The utility of understanding adolescent egocentrism in designing health promotion messages

This article proposes a product of adolescent development, egocentrism, as an important factor in developing health promotion messages. The relations between egocentrism, an outgrowth of adolescent cognitive development, and several persuasive outcomes related to adolescent risk behavior are explored. Two measures of egocentrism-imaginary audience (IA) and personal fable (PF)-are described as they relate to adolescents' risk related behaviors and other variables. The relations between egocentrism, gender, and age are also discussed. Data are presented briefly to illustrate the theoretical argument. Given the importance of influencing adolescents' risk behaviors, egocentrism is important, as understanding PF and IA can influence design of health messages. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.