Public understanding of One Health messages: The role of temporal framing.

Building on research in motivated reasoning and framing in science communication, we examine how messages that vary attribution of responsibility (human vs animal) and temporal orientation (now vs in the next 10 years) for wildlife disease risk influence individuals' conservation intentions. We conducted a randomized experiment with a nationally representative sample of US adults ( N = 355), which revealed that for people low in biospheric concern, messages that highlighted both human responsibility for and the imminent nature of the risk failed to enhance conservation intentions compared with messages highlighting animal responsibility. However, when messages highlighting human responsibility placed the risk in a temporally distal frame, conservation intentions increased among people low in biospheric concern. We assess the underlying mechanism of this effect and discuss the value of temporal framing in overcoming motivated skepticism to improve science communication.

A One Health Message about Bats Increases Intentions to Follow Public Health Guidance on Bat Rabies.

Since 1960, bat rabies variants have become the greatest source of human rabies deaths in the United States. Improving rabies awareness and preventing human exposure to rabid bats remains a national public health priority today. Concurrently, conservation of bats and the ecosystem benefits they provide is of increasing importance due to declining populations of many bat species. This study used a visitor-intercept experiment (N = 521) in two U.S. national parks where human and bat interactions occur on an occasional basis to examine the relative persuasiveness of four messages differing in the provision of benefit and uncertainty information on intentions to adopt a rabies exposure prevention behavior. We found that acknowledging benefits of bats in a risk message led to greater intentions to adopt the recommended rabies exposure prevention behavior without unnecessarily stigmatizing bats. These results signify the importance of communicating benefits of bats in bat rabies prevention messages to benefit both human and wildlife health.

The Word Outside and the Pictures in Our Heads: Contingent Framing Effects of Labels on Health Policy Preferences by Political Ideology.

This study uses data from systematic Web image search results and two randomized survey experiments to analyze how frames commonly used in public debates about health issues, operationalized here as alternative word choices, influence public support for health policy reforms. In Study 1, analyses of Bing (N = 1,719), Google (N = 1,872), and Yahoo Images (N = 1,657) search results suggest that the images returned from the search query "sugar-sweetened beverage" are more likely to evoke health-related concepts than images returned from a search query about "soda." In contrast, "soda" search queries were more likely to incorporate brand-related concepts than "sugar-sweetened beverage" search queries. In Study 2, participants (N = 206) in a controlled Web experiment rated their support for policies to reduce consumption of these drinks. As expected, strong liberals had more support for policies designed to reduce the consumption of these drinks when the policies referenced "soda" compared to "sugar-sweetened beverage." To the contrary, items describing these drinks as "soda" produced lower policy support than items describing them as "sugar-sweetened beverage" among strong conservatives. In Study 3, participants (N = 1,000) in a national telephone survey experiment rated their support for a similar set of policies. Results conceptually replicated the previous Web-based experiment, such that strong liberals reported greater support for a penny-per-ounce taxation when labeled "soda" versus "sugar-sweetened beverages." In both Studies 2 and 3, more respondents referred to brand-related concepts in response to questions about "sugar-sweetened beverages" compared to "soda." We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and methodological implications for studying framing effects of labels.

How Narrative Focus and a Statistical Map Shape Health Policy Support Among State Legislators.

This study attempts to advance theorizing about health policy advocacy with combinations of narrative focus and a statistical map in an attempt to increase state legislators' support for policies to address the issue of obesity by reducing food deserts. Specifically, we examine state legislators' responses to variations in narrative focus (individual vs. community) about causes and solutions for food deserts in U.S. communities, and a statistical map (presence vs. absence) depicting the prevalence of food deserts across the United States. Using a Web-based randomized experiment (N=496), we show that narrative focus and the statistical map interact to produce different patterns of cognitive response and support for policies to reduce the prevalence of food deserts. The presence of a statistical map showing the prevalence of food deserts in the United States appeared to matter only when combined with an individual narrative, offsetting the fact that the individual narrative in isolation produced fewer thoughts consistent with the story's persuasive goal and more counterarguments in opposition to environmental causes and solutions for obesity than other message conditions. The image did not have an impact when combined with a story describing a community at large. Cognitive responses fully mediated message effects on intended persuasive outcomes. We conclude by discussing the study's contributions to communication theory and practice.

Acknowledging individual responsibility while emphasizing social determinants in narratives to promote obesity-reducing public policy: a randomized experiment.

This study tests whether policy narratives designed to increase support for obesity-reducing public policies should explicitly acknowledge individual responsibility while emphasizing social, physical, and economic (social) determinants of obesity. We use a web-based, randomized experiment with a nationally representative sample of American adults (n = 718) to test hypotheses derived from theory and research on narrative persuasion. Respondents exposed to narratives that acknowledged individual responsibility while emphasizing obesity's social determinants were less likely to engage in counterargument and felt more empathy for the story's main character than those exposed to a message that did not acknowledge individual responsibility. Counterarguing and affective empathy fully mediated the relationship between message condition and support for policies to reduce rates of obesity. Failure to acknowledge individual responsibility in narratives emphasizing social determinants of obesity may undermine the persuasiveness of policy narratives. Omitting information about individual responsibility, a strongly-held American value, invites the public to engage in counterargument about the narratives and reduces feelings of empathy for a character that experiences the challenges and benefits of social determinants of obesity.

Where there's a will: can highlighting future youth-targeted marketing increase support for soda taxes?

OBJECTIVE: Amid concern about high rates of obesity and related diseases, the marketing of nutritionally poor foods to young people by the food industry has come under heavy criticism by public health advocates, who cite decades of youth-targeted marketing in arguing for reforms. In light of recent evidence that the same event evokes stronger emotional reactions when it occurs in the future versus the past, highlighting youth-targeted marketing that has yet to occur may evoke stronger reactions to such practices, and perhaps, greater support for related health policy initiatives. METHOD: In a between-subjects experiment, Web participants (N = 285) read that a major soda company had already launched (past condition) or was planning to launch (future condition) an advertising campaign targeting children. Measures included support for a soda tax and affective responses to the company's actions. RESULTS: Greater support for the soda tax was observed in the future condition than in the past condition. Moreover, participants in the future condition reported heightened negative emotions about the company's actions, which mediated the observed effect on soda tax support. CONCLUSION: The same action undertaken by the food industry (here, marketing soda to children) may evoke stronger negative emotions and greater support for a health policy initiative when it is framed prospectively rather than retrospectively.

Effects of messages emphasizing environmental determinants of obesity on intentions to engage in diet and exercise behaviors.

INTRODUCTION: Reducing rates of obesity will require interventions that influence both individual decisions and environmental factors through changes in public policy. Previous work indicates that messages emphasizing environmental determinants increases support for public policies, but some suspect this strategy may undermine motivation to engage in diet and exercise. METHODS: Study 1 involved 485 adults recruited from a shopping mall in New York. Study 2 involved 718 adult members of a Web-based national panel of US adults. Respondents in both studies were randomly assigned to read a story that emphasized environmental determinants of health or a control condition. The stories varied in the extent to which they described the story character as taking personal responsibility for weight management. Logistic regression and ordered logit models were used to test for differences in intentions to engage in diet and exercise behaviors based on which story the participant read. Analyses were also performed separately by participants' weight status. RESULTS: In both studies, messages that acknowledged personal responsibility while emphasizing environmental causes of obesity increased intentions to engage in healthy behavior for at least 1 weight status group. CONCLUSION: Emphasizing factors outside of personal control appears to enhance rather than undermine motivations to engage in healthy diet and exercise behavior.