HEDIR, for Health Educators

Capturing the Heart

The impact of emotion on health behavior cannot be underestimated.  Evidence clearly states that knowledge is not very good at predicting or changing behavior.  Health Educators have long believed the impact of emotions (or attitudes) can be the decisive factor.  I’m sure there’s compelling evidence and research to both deny and support this claim.  This blog isn’t going to be the reviewer of such claims.  But I do want to discuss how we, as health educators, can capture the heart of our target population.

Some of you have seen the following video that was created by a Great Britain community group to encourage the use of seat belts.  If you haven’t seen it, click  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM and watch it.  Come back to this blog when you are through.

It’s a pretty good public service announcement.  I’m not sure what has been done to determine the impact, but it certainly follows into the path of health education where knowledge is just one (small) component of the health behavior component.  Working with one’s attitudes and emotions also plays an important point.

Let me share with you three issues that dealt with ‘the heart’:

• Some of you (if you’re around my age) remember back in the late 1970s and early 1980s…the American car companies of Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler were having major problems.  Besides shoddy work, they were being challenged by imports from Japan—Honda and Toyota.  Both Honda and Toyotas were less expensive than the American vehicles, and nobody could hold a candle to their reliability.  In the late 1970s Chrysler was having some serious problems and was asking the Federal Government for a $1.2 Billion dollar (a lot in the late 1970s) subsidized loan to get them stabilized.  I remember the discussion in Congress was pretty intense.  People were complaining that this was ‘corporate welfare’ and others from the other side  indicated that there were thousands of jobs at risk.  Congress and President Carter approved the loans in August, 1979.

One person in the Chrysler corporation was able to convince various groups in Congress to loan the money.  That person, Lee Iacocca was so impressive that he became the President of Chrysler.  In the early 1980s he ‘starred’ in the Chrysler ads as the spokesperson.  Mr. Iacocca was a congenial, friendly looking person. I remember most of his ads ended with him looking into the camera saying ‘Buy Chrysler…Buy American’.  He was obviously implying that by buying American you are supporting the thousands who work at Chrysler.

Chrysler’s stock took off;  sales were impressive in the early 1980s.  In fact, the $1.5 billion dollar loan that was due in 10 years was paid off in 3 years.  Lee Iacocca was the person who really oversaw a great turnabout for the company.  Yet, the ads didn’t talk about the fine craftsmanship;  the horsepower in the vehicles;  the prestige of driving a classy looking car.  It focused on the emotional aspect of ‘Buy American’. (Ironically, then, like now, most ‘American-made’ cars were actually made outside the United States–they are just ‘assembled’ here).

• I also recall my years teaching at Youngstown State from 1979 to 1989.  I typically taught 2-3 sections of first aid/cpr each year.  As somewhat of an ice-breaker, I typically asked why people signed up for the class.  Some indicated it was a major requirements;  some indicated an interest in helping people.  The ones who were really motivated were those who indicated that they have had a loved one who just had a heart attack or they just had a baby and wanted to learn this to possibly save their lives.  That’s a powerful motivator and those people tended to do very well.

• I also remember taking driver education while a sophomore in high school.  The first day we were shown a series of movies promoting safe driving that had pictures of decapitated drivers, blood (enhanced by an artist) all over the highway, and pictures of people who went through the windshield.  I think the intent was to encourage us to become safe drivers.  Not sure if it worked, but I still remember those films.

• A good friend of mine is an exercise physiologist who works in cardiac rehabilitation.  He constantly talks about the motivation that people have to change lifestyle AFTER they’ve had a heart attack.  I guess one could say that the emotion of having a heart attack wills a person to make difficult decisions and changes.  Quite literally, the heart attack ‘captured’ their heart, in getting them to change their behavior.  It’s unfortunate that people have to get to that stage for them to make changes.

As health educators we do a pretty good job at providing updated information, reasons why, or precautions against.  I’m not sure how effective we are at using that approach.  Yet, when we can ‘capture’ the heart of the person (i.e., student, client, patient) we may have a much better chance of helping  people help themselves.

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