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Re: SMANA Needs Help Encouraging the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Response Team to Include a Behavioral Scientist and Social Marketer
2021-01-03 01:32:26 UTC
whoops, also add Ireland to the list of countries! Does anyone know of any others?
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SMANA Needs Help Encouraging the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Response Team to Include a Behavioral Scientist and Social Marketer
2021-01-03 01:18:03 UTC
Last month, the Social Marketing Association of North America sent a letter to the Biden Harris coronavirus advisory board co-chairs (Dr. David Kessler, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, and Dr. Vivek Murthy) urging them to include individuals with behavioral science and social marketing expertise. You can see the letter and read more about the effort on SMANA’s website.
SMANA is asking us to help by contacting the co-chairs and voicing our support. Their emails and twitter handles are in the post on SMANA’s website and pasted in below.
I am also sending the letter to my state’s senators, and I will note that the WHO coronavirus advisory board includes people with this expertise, and thanks to the social marketing listserve we have been getting a rundown of other countries that have done the same – so far we know of Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, and the UK.
A few days ago the Biden Harris coronavirus advisory group announced that some new members were added, which added communications expertise to this group. Surprisingly, communications had been omitted up to then. Back in November (shortly after the advisory board was first announced) I was glad to see this editorial in The Hill by Dr. Craig Lefebvre and Glen Nowak, “Put the science into COVID communications.” I’d love to see something similar come together for behavioral science and social marketing.
Biden Harris COVID-19 Response Team co-chairs:
David Kessler:
Email: KesslerD@medsch.ucsf.edu
Twitter: @DavidAKesslerMDDr. Marcella Nunez-Smith
Email: marcella.nunez-smith@yale.edu
Twitter: @DrNunezSmithDr. Vivek Murthy
email: info@vivekmurthy.com
Twitter: @vivek_murthy -
Re: Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2020
2021-01-02 23:35:50 UTC
I just saw another “behavioral science books of 2020” list on Twitter (care of @Thobova)
Actually, it’s in the form of a photo, so I’m attaching it here.
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Re: Behavioral Scientist's Notable Books of 2020
2020-12-09 01:59:37 UTC
That’s a great list, thanks for sharing it, Julie! I thought it would also be good to post the books that were given away at the 2020 SPARKS social marketing sconference that was held today and yesterday. They always have a quiz after each talk and the first person to answer correctly gets a book! Since the conference was virtual this year it happened in the chat box…
Here’s the list:
• “Fostering Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing” by Doug McKenzie-Mohr
• “The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic” by Dan Ariely
• “The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations” by James Surowiecki
• “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg
• “Good Works! Marketing and Corporate Initiatives that Build a Better World... and the Bottom Line” by Philip Kotler, David Hessekiel, and Nancy R. Lee
• “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell
• “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• “Policymaking for Citizen Behavior Change: A Social Marketing Approach” by Nancy Lee
• “Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics” by Richard Thaler
• “What Sticks: Why Most Advertising Fails and How to Guarantee Yours Succeeds” by Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart
• “Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler
• “Misinformation and Mass Audiences” by Brian G. Southwell et al.
• “Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior” by Jonah Berger
• “You are Not So Smart” by David McRaney
• “Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds” by Howard Gardner
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New Social Marketing Statement of Ethics
2020-11-15 23:55:40 UTC
I know this has been in the works awhile, so I was happy to see this appear in the latest International Social Marketing Association newsletter…
“The International Social Marketing Association (iSMA) adopted this Social Marketing Statement of Ethics (LINK) to support the ethical conduct of social marketing professionals, including practitioners, scholars and students, in all areas of their professional activities.
The statement is intended to promote conscious engagement with diverse ethical issues arising in social marketing work. As social marketers we have a duty to observe the highest standards of personal and professional conduct. Behaviour change programmes and projects that seek to influence individuals and communities ideally should be developed and delivered in a way that demonstrates that any potential ethical concerns have been identified, considered and addressed.
We recognise that social marketers working across different social issues and contexts face a diverse range of ethical issues, therefore the principles set out in this paper have been developed to be succinct but also generic enough to be capable of creating a common ethical narrative and shared foundation for all social marketers, identifying potential areas of ethical concern and consider what mitigating actions are necessary.”
The Principles
As social marketers we are committed to the highest standard of personal and professional ethics, guided by the following six social marketing ethical principles:
Respect and sensitivity: Respect for people’s privacy, autonomy, diversity, free and informed choice and rights to participation and non-participation, inclusion and exclusion, and control over their lives.
Social justice and fairness: Promotion of social justice and avoidance of unfair distribution of benefits and burdens.
