Can I Have One Minute of Your Time? Strategic Message Design Is Needed to Change Behavior

Public awareness of alcohol's carcinogenic risk remains persistently low, which is a barrier to reducing alcohol-related cancer incidence, which is increasing. This invited commentary discusses a study by Hay and colleagues that assessed the effectiveness of a brief educational video in raising awareness among 827 previously unaware US adult alcohol consumers. The study found that a single video exposure increased awareness to 70%, but knowledge gains were lower among heavy drinkers, cancer-risk pessimists, and non-Hispanic White participants. Awareness alone is insufficient for behavior change, and theoretically driven, targeted messaging that provides specific information on mechanisms of action and consumption limits is needed. To effectively motivate behavior change, future communication strategies must provide nuanced, targeted information and address prevalent misconceptions. The cancer community also needs to ensure consistency between public health messaging and its own fundraising and outreach activities to maintain credibility. See related article by Hay et al., p. 389.