Sandro Galea is an epidemiologist who studies human behavior in public health emergencies. He’s the director of the Center for Global Health at the University of Michigan. He was recently interviewed on NPR about the public’s response to the recent media attention on swine flu. He said:
I think it’s pretty clear that a consistent, clear, but honest message about what is going on is essential. People realize that public officials may not know the answers to everything, but people react much better and have a much more predictable reactions when they know that they’re being told as much information as is available and that they are being given sound, sane advice. I think the one thing that we probably want to avoid is a cacophony of conflicting information from different sources, and possibly different information.
One of the problems with anti-drug propaganda is that it fails the test that Dr. Galea describes. The public does not believe that we are being told as much information as is available; we are being told often-exaggerated information about the harmful effects of drugs. We do not believe that we are being given sound, sane advice; we are being given hysterical propaganda. We are not receiving a “consistent, clear, but honest message about what is going on”; we are receiving a consistent, clear, message about what the producers of the propaganda would like for us to do.
This may be completely in line with the intentions of the drug-warriors. The host’s question, after all, was what to do “if you’re trying to avoid panic, fear, or confusion,” and the goal of the drug-warriors is not to educate, but to create panic, fear, and confusion so as to influence people not to use any illegal drugs at all.
Which interaction would you prefer: one in which the person desires to give you as much information as possible so as to allow you to make a choice for yourself, or one in which the person desires to manipulate you into coming to the conclusion they desire?
You can hear the NPR interview with Dr. Galea at this link.
