While every movement is unique, there are common threads that run through all social justice issues – and lessons to be learnt from diverse campaigns...
This is an interesting analysis, and it's very intriguing to me that smoking declined so much from 2000 to 2021 — but I don't see evidence here that Truth Campaign's messaging *caused* that decline.
How do we know that trend hadn't already been started previously by other factors? Ideally, I'd like to see randomized use of Truth Campaign ads in different areas, and seeing if targeted areas saw faster declines in smoking than others.
I'm sympathetic to the idea that these messaging tactics, like avoiding shame and villainizing big evil systems, are effective. But I'm wary of overgeneralizing — especially to other movements — without solid evidence.
My instinct is that avoiding shaming people is a good idea if you want to change their behavior, but I know others disagree and I haven't seen strong evidence yet to support either conclusion. I've seen somewhat weak empirical research from the NIH that actually cuts in the pro-shame direction. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25666549/)
This is an interesting analysis, and it's very intriguing to me that smoking declined so much from 2000 to 2021 — but I don't see evidence here that Truth Campaign's messaging *caused* that decline.
How do we know that trend hadn't already been started previously by other factors? Ideally, I'd like to see randomized use of Truth Campaign ads in different areas, and seeing if targeted areas saw faster declines in smoking than others.
I'm sympathetic to the idea that these messaging tactics, like avoiding shame and villainizing big evil systems, are effective. But I'm wary of overgeneralizing — especially to other movements — without solid evidence.
My instinct is that avoiding shaming people is a good idea if you want to change their behavior, but I know others disagree and I haven't seen strong evidence yet to support either conclusion. I've seen somewhat weak empirical research from the NIH that actually cuts in the pro-shame direction. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25666549/)