Leveraging Consumer Psychology for Effective Health Communications ─ The Obesity Challenge

Research scholars in communications, consumer behavior, marketing, psychology, and public health gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan in May 2009 to share and debate ideas on how their research might be used to improve the effectiveness of obesity-fighting messages and interventions. From that conference, 20 papers here look at research on consumer biases, communication strategies and tactics, combating obesity in children and young adults, and environmental and policy perspectives. Overviews cover insights from consumer research, and the population-based prevention of obesity. Other topics include effects of lay consumer theories about health-related behaviors, how the body types of others impacts people's food consumption, using hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance to reduce the risk for obesity, using identity signaling to combat obesity and improve public health, matching appeal type to personality in preventing childhood obesity by persuading mothers to breastfeed, and lessons learned from tobacco control and tobacco marketing research. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)