Anchoring Estimates of Alcohol Use with Normative Feedback

通过规范反馈来锚定酒精使用估计

• 批准号: 8317177
• 负责人: Matthew Ryan Pearson
• 金额: $ 1.62万
• 依托单位: OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-04-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8317177
• 关键词: Accounting; Affect; African; Alcohol consumption; Alcoholic beverage heavy drinker; Awareness; Behavioral; Cognitive; Conscious; Country; Decision Making; Development; Feedback; Gender; Individual; Intervention; Intervention Studies; Judgment; Lead; Leadership; Measures; Mediating; Mediator of activation protein; Methods; Mission; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; Paper; Participant; Patient Self-Report; Process; Public Health; Randomized Controlled Trials; Report (account); Reporting; Research; Research Design; Seminal; Social Desirability; Testing; Treatment Efficacy; Uncertainty; United Nations; Validity of Self Report; alcohol intervention; alcohol monitoring; alcohol related consequences; alcohol related problem; base; behavior change; comparative; design; diaries; drinking; follow-up; heuristics; improved; in vivo; normative feedback; personalized normative feedback; social; stem; successful intervention; theories; therapy design; university student

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this project is to examine whether a well-studied cognitive bias (i.e., anchoring effect) may effect the validity of studies examining the efficacy of norm-based interventions. Prior research suggests that personalized normative feedback (PNF) interventions are successful as reducing self-reported alcohol use, but there is very little support suggesting that they successfully reduce alcohol-related problems. Given the very strong relationship between alcohol use and alcohol-related problems, this finding is peculiar. As stated in NIAAA's mission statement, NIAAA seeks to provide "leadership in the national effort to reduce alcohol-related problems." The proposed studies examine whether the presentation of normative information to individuals in the treatment group of a PNF intervention biases estimates of self-reported alcohol use, which could explain why reported alcohol use decreases while consequences are unaffected. Study 1 examines several hypotheses. Using the study design to rule out behavioral change (i.e., cross-sectional design), Hypothesis 1 states that providing normative information will produce an anchoring effect such that self- reported alcohol use will be affected in the absence of behavioral change. To further examine the boundary conditions of the anchoring affect, the idea that the anchoring effect occurs without conscious awareness is tested (nonconscious anchoring effect hypothesis). Hypothesis 2a predicts that the anchoring effect will occur even when participants have been forewarned of the anchoring effect, and Hypothesis 2b predicts that the anchoring effect will be present even after controlling for social desirability bias. Further, Study 1 examines whether the greater the anchoring effect is stronger when the anchor is more applicable (anchor applicability hypothesis). Hypothesis 3a predicts that the anchoring effect will be stronger when presented with gender- specific normative feedback as compared to gender-neutral feedback, and Hypothesis 3b predicts that the anchoring effect will be stronger for individuals who more closely identify with the referent group. To extend the findings from Study 1, Study 2 uses a longitudinally design (i.e., 1-month follow-up) to examine two specific hypotheses. Hypothesis 4 predicts that the anchoring effect predictions will better account for reported change in alcohol use than predictions derived from Social Norms Theory. Hypothesis 5 predicts that perceived drinking norms will mediate the effect that normative information has on alcohol use estimates, even when these changes in estimated alcohol use cannot be attributed to actual behavior change. Using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods, Study 3 examines one unique hypothesis. Hypothesis 6 predicts that the anchoring effect will be present when using past week retrospective alcohol use measures, but not when using aggregated daily diary assessments. The proposed studies have broad implications to the development and testing of alcohol interventions. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project will examine a cognitive bias that may undermine the validity of self-reported alcohol consumption after being provided with normative information. Specifically, the Anchoring Effect may dissimulate the intervention efficacy for norm-based interventions. If the hypotheses are supported, then the standard assessment of alcohol consumption used to evaluate personalize normative feedback interventions will be called into question and improved methods will be suggested to better assess intervention efficacy.

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的长期目标是检查经过充分研究的认知偏差（即锚定效应）是否可能影响研究基于规范的干预措施有效性的研究的有效性。先前的研究表明，个性化规范反馈（PNF）干预措施在减少自我报告的饮酒方面是成功的，但很少有证据表明它们可以成功减少与酒精相关的问题。 鉴于饮酒与酒精相关问题之间存在非常密切的关系，这一发现很奇怪。正如 NIAAA 的使命声明中所述，NIAAA 寻求“在全国减少酒精相关问题的努力中发挥领导作用”。拟议的研究探讨了向 PNF 干预治疗组中的个人提供的规范信息是否会对自我报告的饮酒量估计产生偏差，这可以解释为什么报告的饮酒量减少而后果不受影响。研究 1 检验了几个假设。使用研究设计来排除行为改变（即横断面设计），假设 1 指出，提供规范信息将产生锚定效应，从而在没有行为改变的情况下，自我报告的饮酒情况将受到影响。为了进一步检验锚定效应的边界条件，检验了锚定效应在无意识的情况下发生的想法（无意识锚定效应假设）。假设2a预测，即使参与者已经预先警告锚定效应，锚定效应也会发生；假设2b预测，即使在控制了社会期望偏差之后，锚定效应也会存在。进一步，研究1检验了当锚越适用时锚定效果是否越大则越强（锚适用性假设）。假设 3a 预测，与性别中立的反馈相比，当提供特定性别的规范反馈时，锚定效应会更强；假设 3b 预测，对于与参考群体认同更密切的个体，锚定效应会更强。为了扩展研究 1 的研究结果，研究 2 使用纵向设计（即 1​​ 个月的随访）来检验两个具体假设。假设 4 预测，与社会规范理论得出的预测相比，锚定效应预测将更好地解释报告的饮酒变化。假设 5 预测，感知的饮酒规范将调节规范信息对饮酒估计的影响，即使估计饮酒的这些变化不能归因于实际的行为变化。研究 3 使用生态瞬时评估 (EMA) 方法检验了一个独特的假设。假设 6 预测，在使用过去一周的回顾性饮酒测量时会出现锚定效应，但在使用汇总的每日日记评估时不会出现锚定效应。拟议的研究对酒精干预措施的开发和测试具有广泛的影响。 公共卫生相关性：该项目将检查认知偏差，这种偏差可能会在提供规范信息后破坏自我报告的饮酒量的有效性。具体来说，锚定效应可能会掩盖基于规范的干预措施的干预效果。如果假设得到支持，那么用于评估个性化规范反馈干预措施的饮酒标准评估将受到质疑，并将建议改进方法以更好地评估干预效果。