Diminished valuation in the brain: how repeated exposure reduces health message engagement.

This article investigates the neuropsychological effects of repeated exposure to health campaign messages, specifically anti-tobacco public service announcements (PSAs) from the Food and Drug Administration's The Real Cost campaign, on adolescent nonsmokers. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the study found that increased message exposure was associated with decreased neural activity in brain regions linked to valuation, which in turn reduced attention and elaboration processes critical for message engagement. While attention-related neural activity correlated positively with message engagement, counterarguing activity was unexpectedly positively associated with valuation but negatively with engagement, indicating complex cognitive responses to repeated messaging. These findings suggest that repeated exposure to similar health messages may diminish their effectiveness by lowering perceived value and engagement, highlighting the importance of varied message framing in public health campaigns to sustain audience attention and impact.