To burn or not to burn: use of computer-enhanced stimuli to encourage application of sunscreens

Skin cancer affects 515,000 Americans every year, causing more than 7,000 deaths. Prior studies attempted, with scant success, to increase general knowledge about protection of the skin and to encourage use of sunscreens. The failure was attributed to the allure of the suntan as a symbol of health and affluence and to the "optimistic bias" (belief in one's own invulnerability) displayed by sunbathers. The study detailed here sought to increase the use by subjects of sunscreen by showing computer-altered images of their own faces, aged and disfigured by lesions. That stimulus was designed to counter false impressions and illusions of sunbathers about the benefits of the sun by demonstrating, immediately and personally, negative effects of sun exposure. Data were collected from thirty adolescents in the form of six weekly logs of sunscreen use and time spent outdoors between 10 AM and 3 PM. Results showed that the computer-altered images motivated increased use of sunscreen in the short term: subjects in the experimental groups used sunscreen almost three times as frequently as those in the control group during the experimental period (P = 0.000). Images of aging and disfiguring by lesions produced a more intense and prolonged modification in behavior than images of aging only.