Persuasive health communication: A self-perspective

 

We come into contact with health messages every day. Eat two ounces of vegetables and two pieces of fruit every day, stop smoking, don't stay on a sunbed for too long. But do we really take these warnings to heart? We certainly do, Suzanne Pietersma has discovered. However, this only applies to people with a positive self-perspective. Luckily for the purveyors of such messages, they are easy to manipulate. Pietersma will be awarded a PhD by the University of Groningen on 10 September 2009.

Her research has revealed that people who consider their health the most important thing in their lives accept such health messages without batting an eyelid. People who consider health to be important but not the most important thing of all, on the other hand, are strongly inclined to actively ignore a health message and thus not to accept it.

Blocking the message

People want to feel good about themselves. If they don’t and, for example, they feel guilty about their unhealthy eating patterns, they will not listen to messages that refer to that. ‘They simply don’t want to hear’, Pietersma noticed. ‘They may watch or hear the message but it does not sink in. What also happens is that they undermine the message by coming up with arguments why it does not apply to them.’

Self-confirmation

One way to get these people to really listen is self-confirmation. The key to self-conformation is to make people think that they are on the right track just before the message is imparted. ‘You have to make sure, though, that it’s nothing to do with health’, adds Pietersma. ‘Make people realize that they are very social or helpful, or dedicated to their work. This gives their self-perspective a boost, which means that the message will be accepted. And, more importantly, it will lead to actual behaviour change.’

Compliment

As far as Pietersma is concerned, it’s high time that more research was conducted in this field. ‘So far this has virtually always been investigated under laboratory conditions, for example by having people first write something about their social skills before they are presented with a health message. They’re in a corner, protected from real life. How about trying that in real life for a change! Give a compliment before presenting the message. Tell someone that they are doing the right thing just by reading the message. Although it could potentially work very well, it’s barely ever used in campaigns.’

Don’t play on feelings of guilt

The way a health message is imparted is also important, thinks Pietersma. ‘It’ll have the most effect if you don’t wrap it in too much guilt but mainly state a certain goal. Provide objective information about the behaviour you want to change. And make clear that this is relevant information. Refer as little as possible to guilt or emotion, otherwise there’s every chance that people will go on the defensive.’

Curriculum Vitae

Suzanne Pietersma (Hoorn, 1982) studied psychology in Groningen and conducted her PhD research at the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology of the University of Groningen. Her supervisors are Prof. A. Dijkstra and Prof. T.T. Postmes. Her thesis is entitled ‘Persuasive Health Communication: A Self-Perspective'. She is currently a researcher for the Consumer Safety Institute.

Note for the press

Contact: Suzanne Pietersma, tel 0031628369755, e-mail: s.pietersma@rug.nl