How (not) to Communicate About Vaccinations
February 3, 2015 10:03 AM   Subscribe

Don't Call Them Dumb: Experts on Fighting the Anti-Vaccine Movement (ABC News / Maggie Fox) "There is a psychological tendency called disconfirmation bias. Information we don't want to hear, we try very hard to reject it. That is especially true for beliefs that are central to our identity"
... simply telling people their views are stupid, or even not fully informed, will not work, said Dr. Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth University.

"It could make the problem worse. Imagine what calling people selfish and dumb can do," Nyhan said. "If people call me selfish and dumb, it doesn't make me more open-minded...People enjoy lashing out at anti-vaccine folks, (but) it turns into an 'us versus them' thing."

Nyhan conducted a study last year with Freed that found that when they gave ambivalent parents facts that show vaccines do not cause autism, they were even less likely to vaccinate their kids than they were before.

"They are committed to that point of view. You can provoke a kind of backlash reaction if you are not careful," Nyhan said. "That is why it is important to test the messages that we use and avoid the counterproductive type of messaging seen in the wake of Disney."

Telling people they are wrong will just make them dig in their heels, said Nyhan.
Nyhan's study presented new information about vaccinations to parents - 1759 parents were in four test groups (plus a control group), each of which received information intended to encourage vaccination (explanation MMR doesn't cause autism; dangers of the diseases; images of children with preventable diseases; dramatic narrative about a boy who almost died from measles); none of the messages they tested resulted in more intent to vaccinate. The messages were drawn from existing sources, but the sources were not attributed (so, a parent would see information about the MMR vaccine not being harmful, but wouldn't know that the information came from the CDC).

also: Corrective information about the disproven vaccine-autism link significantly reduced misperceptions, but also reduced intention to vaccinate among parents with the least favorable vaccine attitudes.

Another study about flu vaccination myths got similar results.

Nyhan's studies also includes one showing that correcting misinformation about "death panels" in the recent health care reforms actually increased some people's opposition to the reforms.


So, how does one persuade people?

This current opinion piece in the Atlantic vaguely encourages civility, while this 2012 article from Time mentions ways individual doctors can talk to their patients.

There seems to be room for more innovative approaches.

I did a quick search for previous posts on how to persuade people and didn't find exactly the right thing, but here's a very brief Three Ways to Persuade.
posted by amtho (0 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Heya, there's a very busy post about vaccinations from yesterday, add this in there? -- cortex



 

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