The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change: Fighting HIV with MTV

Eliana La Ferrara, Abhijit Banerjee and Victor Orozco-Olvera

No 13892, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We test the effectiveness of an entertainment education TV series, MTV Shuga, aimed at providing information and changing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Using a simple model we show that "edutainment" can work through an `individual' or a `social' channel. We conducted a randomized controlled trial in urban Nigeria where young viewers were exposed to MTV Shuga or to a placebo TV series. Among those exposed to MTV Shuga, we created additional variation in the `social messages' they received and in the people with whom they watched the show. We find significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes towards HIV and risky sexual behavior. Treated subjects are twice as likely to get tested for HIV eight months after the intervention. We also find reductions in STDs among women. These effects are stronger for viewers who report being more involved with the narrative, consistent with the psychological underpinnings of "edutainment". Our experimental manipulations of the social norm component did not produce significantly different results from the main treatment. The `individual' effect of edutainment thus seems to have prevailed in the context of our study.

Date: 2019-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-hea
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (60)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13892 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change: Fighting HIV with MTV (2019)
Working Paper: The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change: Fighting HIV with MTV (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13892

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP13892

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().