The Attentional Mechanism of Message Sensation Value: Interaction between Message Sensation Value and Argument Quality on Message Effectiveness

Using a secondary data analysis on adolescents’ evaluations of 60 antimarijuana public service announcements, this study examined the role of message sensation value (MSV) as an attention distractor. The results supported the prediction based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model that MSV might be a distractor of attention to reduce ad persuasiveness when the argument quality was high and to facilitate ad persuasiveness when the argument quality was low. Furthermore, this interaction was evident only for adolescents with greater risk for marijuana use, suggesting that high MSV messages were especially distracting for the high risk adolescents. Specific MSV subcomponents contributing to this interaction were explored. Possible explanations for the interaction effect as well as implications for antidrug ad design were discussed.