Morris, J;
Tattan-Birch, H;
Albery, IP;
Heather, N;
Moss, AC;
(2024)
Look away now! Defensive processing and unrealistic optimism by level of alcohol consumption.
Psychology & Health
10.1080/08870446.2024.2316681.
(In press).
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Abstract
Objective: Health risk information is insufficient as a means of reducing alcohol use, particularly when it evokes negative emotional states amongst those for whom it is most personally relevant. Appraisal biases, or ‘defensive processing’, may be employed to mitigate the psychological discomfort posed by such information. Few studies have evaluated the role of defensive processing in people with different levels of alcohol consumption. Design: Online participants (n = 597) completed measures of defensive processing of a health risk infographic, perceived susceptibility and severity of alcohol use, efficacy for resisting alcohol use, unrealistic optimism, the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test–Consumption (AUDIT-C) and demographics. Results: AUDIT-C scores were positively and linearly associated with all defensive processing measures (Pearson’s correlation r from.16 to.36), threat and susceptibility (r =.16) and unrealistic optimism (r =.50). AUDIT-C scores were also negatively associated with efficacy for controlling alcohol use (r = −0.48). Conclusion: People with alcohol use disorder (AUD) engaged in much more defensive processing of alcohol-related messages, offering an explanation for why such messages are limited at eliciting behaviour change. High levels of unrealistic optimism in people with alcohol use disorder may reflect low problem recognition in order to maintain a problem-free drinking identity.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Look away now! Defensive processing and unrealistic optimism by level of alcohol consumption |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/08870446.2024.2316681 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2024.2316681 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Alcohol use disorder, addiction, defensive processing, health behaviour, recovery |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10191943 |
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