Social, Media Influences Highlighted in Sustainability Series Presentation 
By Patti Truant In the quest to encourage people to make healthy, environmentally friendly decisions, the public health community must not only examine media and peer influences, but also how individuals perceive these influences to affect themselves and others. Albert Gunther, professor in the Department of Life Sciences Communication at the University of Wisconson-Madison, spoke at JHSPH recently about health communications effects and their consequences as part of the Connecting Health and Sustainability Lecture Series. His research examining media attitudes can help us understand what kind of messages the public responds to, and what strategies and forms of communication have the ability to change behavior. For example, Gunther spoke of an acquaintance who lives very close to work, but always drove to work, citing his busy and stressful schedule. Eventually, the combination of a local campaign to encourage biking and public transportation, as well as peer pressure from the individual’s neighbors and colleagues, encouraged him to change his behavior and begin taking the bus to work. The man’s colleagues and neighbors set the example that the bus was a socially desirable choice, which helped lead to his ultimate decision. As public support and adoption of various behaviors becomes more mainstream, Gunther said people often fall into one of four camps: complying, defying, withdrawal or obliging. More knowledge is needed on the relationship between presumed social influences and consequences. The interaction between exposure to media messages and the social influences has been well documented, but just how these social influences affect decision making are the next frontier to explore, he said. More information visit Dr. Gunther’s research website. Visit CLF website for more information on the two remaining lecture series events. | 
