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Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research

Date Submitted: Feb 25, 2021
Date Accepted: Sep 28, 2021

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Causal Effects of Alcohol-Related Facebook Posts on Drinking Behavior: Longitudinal Experimental Study

Hendriks H, De Nooy W, Gebhardt W, Van den Putte B

Causal Effects of Alcohol-Related Facebook Posts on Drinking Behavior: Longitudinal Experimental Study

J Med Internet Res 2021;23(11):e28237

DOI: 10.2196/28237

PMID: 34762061

PMCID: 8663476

Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.

What’s there to like? The causal effects of alcohol-related Facebook posts on drinking behavior

  • Hanneke Hendriks; 
  • Wouter De Nooy; 
  • Winifred Gebhardt; 
  • Bas Van den Putte

ABSTRACT

Background:

Adolescents and young adults frequently post alcohol-related content (i.e., alcoholposts) on social media. This is problematic, because both social norms theory and social learning theory suggest that viewing alcoholposts could increase drinking behavior. It is therefore paramount to understand the effects of alcoholposts on their viewers.

Objective:

This study aims to investigate the causal effects of exposure to alcoholposts on alcohol consumption by employing a rigorous design.

Methods:

We conducted a longitudinal study (6 weeks), during which alcoholposts were measured by a newly developed app that copied participants’ (N = 281) Facebook posts to a new secure social media environment. Daily questionnaires assessed alcohol use. Effects of existing alcoholposts were assessed in Phase 1, and effects of experimental posts (i.e., posted by fake participants) were explored in Phase 2.

Results:

Results showed that existing alcoholposts increased the occurrence and quantity of drinking the following day. That is, exposure to a single additional alcoholpost increased the log odds of drinking the next day by 0.27 (b = 0.27, CI = [0.18, 0.35]). Furthermore, the number of alcoholposts also had a positive (predictive) effect on the number of glasses drunk the next day (b = 0.21, CI = [0.14, 0.29]). In Phase 2, when experimental posts were also present, these effects decreased. Experimental posts themselves had hardly any effects.

Conclusions:

This study illustrates clear and direct causal effects of alcoholposts on next day alcohol consumption and suggest that alcoholposts represent an important societal problem that interventions need to address.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Hendriks H, De Nooy W, Gebhardt W, Van den Putte B

Causal Effects of Alcohol-Related Facebook Posts on Drinking Behavior: Longitudinal Experimental Study

J Med Internet Res 2021;23(11):e28237

DOI: 10.2196/28237

PMID: 34762061

PMCID: 8663476

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