Health Promotion & Persuasion

Some of you might be interested in this audio slideshow on the BBC website

Persuading people to practise safe sex, eat healthily, and get children to brush their teeth is not easy - but over the years thousands of public health campaigns across the world have tried to do just that, and much more.

Dr Laragh Gollogly from the World Health Organization has brought together some of the most striking posters from past decades in a book. Here, she explains the ways governments and doctors have tried - from fear to humour - to get their messages across

Persuasion

This is a really remarkable piece of footage on the BBC website of an armed robber being persuaded not to take the proceeds of the register at a shop in America. The woman behind the counter initially captures the man's sympathy and reflection by invoking Jesus and eventually completely wins him over by pointing out that she just works in the shop and might be liable for the money he steals. He eventually leaves after giving a series of almost tearful apologies. As social psychologists have been showing for a long-time it is hard for most people to inflict damage on someone else when it has to be done up close and in person. The majority of the coverage links his refusal to take the money down to the woman's invocation of religion but it looks to me like he really cracks when he thinks that she might have to pay the money back herself.