Call of duty - the tobacco wars: Opposing effects of tobacco glorifying and prevention messages in entertainment video games

We explore competing effects of video gaming content on adolescent health attitudes and beliefs, with a particular focus on effects that potentially impact nicotine and tobacco use. We posit that, through “Virtual Transportation,” players suspend critical analysis of information they encounter. We first draw attention to vivid tobacco imagery found in commercial video games that adolescents play, considering whether the ability of video games to transport players into a compelling, fictional reality might cause these images to exert consequential influence on their health cognitions. In a laboratory investigation, we find that by having a game avatar “vape” during play, we can reduce the perceived riskiness of smoking e-cigarettes as a function of the self-reported transportation into the game. We next introduce ways health communicators might use the same processes to discourage smoking and other risky behaviors. In a second set of laboratory studies, we placed health messages adapted from actual health campaigns into the background of first-person video games, finding that we can reduce willingness to engage in the associated health risks, also as a function of transportation into the game. Our discussion focuses on the ways that the transporting, fantasy elements of video games might be harnessed by health communicators to promote public health.