Using Social Self-Identification in Social Marketing Materials Aimed at Reducing Violence Against Women on Campus

Bystander-focused in person sexual violence prevention programs provide an opportunity for skill development among bystanders and for widening the safety net for survivors. A social marketing campaign was designed modeling prosocial bystander behavior and using content familiar to target audience members by staging and casting scenes to look similar to the people and situations that the target audience regularly encounters. We refer to this sense of familiarity as social self-identification. In this exploratory study, we attempt to understand how seeing oneself and one's peer group (e.g., social self-identification) in poster images affects target audience members' (e.g., college students) willingness to intervene as a prosocial bystander. The posters in the social marketing campaign were displayed throughout a midsize northeastern public university campus and neighboring local businesses frequented by students. During the last week of the 4-week poster display, the university's homepage portal featured an advertisement displaying a current model of an iPod offering undergraduate students an opportunity to win the device if they completed a community survey. We found that among students who had seen the posters, those who indicated that the scenes portrayed in the posters looked like situations that were familiar to them were significantly more likely to contemplate taking action in preventing a situation where sexual violence had the potential to occur. Furthermore, students who indicated familiarity with the poster content were more likely to indicate that they had acted in a manner similar to those portrayed in the poster. Future directions based on findings from this exploratory study are discussed
Author: 
Potter,S.J.
Moynihan,M.M.
Stapleton,J.G.
Notes: 
DA
Reprint Status: 
NOT IN FILE
Journal/Periodical Name: 
Journal of Interpersonal Violence
Abstract: 
PrFont34Bin0BinSub0Frac0Def1Margin0Margin0Jc1Indent1440Lim0Lim1This study examined how 372 college student's perceptions of their self and their peer group portrayed in poster images affected their willingness take on prosocial bystander behaviors. The posters used for this study were from the sexual violence prevention poster campaign, Know Your Power. One situation portrayed in a poster showed 2 women strategizing on how to stop a young man leading an incapacitated young woman upstairs at a house party. Posters were displayed throughout a midsize northeastern university and surrounding businesses for 4 weeks. At the end of the poster campaign students were tasked to complete an online survey. Findings indicated that participants who saw the posters and were familiar with the content were more likely to report they were comfortable in taking on prosocial bystander roles. Students who indicated that the scenes portrayed situations that were familiar to them were more likely to take action or contemplate taking action in situations where sexual violence may occur. Social marketing campaigns may be more effective if campaign designers ensure that the target audience can recognize themselves, people like them, or their friends in the campaigns and the situations that are familiar to them.
Topic Areas: 
college, media/Internet, prevention
Reference Type: 
JOUR
Reference ID: 
2646
Publication Date: 
2010/06/03