PBH.815 Week 2 Lecture

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Week 2 Lecture
Instructor: Gina Crosley-Corcoran, MPH
PBH 815
Mass Communication in Health

Communicating
Public Health Information
to a Lay Audience

Introduction
Communicating public health to non-scientists includes:
 Articles in Newspapers
 Press Releases
 Pharmaceutical or medical brochures
 Reports to the public or to policy makers
 Fact sheets
 Information in TV Shows (think “ER”, “Grey’s
Anatomy”)
 Documentary Films
 Videos on YouTube or other sites/channels
 Social Media
A common mistake in public health is to assume there’s an eager audience for a lengthy health data
report—there isn’t—and assuming that most community members and policymakers will easily grasp
the data and concepts in your report is a mistake.

Effective Science Communication
Effective
communication
Clear
Understandable
Respectful
Engaging
Actionable

How We Interpret Science
 The factors that influence how lay audiences interpret
scientific information, are the same factors that
influence all of us, whether we are public health
professionals, or members of the general public.
 These factors include:
 Interest
 Culture
 Worldview
 Trust and Belief (in the source)

Interest
 Suppose you want a teenager to quit smoking. How are
you going to reach them? Do you know what interests
them? As it turns out: it’s not health.
 Nor is health of much interest in the population at large
and you will have to come up with a different approach to
reach them
 Take a look at the Truth Campaign (www.thetruth.com)
 What argument do they use, (and it’s not “you’ll be healthier
and live longer”) to appeal to young teens?
 We will talk about developing messages in a later class, but
the important take home is:
KNOW your audience and know what interests THEM.

Elaboration Likelihood Model
 The Elaboration Likelihood Model (circa 1980s) states that there are two distinct ways
people are persuaded to make decisions.
 The first type of persuasion results from a person’s careful and thoughtful
consideration of the true merits of the information presented. This typically happens
when a person is already interested in the issue and paying attention.
 This type of persuasion can lead to permanent change in attitude or
behavior
 The second type of persuasion occurs as a result of some simple cue (say an attractive
salesperson) that sways us to make take a certain action or change our behavior.
 In this case although we do change, it is only temporary
 In short, the Elaboration Likelihood Model suggests that if we are already engaged in
an issue, we will pay more attention to new information about it and if we are not
engaged, we will need peripheral stimuli to grab your attention.
 This explains why supermodels are used to sell just about everything to men!

Culture and Worldview
 Scientists and public health professionals often fall into the
trap of believing that their science-based information, if
properly understood, will be acted upon by the public in a
rational fashion. That’s simply not the case.
 Personal theories about health coupled with broader
societal beliefs complicates communication about
scientific findings.
 Worldview is a particular philosophy of life or conception
of the world.
 Examples include fatalism, individualism, reincarnation, or
respect and trust for authority

Trust and Belief
 People are more likely to believe and act on health
information if it comes from a trusted source.
 Acceptance or disbelief of health information is
strongly influenced by two psychological principles:
 Confirmation bias: We tend to interpret messages that they
confirm what we already believe.
 Selective exposure: People obtain information from sources
with which they tend to agree.

Cognitive Factors that Influence
Interpretation of Scientific Information
 Public health communicators should be
aware not only of audiences’ personal
beliefs and worldviews about health,
but also about cognitive limitations
that we all have when it comes to
interpreting scientific information.
 We’ll talk about some of these mental
factors in the next few slides.
 Cognitive processing limits
 Risk information processing limits
 Resistance to persuasion

Cognitive Processing Limits
Information Processing Theory
 Starting in the mid-20th century researchers began developing systematic
models of memory, cognition, and thinking. One of the most widely accepted
models, which was developed in the early 1950s, is information processing
theory.
 According to this theory, our sensory memory screens incoming stimuli and
processes only those stimuli most relevant at the present time. For example, let’s
say you’re driving on a freeway in a snowstorm, you would pay attention to road
conditions, but you might be unaware of the buildings or billboards you’re
passing by.
 Information processing in sensory memory usually occurs too quickly for people
to consciously control what they attend to. As a result, information that’s
relevant to the task at hand or information that’s familiar is most likely to be
processed by our sensory memory and retained.
 This theory explains why people ignore most of the communications they receive
on a daily basis and interpret anything new in terms of what they already know.

Found it!
 When most people are seeking information, they want a quick answer
that’s easy to understand. They find what they need and search no
further.
 Busy people certainly include journalists and policymakers, but really,
it’s all of us. No one wants to dig through pages of a dense report to
uncover the key point.
 Unfortunately, the public health community has a history of producing
long, dense reports with key points buried within.
 Social media may be changing this tendency, conveying more in brief
communications.

Risk Information Processing
 Many people misunderstand concepts related to risk.
 This can impact a person’s ability to make critical
decisions around safety and health.
 We will be talking about this concept in detail in Week
13’s class on Risk and Crisis communication.

Resistance to Persuasion
People have a natural resistance to
persuasion and often engage in a practice
of defensive processing, an approach that
blunts messages that are consistent with
current behavior.
―MAKING DATA TALK (NCI)

Biases that Influence
Data Interpretation
Heuristics are mental shortcuts we use to make decisions or judgments. Heuristics help us reach decisions
quickly and efficiently, but these mental shortcuts can also lead to flawed conclusions.
Representative
heuristic
Cognitive bias in which we make a judgment about a situation based on implicit knowledge
or past experience with a similar situation.
Anchoring and
adjustment heuristic
This is another mental shortcut in which we base estimates and decisions on known
“anchors” or familiar positions, with an adjustment relative to this start point. Most people
make an insufficient adjustment when reaching their final decision.
An example would be an older pregnant woman who was initially told that her chance of
carrying a down-syndrome baby was 1 in 200 and then a follow up tests indicates there her
personal risk is 1 in 25. She might not accept the new odds as being credible since they are
so different from what she was initially told.
Correlation equals
causation
People have a strong tendency to believe that if two types of data are correlated, then one
causes the other. For example, let’s say that in the summer of 2015 on Cape Cod, there was
an increase in ice cream sales. Let’s also say that during the same summer, there was an
increase in drownings on the beaches of Cape Cod. Those two factors are “correlated.” But
the increase in ice cream sales did not cause the drownings.
Failure to consider
randomness
People tend not to consider chance or randomness as explanations for sequences, events, or
occurrences. This comes into play in public health around cancer clusters and perceived
vaccine injury in children.

Techniques for Science Communication
 Content: Answer What, Why, and How
 Give people the information they need to make good decisions or to
influence attitudes
 Be brief and concise. Present the “bottom line” and use only a few
points to support it
 Frame the information to support audience values
 Avoid Information Overload
 Present only essential information, esp. if topic is complex
 Follow the health literacy/numeracy best practices
 Think of the best way to communicate your issue. Use
compelling visuals and sound if appropriate.

Techniques for Science Communication
 Context (for longer
communications):
 Present findings within their
larger context, such as prior
research and world view of
the target audience
 Address uncertainty. Be
honest about tentative
nature of the findings.
 Counter mistaken health-
related audience beliefs

Summary
 Most of us interpret scientific information through a
prism of personal beliefs and experiences.
 Our ability to interpret scientific data is hindered by
cognitive processing limits and mental biases.
 It’s our job in public health to understand audience
tendencies and biases and our own tendencies and
biases, and to craft communication that works with,
around and through these issues to improve health.

Week 2 Assignment
Week 2 Discussion Board
• 2 Posts, First due Thursday,
second due Sunday

PBH.815 Week 2 Lecture

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