Implicit alcohol attitudes predict drinking behaviour over and above intentions and willingness in young adults but willingness is more important in adolescents: Implications for the Prototype Willingness Model

Abstract

Adding implicit measures to the PWM may contribute to our understanding of the development of alcohol behaviours in young people. Further research could explore how implicit attitudes develop alongside the shift from reactive to planned behaviour. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Young people's drinking tends to occur in social situations and is driven in part by social reactions within these contexts. The Prototype Willingness Model (PWM) attempts to explain such reactive behaviour as the result of social comparison to risk prototypes, which influence willingness to drink, and subsequent behaviour. Evidence also suggests that risky drinking in young people may be influenced by implicit attitudes towards alcohol, which develop with repeated exposure to alcohol over time. One criticism of the PWM is that prototypes and willingness are usually measured using explicit measures which may not adequately capture young people's spontaneous evaluations of prototypes, or their propensity to act without forethought in a social context. What does this study add? This study is novel in exploring the addition of implicit alcohol attitudes to the social reaction pathway in the model in order to understand more about these reactive constructs. Implicit alcohol attitudes added to the prediction of behaviour, over and above intentions and willingness for university students. For school pupils, willingness was a stronger predictor of behaviour than intentions or implicit attitudes. Findings suggest that adding implicit alcohol attitudes into the PWM might be able to explain the shift from reactive to intentional drinking behaviours with age and experience.

Implicit Cognition and Psychopathology: Looking Back and Looking Forward

“…These discrepancies may be due to differences in populations (e.g., heavy drinkers versus nonheavy drinkers) or the presence of advertising in visual stimuli (see Kreusch et al 2013). Other potential moderators that may influence the relation between implicit drinking-related cognition and outcomes include age (Davies et al 2017), sex (Lindgren et al 2016a), executive functions (Lavigne et al 2017), mood (Lindgren et al 2018c), distractibility (Farris et al 2010), and other substance use (e.g., Cohn et al 2014). For example, positive + alcohol associations on an IAT predicted drinking behavior among adults in college aged 18 and older, but not among adolescents aged 11-17 years (Davies et al 2017).…”

Alcohol‐related harm minimization practices among university students: Does the type of residence have an impact?

“…For example, the study of 'compensatory health beliefs' (see Rabia, Knauper, & Miquelon, 2006) is characterized by individualistic psychological models of alcohol use involving discrete entities such as 'beliefs' and 'motivation'. This approach can also be seen in research about 'implicit alcohol attitudes' and 'willingness' to drink (see Davies, Paltoglou, & Foxcroft, 2017). These psychological models of alcohol use are not informed, as social psychologists have argued, by understanding the social practices of drinking (Szmigin et al, 2011) or the 'culture of intoxication' (Measham & Brain, 2005).…”

Similarity to prototypical heavy drinkers and non-drinkers predicts AUDIT-C and risky drinking in young adults: prospective study

“…This is in contrast to the assumptions of the PWM that willingness should mediate this relationship. This finding might relate to the predominantly student sample, who having prior experience with drinking behaviours, are likely to be planning and intending to drink, rather than only open to engaging in drinking if the right set of circumstances prevailed (Davies et al, 2017;Pomery et al, 2009). These results show that prototype perceptions may continue to influence behaviours even once they become less spontaneous and more planned and intentional.…”

“…Intentions and willingness are also assumed to be independent but are also often highly correlated (Todd et al, 2016). Previous research suggests that, with experience, drinking behaviour becomes less reactive and more planned, and therefore intentions are better able to predict behaviour than willingness (Davies, Paltoglou, & Foxcroft, 2017;Pomery et al, 2009).…”