Designing effective health risk messages for COVID-19 for MSU students

<p>It's always my pleasure to welcome Dennis Martell to the MSU Today microphones. Dennis is executive director of the <a href="https://socialnorms.org/">National Social Norms Center</a> and is in the Health Promotion Department at MSU. And it's great to welcome Monique Mitchell Turner to MSU Today for the first time. Dr. Turner is professor and chair of MSU's renowned <a href="https://comartsci.msu.edu/departments/communication">Department of Communication</a>. <br> <br> “What's challenging about this situation, Russ, is that in my 35 years of being at MSU, I've never had a situation where we're constantly chasing an ever-changing pandemic that's affecting an ever-changing population, which is then affecting reactions from administration for ever-changing policies and mandates,” says Martell. “In order for us to get an idea of how this will all play out in the fall, we needed to do a survey of students on and off campus related to these issues. The effect of health risk messages is a concept that we need to study with the students, and also understand even from our own point-of-view, what is the best way to help the university reopen and have the students follow the protocols that will keep them safe.”<br> <br> “There are some important differences between the COVID-19 response on campus and the kinds of risk messaging we've been doing for decades,” adds Turner. “On college campuses, it's pretty normal to have messaging about binge drinking, smoking, depression, mental health generally, etc. And when students’ behaviors are what we would call risky, then we can focus on the impacts that they're having on themselves in the main. When you smoke, you're hurting yourself. When you're drinking, you're hurting yourself. Certainly there are effects on their friends and families as well.<br> <br> “But COVID-19 is really interesting because these students' risk behaviors might not have a substantial effect on their own health because of their age, but they will have a substantial effect on a number of people aro