Openness and transparency: Transparency of goals, methods, intended and achieved outcomes, data ownership, and potential or apparent benefits and risks to target group(s) and society.
Avoidance of conflicts of interest: Avoidance of potential or apparent conflicts of interest, including opportunity for personal and reputational gain or avoidance of loss; promote public trust in social marketing.
Duty of care and nonmaleficence: Endeavour to do no physical, psychological or environmental harm and exercise a duty of care, integrity and professional and scientific responsibility.
Serve public interest: Fulfil social and political mandate and identify responsibilities and accountabilities for all stakeholders.
The iSMA History page has more background and links to the statement in other languages.
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Re: Saving Our Planet & Making Change Happen: Online Event
2020-11-15 23:30:58 UTC
Thank you for sharing this, Julie! I have really enjoyed the Change conference webinars and am grateful they made them free and open to all. The one you referenced from this month was excellent! They are all being posted on this YouTube playlist (this month's is not available yet but last month's on systems change has been posted along with the first one from September on consumer insights).
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“It’s how you say it: Systematic A/B testing of digital messaging cut hospital no-show rates”
2020-10-23 04:01:05 UTC
I’m sharing a recent article published in PLOSOne about a study carried out in Israel that investigated the effect of different messaging strategies on no-shows and appointment cancellations. The team tested 8 different appointment reminder SMS messages for patients using various types of framing and a 9th “generic” control message. Prior studies indicated that the “strategic narrative” of the SMS messages may increase compliance, and behavioral economics theory “suggests that different motivational narratives, such as fairness to others or adherence to social norms, can dramatically increase a message’s impact as compared with a generic informative format.” The results were consistent with principles from behavioral economics. They found five of the message frames (‘appointment cost’, ‘emotional relatives’, ‘emotional guilt’, ‘social norm’, and ‘social identity’) significantly differed from the control group, resulting in lower rates of no-shows and higher rates of canceling in advance. The authors note that strategically considering these reminder messages could potentially translate to hundreds of thousands of appointments saved. In fact, the health association involved in the study subsequently changed its policy to adopt the “emotional guilt” narratives. The authors did note some limitations to the study, but overall this study conveys the importance of A/B testing in order to select and adopt optimal message framing.
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Re: Two Washingtons, Two Very Different Approaches to Coronavirus Campaigns
2020-10-23 03:57:50 UTC
Hi Julie! I agree! I liked the graphics they produced as well and have been sharing them. A key message is that you have to keep doing *all* the things, together, like wear a mask AND social distance AND avoid large gatherings. I have seen people getting lax about that. So any given place could adapt that approach and the materials if the research indicates they're having the same problem with complacency.
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Two Washingtons, Two Very Different Approaches to Coronavirus Campaigns
2020-10-20 08:18:35 UTC
Last month I participated in the Pacific Northwest Social Marketing Association’s Fall Forum, “Using Research to Help Tackle COVID-19 Behaviors Among Less Receptive Audiences,” where we had the opportunity to learn about the formative research behind the State of Washington’s COVID-19 response. (PNSMA members will have access to the recording.) Those who were carrying out the research and developing the campaigns shared the State’s partner toolkit, which has a lot of great resources, such as a guide for recommended language and messaging strategies to ensure consistent, compassionate communications, and graphics and videos from the “COVID-19 Loves Excuses” media campaign. This campaign was developed for the priority audiences of 1) individuals identifying as politically conservative and 2) young people, since research has shown these groups are less compliant with the public health recommendations.
Meanwhile in Washington DC, according to this Politico reporting, $300 million was spent on this campaign to “raise awareness” and “inspire hope,” which can only be described (charitably) as chaotic. Definitely an interesting contrast to be made!
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Global COVID-19 Study Provides Insights on Message Framing
2020-10-09 22:10:29 UTC
This is a very insightful article about a study on global attitudes surrounding COVID-19 and health messaging. It’s great to see that in most countries, “the vast majority of people are doing the right things, such as following government and health authority directives designed to limit the virus’s spread.” But it is concerning that the researchers were able to detect that “a fatigue is setting in,” and that 12-25% of people “are not self-isolating even if they believe or know they have contracted the virus.” (especially when considering this is from self reporting via a survey!)
A key takeaway from the study is that “one-size fits all” messages do not appear to be reaching everyone (if you are a member of this forum you probably know that already!), since people are motivated by different things (eg, economic, health, or social concerns). The team however did find that a certain type of messaging “encouraged cooperation the most.” Positively framed COVID messages that emphasize community solidarity and positive outcomes tended to be more effective than emphasizing the negative consequences of ignoring health recommendations.
Messaging 0 colleagues
