Blog 4: Why mythbusting doesn’t work and what to do instead

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One of the most frustrating things for people working in health promotion is the numerous myths, lies and misconceptions people have about health problems and how to prevent them.

Whether it’s myths about the healthiness of red wine, or the dangers of vaccinations, the most natural response from any expert is to confront those myths head on and ‘bust’ them.

Similarly, when we hear criticism of health promotion advocates as ‘nanny staters’ or ‘fun police’, we feel a powerful urge to defend our tireless work and evidence-based profession.

But here’s the problem - engaging with myths and lies only helps them spread.

Mythbusting is basically the process of reminding people of things we don’t want them to think.

Let’s illustrate that with an example. Try your very best to do exactly what the next sentence asks you to do.

Don’t think of an elephant.

How did you go? If you’re like most people, you thought of an elephant. That’s because our brains cannot reject an idea without first considering it.

That means that when we mythbust, we force people to consider the very myth we’d like them to forget. Research shows that in many cases this actually serves to reinforce and strengthen those ideas.

Consequently, the very last thing we should do when confronted with myths is repeat them. So what do we do instead? We tell the truth. That means we tell our story.

For example, instead of talking about how vaccines do not cause autism, we talk about how vaccines protect the most vulnerable among us. Instead of talking about how red wine is not good for health, we talk about how alcoholic products are linked to increased risk of cancer when drunk in high doses.

Similarly, many advocates feel the need to confront criticisms of our profession as the ‘fun police’ by reminding people that we too know how to have fun. Advocates for alcohol regulation, for example, will point out that they too relax over a glass of wine at the end of a busy day, before launching into their story of why we need to reduce alcohol availability. They are trying to be relatable, but all they are achieving is reminding people of the good things about the product they want to restrict access to.

In a series of message testing projects we recently conducted with Common Cause Australia, we found that reminding people of the positive attributes of products like alcohol or unhealthy foods served to decrease support for effective policy regulation

Instead, messages that focused on the harms of unhealthy products and the positive outcomes of reducing their supply increased support for evidence-based policies. In other words, instead of pandering to myths, ideas and stories that our opponents like to tell, we need to stick to our story and tell our truth.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

FROM: “It’s not the case that bad food tastes better. Healthy food can be even more delicious.”

TO: “Delicious healthy food helps us go about our day with more ease and energy.”

 

FROM: “I enjoy a glass of wine to de-stress at the end of the day as much as anyone, but I also know excess alcohol consumption is linked to cancer.”

TO: “The more alcohol you consume the more damage it does. Every additional drink increases your risk of developing eight types of cancer.”

 

FROM: “While we are all ultimately responsible for the food that goes in our mouths, that doesn’t mean we should let the food industry off the hook.”

TO: “Packing the food we buy full of cheap ingredients like salt, sugar and fat might boost the processed food industry’s profits, but it’s bad for our community’s health.”

Want more information?

Visit www.commoncause.com.au to learn more about Common Cause Australia’s work and the concept behind values-based messaging.

Contact Mark Chenery on [email protected] if you have further questions about this work.