The Use of Persuasion in Public Health Communication: An Ethical Critique

Rossi, John; Yudell, Michael

doi:10.1093/phe/phs019

Cited by 46 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…But transparency also requires creating processes of consultation that meaningfully engage and elicit the perspectives of communities to whom fear campaigns will be addressed or might touch. Some ethicists argue that a process that elicits and seeks to address community priorities and perspectives can represent a kind of ‘implicit consent’ 28. It is not necessary to make such a claim, which may elide the distinction between consultation and consent.…”

Section: What Is To Be Done? Transparency and Consultationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Means, ends and the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns

Bayer

Fairchild

2016

J Med Ethics

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Controversy has swirled over the past three decades about the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns. The HIV/AIDS epidemic provided a context in which advocacy groups were almost uniformly hostile to any use of fear, arguing that it was inherently stigmatising and always backfired. Although this argument was often accepted within public health circles, surprisingly, the bioethicists who first grappled with this issue in terms of autonomy and coercion in the 1980s were not single-minded: fear could be autonomy-enhancing. But by the turn of the 21st century, as opponents of fear-based appeals linked them to stigmatisation, ethicists typically rejected fear as inherently unethical. The evidence has increasingly suggested that fear-based campaigns 'work.' Emotionally charged public health messages have, as a consequence, become more commonplace. We conclude that an ethics of public health, which prioritises population well-being, as contrasted with the contemporary focus of bioethics on autonomy, provides a moral warrant for ensuring that populations understand health risk 'in their guts.' This, we argue, does not relieve public health authorities from considering the burdens their efforts may impose on vulnerable populations.

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Section: What Is To Be Done? Transparency and Consultationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Means, ends and the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns

Bayer

Fairchild

2016

J Med Ethics

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“…For example, a communication effort may aim to change attitudes about hunting expressed by the message receiver. Persuasion can be used to motivate specific beliefs or behaviors to reduce risks or improve well‐being (Rossi and Yudell ). Persuasive communication campaigns also commonly aim to motivate people to engage in behaviors that have no direct benefits to themselves, such as donating blood or registering as an organ donor (Skumanich and Kintsfather , da Cunha and Dias ).…”

Section: Persuasive Communication and Wildlife‐disease Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A recent critique of persuasive communication examined potential objections based upon 1) violations of individuals' autonomy; 2) harm to an individual or their identity; and 3) objectionable messages (Rossi and Yudell ). Those researchers concluded that persuasive communication is not ethically problematic in certain conditions, such as when message recipients are able to make informed choices and all efforts are taken to minimize the possibility that persuasion leads to inadvertent harm.…”

Section: Persuasive Communication and Wildlife‐disease Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Persuasive communication aimed at achieving wildlife-disease management goals

Triezenberg¹,

Gore

Riley³

et al. 2014

Wildl. Soc. Bull.

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Achieving an adequate hunter harvest of game animals that meets wildlife-disease management objectives is a challenge if hunters perceive too few animals relative to expectations. Persuasive communication is a strategy commonly used to influence human perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors in public health. Research on effectiveness of persuasive communication in the context of wildlife-disease management is limited, however, which reduces the utility of communication as a management option. To gain insight into the effectiveness of persuasion in wildlife management, we experimentally evaluated a communication campaign aimed at influencing hunters' perceptions and behavioral intentions to harvest more antlerless white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Reduction of deer density is a prevailing management technique where bovine tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis) exists in wild deer populations. In 2012, we conducted an experiment with pre-and post-exposure self-administered mail questionnaires to survey deer hunters in Michigan, USA. Campaign materials were direct mailed with the post-exposure survey. Paired change score analysis was used to evaluate effects of exposure to campaign materials for an intervention relative to control group. Respondents exposed to persuasive communication materials (n ¼ 480) reported changes in perceptions of what others are doing, perceptions of risks from bovine tuberculosis, and behavioral intentions toward hunting and harvesting more antlerless deer. Changes in perceptions of risks from disease management policies negatively affecting deer hunting also were reported in the exposure group. Our results reveal communication can be most persuasive when it focuses on the activity of interest (deer hunting), communicates goals of management (wildlife-disease management), and communicates actions individuals (deer hunters) can take to reduce risks. Ó 2014 The Wildlife Society.

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“…The first problem seemed to be related to the fact that risk numbers had ambiguous meaning and that participants might have used cues from the way information was presented to judge whether it was good or bad (Zikmund-Fisher et al, 2010). It should be kept in mind that these approaches might be somewhat directive or they might nudge people too much towards certain beliefs (Rossi & Yudell, 2012). It might be worthwhile to consider other designs of bar charts, to better fit the information processing and needs of (low-literate) consumers (Smith et al, 2013;Zikmund-Fisher, 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such communications seem to better suit how people think and experience things in everyday life and language, and might facilitate more meaningful risk interpretations. It should be kept in mind that these approaches might be somewhat directive or they might nudge people too much towards certain beliefs (Rossi & Yudell, 2012). However, providing people with meaningless risk information seems to serve no purpose at all.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers in using cardiometabolic risk information among consumers with low health literacy

Damman

Bogaerts

Dongen

et al. 2015

British J Health Psychol

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What is already known on this subject? Online disease risk assessments have become widely available internationally. People with low SES and health literacy tend to participate less in health screening. Risk information is difficult to understand, yet little research has been carried out among people with low health literacy. What does this study add? People with low health literacy do not optimally use risk information in an online cardiometabolic risk assessment. The texts provided in the cardiometabolic risk assessment do not suit to their existing knowledge. The typical risk communication (numbers, bar graph, verbal label) seems to provoke undervaluation of risk.

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The Use of Persuasion in Public Health Communication: An Ethical Critique

Cited by 46 publications

References 21 publications

Means, ends and the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns

Means, ends and the ethics of fear-based public health campaigns

Persuasive communication aimed at achieving wildlife-disease management goals

Barriers in using cardiometabolic risk information among consumers with low health literacy

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