29. The “Boomerang Effect” Means Students were More Likely to Try Drugs after the D.A.R.E Program
Not only was the program ineffective; in fact, studies indicated that student participants were more likely to experiment with drugs after being part of the DARE program.
The “boomerang effect” refers to the unintended consequences of an attempt to persuade, resulting in the adoption of the opposing position instead. In other words, once these students were exposed to the concept of these drugs, some were curious about what the experience would be like. One study suggested that DARE students were more likely to experiment with drugs than their peers who had not been through the program.
