Bite Size Comms

“Of course not”, many of you will shout. “It is often used for social good”. Others may say it is just a form of persuasion. A few may call back, “Unethical as it is designed to manipulate thinking”. The simple answer is it depends on how it is used.

An example. My wife received a letter in the post from the NHS. She has to attend a breast screening session at 3.16 pm on 6 January. She had not booked an appointment. In fact, she had a screening not long ago. This is a form of the Nudge Theory, a push cum suggestion to spur action. As a communications approach, it sits uncomfortably with me. I might even call it coercion if it hadn’t come from the NHS. NHS communicators know from experience that a reminder letter to book a scan will get a very low response rate. If they send unsolicited appointments, the rate will go up. Some people do not want to waste NHS time and will attend as “They have been told to do so” by an organisation of authority. 

I strongly believe in the research that underpins behaviour change communication. That looks at the challenges that might dissuade people from doing the right thing. Check out the COM-B model. It helps us communicators understand the arena of operation. But versions of Nudge that verge on coercion? Not in my playbook of ethics.

The ethical dilemmas of how we communicate need to be thought through in any campaign. ‘Till 2024 and some more musings about PR.

[Image: Unsplash]