In a new study, researchers have discovered a significant link between the type of media consumed and public attitudes towards opioid use disorder (OUD), providing insights into how partisan media sources can influence opinions on drug policy and stigma associated with opioid addiction. The study, published in Preventive Medicine Reports, found that individuals who consume Republican-leaning media are more likely to hold stigmatizing views about OUD and are less supportive of harm reduction policies, while those who consume Democratic-leaning media tend to have the opposite views.
The United States is grappling with an opioid epidemic that has seen a sharp rise in deaths and disorders related to opioid use. With synthetic opioid use increasing almost 7.5 times from 2015 to 2021, leading to more than 80,000 overdose deaths in 2021 alone, understanding public attitudes towards OUD is crucial. The researchers embarked on this study to explore how media consumption affects public perception of OUD, which is essential for crafting effective public health policies and reducing the stigma that can be a barrier to treatment.
“We became interested in this topic because media coverage of public health issues can influence public attitudes toward or away from supporting public health initiatives,” said study author Alex Kresovich, a research scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. “As the opioid epidemic rages on, we wondered what role partisan media consumption might play in affecting the U.S. public’s attitudes toward opioid use disorder stigma, evidence-based policies, and discrimination directed toward individuals with opioid addiction.”
To conduct their study, the researchers utilized a panel from the University of Chicago called AmeriSpeak, which is designed to represent the U.S. household population. This panel involved over 40,000 households and used a sampling method that covers approximately 97% of U.S. households.
The study included 6,515 adults, with most participating through web interviews and a smaller portion via phone. The survey, available in both English and Spanish, delved into a variety of topics including personal health, financial standing, experiences with opioids, and interactions with the criminal justice system. Crucially, it also explored participants’ media consumption habits and their attitudes towards OUD.
The researchers employed several measures to assess attitudes and opinions. These included scales to gauge stigma associated with OUD, attitudes towards various opioid policies (ranging from harm reduction to carceral approaches), and the extent of medical mistrust among participants. They also incorporated the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) to examine racial attitudes and their impact on views about drug use and policy.
Kresovich and his colleagues found that the type of media consumed had a significant impact on how individuals perceive opioid use disorder. Specifically, those who consumed media sources leaning towards Republican ideologies exhibited increased stigma towards OUD, were less supportive of national and local harm reduction policies like Medicaid coverage for treatment or safe injection sites, and showed greater support for discriminatory policies against individuals with OUD (e.g., “Physicians and other healthcare providers should be allowed to refuse to treat a person with an opioid use disorder”).
Conversely, consumption of Democratic-leaning media was associated with reduced OUD stigma and higher support for rehabilitative policies. Interestingly, media consumption was not significantly linked to support for carceral policies against individuals with OUD, such as arresting and imprisoning those who engage in the non-medical use opioids.
“Our findings suggest there are associations between partisan media consumption, opioid use disorder (OUD) stigma, and support for evidence-based policies among U.S. adults. Our results support the need to investigate this potential phenomenon further with longitudinal research,” Kresovich told PsyPost.
“If partisan media consumption influences OUD stigma and policy support, public health advocates must collaborate with conservative leaders to find bipartisan common ground for targeted communication campaigns. In doing so, we can show how non-stigmatizing approaches can be a mechanism to reduce opioid overdose deaths by making medications for opioid use disorders more widely accessible in pharmacies and getting more individuals with OUD to initiate and stay in treatment.”
The researchers also found that markers of racism were significantly related to increased stigma against people with OUD and support for punitive policies against them. Racism was found to partially mediate the relationship between media consumption and attitudes towards OUD-related policies. This means that the type of media individuals consumed predicted their racial attitudes, which in turn affected their views on OUD and related policies.
“Our results also indicate that it will also be a monumental task to make progress against this ongoing epidemic without addressing the inherently racial component of the issue,” Kresovich said. “Much like the gains other stigmatized groups have seen in recent decades (LGBT, mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities), our results indicate the need for more research into the implications of the mainstream media’s framing of the OUD epidemic with respect to how it may significantly impact our nation’s ability to address the opioid epidemic using evidence-based practices.”
Despite its insightful findings, the study has its limitations. Its cross-sectional nature means it can’t establish causality or explain the direction of the observed associations. The researchers suggest that future studies should be longitudinal, allowing a better understanding of how media consumption influences public opinion over time. Furthermore, exploring the reinforcing cycle between pre-existing partisan attitudes and media consumption habits could provide deeper insights.
“Our study is just a starting point, and we can’t fully explain the connections we observed without more research over time,” Kresovich explained. “We can’t say for sure which came first, whether people’s views influenced the media they choose or if their media habits shaped their opinions. Even though we found important links between people’s views, the stigma around opioid use disorder (OUD), and support for OUD policies, it’s possible that people pick media that aligns with what they already believe.”
“This could create a cycle where their beliefs influence their media choices, and in turn, the media reinforces their beliefs. We can’t rule out a similar cycle between people’s racist beliefs and their views on the media. Also, the way we measured people’s political views has its limitations. We used scores based on how people identified politically, but we couldn’t capture how much they were exposed to these ideas. Our survey had a decent response rate, but it might not represent all kinds of people. Still, we made efforts to balance our data to match the national population as closely as possible.”
The study, “Associations between partisan media consumption, opioid use disorder stigma, and opioid policy support: An exploration of the media’s role in the ongoing opioid epidemic“, was authored by Alex Kresovich, Sherry L. Emery, Mateusz Borowiecki, Cedasia McQueen, Marie Ngobo-Ekamby, Phoebe A. Lamuda, Bruce G. Taylor, Harold A. Pollack, and John A. Schneider.
