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Health Communications: Predicting Behavior Change from the Brain

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Social Neuroscience and Public Health

Abstract

Health communications are intended to motivate the public to engage in healthier lifestyle choices. Why some messages succeed while others fail, however, remains a difficult question to answer. Traditional methods used to predict behavior change rely heavily on participants’ self-reports. However, participants may be limited in their ability to discern which communications are likely to move them toward change. Neuroimaging offers a method to explore the underlying neural processes that occur during health message exposure, in real-time, without imposing additional cognitive tasks (e.g., assessing one’s evaluation of the message). This chapter explores the utility of using neuroimaging in tandem with other methodologies (e.g., self-report, behavioral observation) to enhance our understanding of conscious and unconscious mechanisms that promote the effectiveness of health communications. We begin examining how neuroscience contributes to current understanding of health communication, examine health-relevant studies in the emerging field of communication neuroscience, and then discuss future directions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication Studies, University of Michigan, 105 S. State Street, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Christopher N. Cascio, Sonya Dal Cin & Emily B. Falk

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  1. Christopher N. Cascio
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  2. Sonya Dal Cin
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  3. Emily B. Falk
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Correspondence to Christopher N. Cascio .

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  1. , Department of Applied Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, University Avenue West 200, Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Ontario, Canada

    Peter A. Hall

Highlights

Highlights

  • Despite the success of prominent behavior change models in explaining the impact of health messages on behavior change, they are still limited. One difficulty in predicting health behavior change is the uncertainty in knowing who will successfully traverse the gap between attitudes, intentions, and behavior.

  • Knowledge gained from neuroimaging may complement what we know from self-reports about how people process persuasive messages. In turn, gaining a firmer grasp on the underlying neural mechanisms involved can enable scientists to more accurately predict future behaviors.

  • A growing body of research examining neural responses to health communications and other basic laboratory tasks has found that neural signals predict variability in behavior above and beyond what self-report measures explained alone.

  • Neuroimaging is not a replacement for existing methodologies; we have the most to gain when multiple techniques are combined to understand behavior. This integration can be key in developing and strengthening theoretical knowledge and real-world applications.

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Cascio, C.N., Dal Cin, S., Falk, E.B. (2013). Health Communications: Predicting Behavior Change from the Brain. In: Hall, P. (eds) Social Neuroscience and Public Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6852-3_4

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