**Principal Investigator(s):** **Xuan Zhu** Mayo Clinic Email: [zhu.xuan@mayo.edu][1] Home page: [https://xuan-zhu.github.io/][2] **Marco Yzer** University of Minnesota Email: [mcyzer@umn.edu][3] Home page: [https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/mcyzer][4] **Sample size**: 789 **Field period**: 09/13/2019-01/10/2020 **Abstract** Despite evidence that self-affirmation through value-affirmation (i.e., reflecting upon core personal values) can increase people’s openness to health risk information and promote health behavior change, the mechanisms through which value-affirmation impact health message processing are not well understood. Value-affirmation tasks ask people to reflect on why their core values are important to them, which requires abstract or high-level mental construals. Thus, construal level has been suggested as an explanatory mechanism, in which self-affirmation induces high-level construals, which in turn may carry over when people process subsequent evaluative targets. However, research has yet to validate these causal relations. To test construal level’s mediating role with strong internal validity, we conducted three experiments using an experimental-causal-chain design that manipulated both value-affirmation and construal level. Our results showed that value-affirmation can elevate construal level, increase acceptance of the health message, and improve self-efficacy for the target behavior. Additionally, a higher-level construal can reduce defensive responses to the health message. However, we did not find evidence that construal level mediated value-affirmation’s effects on health message processing. **Hypotheses** Hypothesis 1: self-affirmed participants will show lower defensive responses and higher acceptance toward the health message and higher intention to perform the recommended behavior, compared with unaffirmed participants. Hypothesis 2: self-affirmed participants will show higher construal levels than unaffirmed participants. Hypothesis 3: participants in the high level construal condition will show lower defensive responses and higher acceptance toward the health message and higher intention to perform the recommended behavior, compared with participants in the low level construal condition. Hypothesis 4: self-affirmation and inducing high-level construal will increase the association between attitude and intention and decrease the association between perceived behavioral control and intention. **Experimental Manipulations** We conducted three experiments using an experimental-causal-chain design that manipulated both value-affirmation and construal level. The experiments were implemented simultaneously as a six-condition randomized experiment to eliminate systematic sample differences. Experiment 1 and 2: participants in the self-affirmation conditions chose their most important value from a list and wrote about why it is important to them whereas participants in the no-affirmation conditions proceeded directly to the subsequent tasks. Experiment 3: Participants in the high level construal condition wrote about why they would engage in an activity in the distant future, whereas participants in the low level construal condition wrote about how they would engage in the same activity in the near future. We tested the mediation relation in the context of reducing alcohol use among people who drank more than a moderate level in the past 30 days. Participants in experiment 1 and 3 read a message about risks of heavy drinking on heart health. **Outcomes** Experiment 1 and 3: message derogation, message skepticism, perceived manipulation, agreement with message; attitude, perceived behavioral control, and intention toward reducing alcohol use to the moderate level. Experiment 2: construal level **Summary of Results** Experiment 1 showed that value-affirmation increased agreement with the health message and perceived behavioral control to reduce alcohol use, F(1, 197)=4.0, p=.047, partial eta^2=.02, F(1, 197)=5.47, p=.02, partial eta^2=.03. Experiment 2 showed that value-affirmation led to a higher-level construal, F(1, 235)=14.86, p<.001, partial eta^2=.06. Experiment 3 showed that inducing a higher-level construal reduced perceived manipulation, F(1, 229)=7.85, p=.006, partial eta^2=.03. No statistically significant effects were found on other outcomes. All analyses controlled for current alcohol use level. Experiment 1 showed higher attrition. [1]: mailto:zhu.xuan@mayo.edu [2]: https://xuan-zhu.github.io/ [3]: mailto:mcyzer@umn.edu [4]: https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/mcyzer