The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV

This paper tests the effectiveness of an entertainment education television series, MTV Shuga, aimed at providing information and changing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Using a simple model, the paper shows that “edutainment” can wor...

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Main Authors: Banerjee, Abhijit, La Ferrara, Eliana, Orozco-Olvera, Victor H.
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/518151568049461993/The-Entertaining-Way-to-Behavioral-Change-Fighting-HIV-with-MTV
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32372
id okr-10986-32372
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-323722022-09-20T00:13:43Z The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV Banerjee, Abhijit La Ferrara, Eliana Orozco-Olvera, Victor H. RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOR RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL HIV AIDS MTV SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE This paper tests the effectiveness of an entertainment education television series, MTV Shuga, aimed at providing information and changing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Using a simple model, the paper shows that “edutainment” can work through an individual or a social channel. This study is a randomized controlled trial conducted in urban Nigeria, where young viewers were exposed to MTV Shuga or a placebo television series. Among those exposed to MTV Shuga, the trial created additional variation in the social messages they received and the people with whom they watched the show. The study finds significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes toward HIV and risky sexual behavior. Treated subjects are twice as likely to get tested for HIV eight months after the intervention. The study also finds reductions in sexually transmitted diseases among women. These effects are stronger for viewers who reported being more involved with the narrative, consistent with the psychological underpinnings of edutainment. The trial’s 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 this study. 2019-09-12T14:39:06Z 2019-09-12T14:39:06Z 2019-09 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/518151568049461993/The-Entertaining-Way-to-Behavioral-Change-Fighting-HIV-with-MTV http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32372 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8998 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Nigeria
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL
HIV AIDS
MTV
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE
spellingShingle RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL
HIV AIDS
MTV
SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE
Banerjee, Abhijit
La Ferrara, Eliana
Orozco-Olvera, Victor H.
The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV
geographic_facet Africa
Nigeria
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8998
description This paper tests the effectiveness of an entertainment education television series, MTV Shuga, aimed at providing information and changing attitudes and behaviors related to HIV/AIDS. Using a simple model, the paper shows that “edutainment” can work through an individual or a social channel. This study is a randomized controlled trial conducted in urban Nigeria, where young viewers were exposed to MTV Shuga or a placebo television series. Among those exposed to MTV Shuga, the trial created additional variation in the social messages they received and the people with whom they watched the show. The study finds significant improvements in knowledge and attitudes toward HIV and risky sexual behavior. Treated subjects are twice as likely to get tested for HIV eight months after the intervention. The study also finds reductions in sexually transmitted diseases among women. These effects are stronger for viewers who reported being more involved with the narrative, consistent with the psychological underpinnings of edutainment. The trial’s 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 this study.
format Working Paper
author Banerjee, Abhijit
La Ferrara, Eliana
Orozco-Olvera, Victor H.
author_facet Banerjee, Abhijit
La Ferrara, Eliana
Orozco-Olvera, Victor H.
author_sort Banerjee, Abhijit
title The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV
title_short The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV
title_full The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV
title_fullStr The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV
title_full_unstemmed The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change : Fighting HIV with MTV
title_sort entertaining way to behavioral change : fighting hiv with mtv
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/518151568049461993/The-Entertaining-Way-to-Behavioral-Change-Fighting-HIV-with-MTV
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32372
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