Perhaps a good movie may better persuade young women to use birth control than news documentary according to a study published in Human Communication Research.
Since, women sometimes adversely judge other woman on how they discuss condoms with their men, or are rejected as unromantic and uncomfortable, breaking down resistance is a challenge.
The long term cost of teenage pregnancy is a burden few young people handle well.
It seems that researchers have found that college-age women who viewed a televised drama about a teen pregnancy felt more vulnerable two weeks after watching the show resulting in them seeking more support for birth control use.
However, news program about the difficulties caused by teen pregnancies did not change their intentions to use birth control.
Clearly stories can influence us far more than facts – a point known in sales for years.
“A message that is hidden inside of a story may overcome some of the resistance people have to being told how to behave,” study co-author said Moyer-Gusé, assistant professor of communication at Ohio State University.
“The impact that dramatized stories have on people’s beliefs and intentions depends a lot on the individual viewers, and not just the message – but our results suggest the effect can be there.”
The study of 353 undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 25 was conducted with Robin Nabi of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Drawing on existing research and theorizing on narrative persuasion and overcoming resistance, the study examined the process through which entertainment programs generate persuasive influence.
The students watched one of two programs that focused on the difficulties associated with unplanned teen pregnancies.
Half of the participants watched a program developed by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy with the message was that teen pregnancy makes life as a young adult more difficult.
The remaining participants watched an episode of the U.S. teen drama, The OC. In this episode, high-school students Ryan and Theresa faced the difficult consequences of an unintended pregnancy.
The programs were pre-tested with other students, who agreed that they both had the same main message concerning the difficulties of teen pregnancy.
Before watching the programs, students completed questionnaires asking how often they used some form of birth control if they were sexually active, and their intentions to use birth control over the next year.
Immediately after viewing the programs, participants filled out questionnaires asking how much they were emotionally involved and how much they identified with the characters, as well as issues about their response to the programs.
Two weeks later, they were contacted again and asked about their intentions to use birth control.
It is no surprise that male and females responded differently..
News broadcasts did not influence the men two weeks later. However, men did not identify the characters, did not like the program and were less likely to follow birth control practices two weeks later.
Women were also unmoved by news format programs but were were more planned on taking steps to prevent pregnancy two weeks after watching the OC episode.
The findings revealed some of the underlying mechanisms that made the TV drama persuasive to many women viewers.
Viewers who said they identified with the two main characters in The OC episode said they felt more vulnerable to an unplanned pregnancy two weeks later, influencing their greater intentions to use birth control.
“Many of the women participants were able to put themselves in the place of the characters and sense they could end up in a similar situation if they weren’t careful,” Moyer-Gusé said.
Feeling vulnerable was the key to accepting birth control practices for the women in the study.
“One of the reasons why some people avoid safer sex behaviors is because they feel invulnerable-– they have this optimistic bias that nothing bad will ever happen to them,” she said.
“But if you vicariously experience a bad result happening to you by watching a narrative program, that may change behavior in a way that is difficult to achieve through a direct message.”
The studants, particularly women, were more likely to be persuaded to use birth control if they felt the program did not overtly preach a safe-sex message.
While, most people didn’t think The OC episode was preaching safe-sex, those who did were much less likely to increase their intentions to use birth control.
Students who reacted to the OC characters as if they were friends were less likely to see an overt message and more likely to accept birth control..
“The show we chose happened to connect less with the men. But if we picked another topic or another show, I believe a narrative program could also be persuasive to male viewers” said Moyer-Gusé.
While these results suggest persuasive messages might be better received by people if they are wrapped up in a story, Moyer-Gusé cautions that it isn’t always that simple.
A lot depends on the individual viewers and not just the message.
“The problem with using stories to persuade people is that people can interpret them in different ways. You don’t always get the results you expect,” she said.
Interestingly, an http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180339.php” rel=”nofollow”>Opinion Piece questioned the wisdom of depicting pregnant and mother teens.
According to Double X managing editor Jessica Grose the MTV reality show “16 and Pregnant” and its spin-off, “Teen Mom,” “are designed to deter adolescents from becoming mothers – a relevant issue as teen pregnancy rates are up for the first time in more than a decade” in the article.
The shows “follow adolescent mothers as they struggle to raise their children” and “are produced in partnership with the National Campaign To Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.”
Gross asks, “Can a television show really convince teens that they should wait to become mothers? And even if it can, is it worth the cost of offering up a handful of young women as public examples during perhaps the most vulnerable period of their lives?”
Gross refers to the article you cited above adding “But at what price does ’16 and Pregnant’ get this message across?” She writes that she worries what “repercussions” a pregnant minor would face “for putting her life out there and wonder[s] whether she could really understand the consequences.”
“While MTV aims to send a good message with earnest shows about teen motherhood, the message gets muddled when it is in the context of the networks other reality programming,” notably the show “Jersey Shore,” “which depicted consequence-free carousing.”
Grose states that producer of “16 and Pregnant,” Morgan J. Freeman, says the participants are financially compensated for their time without details.
Freeman said, “I don’t think there’s anything of an exploitative nature in what we’re doing,” adding, “We do our best to show a very unvarnished and honest portrayal of their experience.” Grose writes, “But maybe essential truth isn’t in the best interest of these girls, for whom excising some of their most unpleasant moments could be the equivalent of a televised white lie” (Grose, Slate, 2/22).