Psychologist Says Tailored Messaging Is Key For Effective Public Health Policy

For public health leaders, understanding different communication styles and preferences — and how people respond to them — is key to reducing the spread of the coronavirus.

Humans often don't behave logically. Their decisions don't always follow the evidence.

Those are among the ideas that Gaurav Suri considers in his work studying decision-making and motivation. He's an experimental psychologist and a computational neuroscientist at San Francisco State University.

Not surprisingly, choosing the right words matters a lot when it comes to public policy.

Something as basic as how public health officials talk about wearing a mask — for example, as "protection" instead of a "mandate," could make a difference, Suri says.

Here are excerpts from Suri's interview with All Things Considered.

Can you help us understand why it's been difficult for the public health community to convey messages that we can embrace?

I think just as psychology enters into understanding our own behavior, psychology must inform how we talk about and set public policy. For example, the word "mandate" is not a pleasant word for many people. When the same policy is framed as a "mask mandate," Republicans are inclined to receive it a lot less favorably than they are when it is framed as a "protection plan."

Now, this is just a facet of our culture, this is how it is. But if any public policy is going to work, it's very important that it be compatible with people's communication preferences and styles and what they're going to be open to. Many people are just not open to the word "mandate." Making big changes requires us to tailor and communicate public policy in a way that's going to be open for all segments of the population. ...