Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion.
Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2023 Feb;31(1):29-36. doi: 10.1037/pha0000551. Epub 2022 Feb 24.
Previous research with individuals with substance use disorder indicated that different narratives have different effects on one's behaviors and decision-making. One question that remains unanswered is whether simulating real-world consequences of illegal purchases using narratives would induce psychological distress levels as expected in real-world situations. The present experiment used a between-group design to study how different narratives regarding penalties impact smokers' affective state and more specifically, psychological distress. Participants ( = 93) were randomized into one of the three groups: (a) legal tobacco purchases (LTP), (b) illegal tobacco purchases with fines (ITP_F), and (c) illegal tobacco purchases with fines, criminal record, and negative public exposure (ITP_F + CR + NPE) to complete an online survey. The survey contained one narrative randomly assigned to each participant, demographic questions, the heaviness of smoking index, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), and a single-item psychological distress question. The results showed that (a) narratives about making illegal tobacco purchases significantly increased psychological distress when compared to narratives about making LTP, (b) no differences were observed on psychological distress and negative affective state between a narrative describing a fine and a narrative describing a fine, a criminal record, and negative public exposure, and (c) a narrative about a criminal record had the greatest effect on psychological distress among the different narratives about penalty types. Narratives involving illegal purchases increase psychological distress, which varies according to the hypothetical penalties described. More research regarding the use of narratives on decision-making and purchasing of hypothetical substances is warranted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
先前对有物质使用障碍的个体进行的研究表明，不同的叙述方式对人的行为和决策有不同的影响。目前仍有一个问题尚未得到解答，即使用叙述来模拟非法购买的实际后果是否会引起人们在实际情况下预期的心理困扰水平。本实验采用组间设计，研究了关于处罚的不同叙述如何影响吸烟者的情绪状态，特别是心理困扰。参与者（n = 93）被随机分配到以下三个组之一：（a）合法烟草购买（LTP），（b）带罚款的非法烟草购买（ITP_F），和（c）带罚款、犯罪记录和负面公众曝光的非法烟草购买（ITP_F + CR + NPE），以完成在线调查。调查包含一个随机分配给每个参与者的叙述、人口统计学问题、吸烟严重程度指数、正性和负性情绪量表（PANAS），以及一个单一的心理困扰问题。结果表明：（a）与 LTP 相比，关于非法购买烟草的叙述显著增加了心理困扰；（b）在心理困扰和负性情绪状态方面，描述罚款和描述罚款、犯罪记录和负面公众曝光的叙述之间没有差异；（c）在不同的处罚类型叙述中，关于犯罪记录的叙述对心理困扰的影响最大。涉及非法购买的叙述会增加心理困扰，这取决于所描述的假设性处罚。需要进一步研究叙述在决策和假设性物质购买方面的应用。
