General public: communicating to persuade.

As introduced in chapter 2 planning for public health communication depends on whether the primary purpose is to inform audiences to facilitate decision-making or to persuade audiences. Persuasion refers to using information to help change opinions attitudes or behaviors and it is probably the most common purpose for communication in public health practice. Examples of persuasion in public health are legion such as encouraging smoking prevention and cessation condom use early prenatal care prevention of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol or persuading parents to immunize their young children. Chapter 4 provided an overview of strategies and tactics when the primary purpose is to inform the general public. This chapter adds additional tools for communicating persuasively; it includes an overview of behavior change communication persuasion and other commonly used theories recommendations for understanding general public audiences and recommendations for developing and delivering messages. Although most of the material presented in this chapter is based on large-scale interventions and mass communication the principles and recommendations are directly applicable to less formal persuasive communication situations common to public health practice. (excerpt)