Personalized and Normative Responsible Gambling Messages: Neural Responses Across Gambling Severity and Prudence

This study examines whether the neural engagement of two message frames commonly used in responsible gambling communication -personalized messages (tailored suggestions based on gambling behaviors) and normative messages (which encourage behavior that aligns with socially acceptable standards) - varies according to gambling severity and self-perceived prudence. Particularly, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we explore brain activation patterns in response to such message frames among 42 predominantly male participants with varying levels of gambling severity and self-perceived prudence. Building on protection motivation theory, exploratory region-of-interest analyses suggested that mPFC engagement to personalized messages was nominally associated with higher gambling severity, and left angular gyrus engagement to normative messages was nominally associated with higher self-perceived prudence; neither association survived correction for multiple comparisons and both should be considered preliminary. Direct whole-brain contrasts further indicated that personalized and normative messages recruited partially dissociable activation patterns. These findings provide preliminary neurocognitive evidence that neural responses to responsible gambling messages are associated with the alignment between message framing and consumer characteristics in a young, predominantly male sample of low-to-moderate-risk gamblers. More broadly, they highlight the value of tailoring harm-minimization strategies to improve the targeting of responsible-gambling interventions.