Improving Public Health Communication In A Politically Polarized Environment: Exploring The Use Of Moral Values In Message Framing

Public health practitioners need to engage stakeholders to address today’s complex public health problems. Yet communicating with stakeholders – particularly policy officials – has become more challenging due to political polarization. One promising communications strategy focuses on framing messages that tap into six intuitive moral values, based on Moral Foundations Theory. Previous research has shown a strong connection between people’s moral values and their political affiliation. The purpose of this study was to: (1) assess the intuitive moral values of public health practitioners and local officials in North Carolina; and (2) test the perceived effectiveness of public health messages framed using different moral values among North Carolina local officials. The study hypothesized that public health practitioners would lean toward moral foundations that resonate more with political liberals, whereas local officials would identify with ones that resonate more with conservatives. Methods: An online survey assessed the moral foundations of 372 public health practitioners and 147 local officials in North Carolina. A between-subjects, randomized experiment with local officials tested (1) the perceived effectiveness of values-based messages about policies about COVID-19 and vaping, and (2) related information-seeking behavior. Findings: In multivariate regression models, moral foundation scores consistently varied by political views, education, region, race/ethnicity, and age. As predicted, public health practitioners scored higher on the moral foundations of Care and Fairness, and local officials scored higher on Loyalty, Authority, and Sanctity (as well as Liberty). However, public health practitioners and local officials shared a similar overall pattern in their moral foundations. One vaping message framed using Care/Fairness scored higher than one using binding foundations (i.e., Loyalty/Authority/Sanctity). Using binding foundations alone to frame public health messages did not appeal to conservatives. Given the study was conducted during a global pandemic and contentious U.S. presidential election, further research is warranted to test message framing for other public health topics. Implications: Recommendations are offered for using findings to improve how public health practitioners communicate with stakeholders about COVID-19 and other pressing public health issues. A plan is outlined to refine and expand an existing national training program to increase public health practitioner skills to become more effective communicators.Doctor of Public Healt