Resumo

The legalization of medical cannabis in many countries has been spurring the pharmaceutical industry worldwide in recent years. In Brazil, as medical cannabis products cannot be advertised to consumers (ANVISA, 2008). Thus, media messages are the main source of information available to consumers. However, some of the medical cannabis information consumers find on the media is conflicting, hence negatively affecting their well-being (Kees, Fitzgerald, Dorsey, & Hill, 2020). Conflicting information adversely affects consumers’ attitudes and encourages less healthy behaviors (Nagler, 2014).

The research question guiding this study is: what are the impacts of conflicting information on consumers’ attitudes toward medical cannabis? Medical cannabis was chosen as the subject of this study since it is a market that represents a natural laboratory for marketing and consumer behavior research (Olsen & Smith, 2019). Socio-demographic variables and consumers’ opinions were tested as moderators of the relationship. The focus of the discussion is on enhancing consumer well-being, thus contributing to the Transformative Consumer Research (TCR) movement.

The information consumers obtain is a central element of the attitude formation process (Cohen & Reed II, 2006). However, there are mixed findings in the literature regarding whether conflicting information leads to positive, negative, or inconclusive attitudes (Hwang, Choi, & Mattila, 2018). Socio-demographic variables are used for market segmentation because they are impactful on consumers’ behavior (Heckman, Sherry, & De Mejia, 2010). These variables also affect consumers’ attitudes (Jackson, Jackson, & Newmiller Jr, 1992) and consumers' psychological well-being (La Barbera & Gürhan, 1997).

The experiment was conducted online using Google Forms. The initial sample for the experiment consisted of 378 voluntary respondents. We have pretested seven adapted news stories with 17 undergraduate students to check their understanding of the information. Consumers’ attitude toward medical cannabis (dependent variable) was measured based on a scale adapted from the instrument used by Aschemann-Witzel e Grunert (2015). Socio-demographic data (gender, age-range, education level, household income, and religion) were collected based on similar data collected by DataSenado (2019).

The one-way ANOVA conducted confirmed that there are statistical differences among the respondents’ means of attitude grouped by the condition they were assigned to: F(3,286) = 8,743; p = 0,000. The age-range was the only socio-demographic variable affecting the relationship between the nature of the information that the respondents were assigned to (condition) and their attitudes toward medical cannabis (p = 0.03). ANCOVA also demonstrated that the individuals’ opinions about the legalization of medical cannabis significantly affects this relationship (p = 0.000).

The results of the experiment we conducted indicate that conflicting information affects consumers’ attitudes toward medical cannabis by leading them to inconclusive attitudes. Our findings are even more robust when the participants’ socio-demographics and opinions on the legalization of medical cannabis are included as moderators. Among the socio-demographic variables analyzed, the age-range was the only one significantly affecting the abovementioned relationship. Our findings also suggest that consumers’ opinions play a central role in the attitude formation process.

Aschemann-Witzel, J., & Grunert, K. G. (2015). Influence of ‘soft’ versus ‘scientific’ health information framing and contradictory information on consumers’ health inferences and attitudes towards a food supplement. Food Quality and Preference, 42, 90-99. Cohen, J. B., & Reed II, A. (2006). A multiple pathway anchoring and adjustment (MPAA) model of attitude generation and recruitment. Journal of Consumer Research, 33(1), 1-15. Nagler, R. H. (2014). Adverse outcomes associated with media exposure to contradictory nutrition messages. Journal of Health Communication, 19(1), 24-40.