Researchers from Michigan State University asked 400 participants about their feelings after they encountered and responded to alcohol-related Facebook items.
"What we found is if people actually feel so engaged with that message and want to do something about it - like, share or comment - that it makes the likelihood of them thinking about drinking even greater," said Saleem Alhabash, an assistant professor of advertising and public relations who headed the study.
Alhabash said barriers to underage youth seeing alcohol ads online are "minimal." He said social media, by law, cannot target alcohol-related content to those under 21, but "once it's out there you don't own it. You can't control what happens to it."
The research subjects were shown three Facebook pages - one that was an alcohol marketing Facebook post paired with a display promoting drinking; another coupled with an anti-drinking public service announcement; and another coupled with a non-drinking ad, such as an ad for a bank.
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This was especially true when the marketing message they viewed already had high numbers of likes and shares from other Facebook users.
The researchers also found that when an alcohol-related status update was paired with an anti-drinking message, the person viewing it was more likely to consider drinking.
The study is published in the journal Mass Communication and Society.