Using Individual Differences to Segment the “Market” for an Attribution-Based Substance Abuse Intervention Program

Prior research has shown that young people are more likely to say no to a peer group's drug or alcohol consumption when they also ask why. That is, being able to explain peer substance abuse, especially in terms of normative motives, has been associated with reduced conformity. The authors show that individual differences based on prior attitudes toward illicit consumption and susceptibility to social influence are useful for segmenting young people to better target and design effective intervention strategies. Results from Studies 1 and 2 indicate that prior attitude toward marijuana consumption and reported marijuana usage affect the explanations made to account for a peer group's substance abuse. In Study 2, the association between normative explanations for peer marijuana use and intentions to smoke marijuana is shown to depend on susceptibility to social influence. The implications of these findings for future research and for public policy are also discussed.