While Parents Might Not Want to, Researchers Really Should Ask Questions About Risky Behaviors

Abstract

In this reply, we focus on two major issues raised by our commentators. First, we deal with some empirical issues about whether asking questions really increases risky behavior. We argue that the results reviewed in our target article are valid, and are not due to lab-specific effects, or to question-wording or question-answering issues. Second, we tackle some issues related to the process by which questions might increase risky behavior. We focus on two mechanisms that seem promising for explaining the influence of questions on risky behavior: attitude activation and social norms. We also consider the impact of various moderators on the risky question-behavior effect, building on suggestions made in the commentaries. Finally, we make some suggestions about techniques that we—as parents, practitioners, and researchers—might use to reduce the impact of asking questions about risky behavior.