol concentration, gender, age, and alcohol and cannabis consumption patterns as potential confounders. We found that cannabis was perceived as the least harmful substance, followed by tobacco, alcohol, cocaine and heroin. Cannabis was also judged as being least addictive, followed by alcohol, tobacco, cocaine and heroin. When perceived peer behaviour was made cognitively accessible, perceived health damages were significantly lower for cannabis, alcohol and tobacco, and perceived addictiveness was significantly lower for alcohol. Higher blood alcohol concentration had a levelling effect on risk judgements. Our results shed light on the underlying cognitive mechanisms of changes in drug-related risk perception induced by perceived peer behaviour of a drug-affine subculture and suggest a contextual trivialisation of perceived harm. Targeted prevention campaigns should consider a situational willingness to trivialise perceived drug-related hazards among music festival visitors and aim at counteracting such unconscious misconceptions.