WHO Infodemic Management - What makes good health information sticky?

25 October, 2024

This article from WHO Infodemic Management may be of interest. The article looks at what, if anything, makes information stick in its' recipients' memories.

This "information stickiness" is a very real issue in clinical practice.

Patients remember 10 to 15 % of what they are told in speech during a consultation, 25% if they are given supplementary written information and 89% if they are given images.

The celebrity of the information donor also affects adherence of information?

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HIFA profile: Richard Fitton is a retired family doctor - GP. Professional interests: Health literacy, patient partnership of trust and implementation of healthcare with professionals, family and public involvement in the prevention of modern lifestyle diseases, patients using access to professional records to overcome confidentiality barriers to care, patients as part of the policing of the use of their patient data. Email address: richardpeterfitton7 AT gmail.com

From WHO Infodemic Management

Date Thu, 24 Oct 2024, 10:19

Subject Infodemic Management News Flash | Issue #75 - 24 October 2024

*What makes good health information sticky?*

*Infodemic Management News Flash*

Thursday, 24 October 2024 | Issue #75

* Featured story*

'What makes good health information sticky? To examine that let’s first look at what neuroscience tells us about ‘stickiness’ - that is, what elements make memories stick. Generally, repetition, association (associated memories with places in a place very familiar to you such a childhood home for example), novelty and emotional resonance - we remember the happiest and the saddest things in our lives.'

'People working in the information space are often confronted with the seeming reality that misinformation and conspiracies are more sticky than factual, "boring" information. But maybe that’s not the whole story. As argued by Ecker et al (2022), the lack of access to high quality information is not necessarily the primary driver of belief in false information. Rather, it is the emotional content of the information that is consumed, for example, think of stories or narratives that appeals to strong emotions like fear, which have been shown to be successful at influencing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors, especially if the consumers believe that those actions can reduce harm. This is especially important in health emergencies.

'Inversely, the possibility also exists for emotional resonance with information that provides positive sentiment, feelings of safety or reassurance. Recent studies have shown that emotional arousal can produce vivid and long lasting memories. While fear is a state that may be relatively easy to induce, especially when confronted with scary events such as pandemics, it is not the only emotional state that can be appealed to. How do public health systems think about the psychological shock that informs the lens through which individuals and societies process information? And subsequently what kinds of information will stick? The health information environment is not doomed to be engulfed by good health information that doesn't stick, but public health communicators do have to think about what makes information, both good and bad, more sticky.'

[Read online: https://hq_communityreadinessandresilienceunitcrr.cmail19.com/t/d-e-slrh... ]