Attention, Need for Sensation, and Health Communication Campaigns

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Abstract
Although attention to novelty is no longer as vital to survival as in our ancient past, the attention value of novelty has major implications for contemporary human communication. It also is affected by individual differences in reactivity to intense and novel stimulation. The studies reported in this article involve the roles of attention and sensation seeking in responses to drug abuse prevention campaigns in the mass media. Early studies have indicated that adolescent high-sensation seekers are two to seven times more likely to report using drugs—ranging from alcohol to cocaine—than lower sensation seekers, identifying them as prime target audiences for prevention campaigns. This article describes a series of studies, ranging from laboratory studies on differential effects of messages on high- and low-sensation seekers, and on effects of program context, to a field experiment in which high-sensation seekers were targeted.