Reactance to Social Authority in Entertainment-Education Media: Protocol for a Web-Based Randomized Controlled Trial

Area of Science:

• Health Communication
• Behavioral Science
• Psychology

Background:

• Entertainment-education media effectively influences health behaviors.
• Investigating social authority's role in health messages can enhance effectiveness.
• Reactance, a motivation to reject messages, may be triggered by social authority.

Purpose of the Study:

• Measure reactance to sugar reduction messages from narrators with varying social authority (child, mother, physician).
• Determine the impact of perceived narrator social authority on reactance.
• Assess the video's effectiveness in promoting sugar intake reduction and participant engagement.

Main Methods:

• Randomized controlled trial with 4000 UK participants (18-59 years).
• Comparison of intervention videos (low, equivalent, high social authority) against placebo videos.
• Measurement of reactance antecedents, components, and behavioral intent using list experiments.

Main Results:

• Study ethics approved March 2020; recruitment and data collection completed December 2020.
• Data analysis concluded April 2021; results planned for publication August 2021.
• The study design and methodology are detailed.

Conclusions:

• The trial investigates social authority's effect on reactance to sugar reduction messages.
• Utilizes randomization, list experiments, and web-based technologies.
• Findings will inform the design of future public health entertainment-education videos.