Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of popular media on college students' attitudes and perceptions of substance abuse treatment. Young adults are more likely than other age groups to report a substance use disorder, yet they are unlikely to seek treatment or perceive a need for treatment. Research on help-seeking behavior identifies attitudes toward seeking help as the most critical variable for predicting actual help-seeking behavior. Despite television being one of the public's most important sources of information about mental illness, few studies have investigated cultivation effects of television exposure on intentions to seek therapy. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by experimentally testing the effects of specific films on the following outcome variables: anticipated benefits, stigma, treatment fears, anticipated risks, attitudes toward therapy, and intentions to seek therapy. Unlike previous studies, media exposure did not significantly impact any of the five psychological variables of interest. However, secondary analyses revealed that college students responded differently to the films based on their pre-intervention scores; causing significant changes to participants' stigma and treatment fear scores. These findings suggested that despite media's inaccurate depictions of treatment and treatment providers, its impact on viewers' attitudes may not be as consistent as previously believed. Moreover, reality television shows were shown to have some positive effects, if tailored appropriately to an individual's baseline scores. Study limitations as well as directions for future research are discussed.