Using persuasion as preventive medicine

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Influenza is still on the rise this winter, according to the latest report from the Centers for Disease Control .

New to Austin, Kristin Welsey is one of the many flu sufferers this season.

"I didn't realize how bad this was,” said Wesley. “I'm glad I got better on my own. If I hadn't I definitely would have ended up in the emergency room."

It started as a cough but quickly escalated and she’s been sick for a month.

"Get the flu shot,” said Wesley. “I'm always the one that says oh that doesn't work but this is awful."

Dr. Matt McGlone , associate professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas, is not an expert on how well the flu vaccine works. Instead, he's studied how somebody talks about the flu prompts people to say they’d get the vaccine. The study appears in the December 2012 edition of the Journal of Health Communication.

"I'm a researcher on the language of persuasion, so I'm interested in how these subtle factors could lead to compliance," said McGlone.

The trick is to assign the cause for transmission on the flu not the person. In other words, instead of telling people "You could get the flu," say "The flu could get you."

"A lot of our fear centers, of course, are more strongly stimulated by predators by things coming after us,” said McGlone. “Those are the sorts of threats that get our attention. So virtue of portraying the flu as a predator as opposed to the flu being something we catch because we’re irresponsible, we’re not taking care of ourselves. When you portray the flu as a predator, it’s just that much more frightening."

The effect was people said they were more likely to take preventative measures like getting the vaccine or washing their hands.

But, the tactic can go too far.

“We found that when you had the scary picture and the scary language you saw people engage in fear reduction, that is it muted the effect,” said McGlone. “We found people somewhat less likely to report seeking out vaccination.”

McGlone says they've already applied this study’s findings to other illnesses like HPV and salmonella and found similar results. He says the language strategy could translate outside illnesses to something like climate change.