Webinar: How to persuade people to stay home

As governments and health officials around the world scramble to persuade their citizens to practice social distancing, challenges have emerged in getting people to trust the message, further complicating efforts to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

But a century of social science research provides insights to better align behavior with the recommendations of public officials and health experts – insights that will be explored in a hour-long webinar presented by Northwestern University at noon (CDT) Tuesday, April 14.

Media are invited to attend and can remotely access the webinar at this link using password 1234. Please RSVP to Mohamed Abdelfattah at mohamed@northwestern.edu.

The webinar is part of the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs’ Confronting COVID-19: Global Implications and Futures webinar series. 

The webinar will include tips on how to address the public, the role played by social norms and social approval, and what kind of messaging strategy works best, especially when addressing marginalized communities.

Webinar presenters include:

Jamie Druckman, professor of political science at Northwestern. His research has explored the relationship between citizens’ preferences and public policy. 

Sander van der Linden, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge. His research has explored the psychology of human judgment, communication and decision-making, including social norms and networks, attitudes and polarization, reasoning about evidence and the public understanding of risk and uncertainty.

The experts will address these questions and more, drawing on key takeaways from a new report they co-authored with more than two dozen social scientists from universities around the world.