Other people's behaviour acts as a cue for what to do, buy, or believe.
More quotesMost risk communication is secretly self-flattery. It starts with the harm that sounds most frightening, not the harm the audience finds credible, then acts surprised when people switch off.
Drug education provides a particularly awkward example. Tell a young person that one encounter means almost certain personal catastrophe and their lived experience may puncture the message before lunch. Once one claim smells exaggerated, the sensible bits go in the bin with it. Moral panic is not persuasion; it is a trust-destruction scheme with a leaflet budget. A more honest route is to widen the frame. Personal consumption can sit inside a supply chain involving intimidation, exploitation and violence. The same move works elsewhere. Cheap next-day delivery is not only about saving three quid; it can mean punishing warehouse targets and exhausted drivers. Buying counterfeit goods is not merely a private bargain; it may fund a chain the buyer would dislike seeing in daylight. A company ignoring a security update is not only gambling with its own files; it can expose customers and suppliers too.
Melodrama remains useless. If the claimed connection is weak, contested or wildly inflated, say so. Swapping one exaggerated scare story for another only burns more trust. The useful move is to show the credible consequences that sit beyond the chooser’s immediate skin.
People are often more willing to accept a cost for themselves than impose one on somebody visible. Good risk communication makes that somebody visible without lying about the odds.