Increasing Perceived Risk of Opioid Misuse: The Effects of Concrete Language and Image

Area of Science:

• Health Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Risk Communication

Background:

• Risk perception significantly influences health behavior change, particularly for actions with long-term consequences.
• Construal-level theory provides a framework for understanding how psychological distance affects judgment and decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how concrete thinking about negative opioid misuse consequences impacts risk perception.
• To investigate the roles of message framing (concrete vs. abstract language, images) in shaping risk perception.

Main Methods:

• A factorial online experiment was conducted with 220 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers.
• Participants were exposed to messages varying in language concreteness and the presence of images.
• Measures included perceived concreteness, perceived temporal distance, negative affect, and risk perception.

Main Results:

• Concrete language enhanced perceived concreteness, leading to increased risk perception and negative affect.
• Negative affect was found to mediate the relationship between perceived concreteness and risk perception.
• Images reduced perceived temporal distance, indirectly influencing risk perception through negative affect.

Conclusions:

• Communicating the negative consequences of opioid misuse using concrete language can effectively heighten risk perception.
• Interventions leveraging concrete imagery and language may be beneficial for promoting health behavior change related to substance misuse.
• Understanding the interplay between psychological distance, affect, and cognitive construal is crucial for effective risk communication strategies.