TABLE 2.
An Agenda for Future Research
| Design Strategy | Research Question |
|---|---|
| Message framing | 1. Are messages that frame health as a result of both individual and structural factors more effective in generating structural attributions for SDH than messages that frame these issues as primarily influenced by structural factors? |
| Narratives | 2. What characteristics of narratives (e.g., plot, character, structure, realism, production value) are critical to facilitating persuasion? |
| 3. Can messages that use compelling narratives about social conditions offset the finding that many people attribute poverty among African Americans to individual factors? | |
| 4. Can population health narratives convey the complexity of economic, structural, behavioral, and social factors that influence health, or are multiple narratives required to emphasize various determinants of health? | |
| Visual images | 5. What combinations of visual images (inviting generalizations, suggesting causal interpretations, highlighting contrasts, and/or creating analogies) are most effective in raising awareness of SDH and health disparities? |
| Narratives and visual images | 6. Can message designers develop narratives and images of SDH and health disparities without simultaneously activating negative stereotypes or evoking high guilt, anger, resentment, and persuasive intent? |
| General | 7. Can population health advocates effectively raise awareness of and concern for SDH and population health disparities without strong efficacy information about how to influence SDH and reduce disparities? |
| 8. Are message frames, narratives, or visual images more likely to influence attributions of responsibility for some SDH (e.g., low education, unemployment) than others (e.g., poverty, racial discrimination)? | |
| 9. Can messages that raise awareness of the scope and magnitude of population health disparities influence concern for these disparities without explicitly mentioning their social and structural determinants? | |
| 10. Can messages that raise awareness of SDH influence concern for health disparities without explicitly mentioning the magnitude or nature of these disparities? |