Effects of Prior Exposure to Conflicting Health Information on Responses to Subsequent Unrelated Health Messages

Study Summary

Many population-level public health strategies-including media campaigns and other behavioral interventions, screening recommendations, and vaccination policies-rely on messaging to promote cancer prevention and control. These strategies do not take place in a vacuum; rather, they occur in the context of a broader public information environment, which is increasingly characterized by conflicting and often controversial health information. Although studies have documented that such information is prevalent, a critical question remains unanswered: does exposure to conflicting health information in people's routine interactions with the broader information environment threaten the success of message-based population-level public health strategies? And, if so, who is most susceptible to the effects of such exposure? This study will provide a rigorous empirical test of these critical answered questions, guided by two specific aims: First, to evaluate whether prior exposure to conflicting health information influences responses to subsequent unrelated and uncontested health messages, a phenomenon that has been described as "carryover effects" (Primary Aim); and second, to identify whether there are individual-level differences in how conflict affects responses to these unrelated and uncontested health messages (Secondary Aim).

Primary Outcome

* Participants are asked to indicate how "the ad you just saw made you feel" * 7 affective responses are randomly ordered: interested, frustrated, surprised, annoyed, distressed, optimistic, worried (response options: 1 "very slightly or not at all" to 5 "extremely")

Interventions

• OTHER Exposure to conflicting health information
• OTHER No exposure to conflicting health information