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Week 2: Think Like a Marketer: Engaging the Elephant and Rider

Seminar Held in Person. The seminar will be led by our TA, PJ Rayner. 

Learning objectives:

  Objective 1. Reject the assumption that evidence is the primary factor shaping behavior, organizational practice or public policy.

  Objective 2. Anticipate the central role of intuitive psychological processing in human judgement and behaviour.

  Objective 3. Anticipate how a person’s value system informs their interpretation of evidence, along with their support for, or opposition to, knowledge to action (K2A) initiatives.

Field Guide tool on which we focus:  Haidt’s Elephant and Rider metaphor

Readings:

Haidt, Jonathan. 2012. The Righteous Mind:  Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York: Pantheon Books, “Part 1: Intuitions Come First, Strategic Reasoning Second,” chapters 1-4.  See the video below which summarizes how to read this section of Haidt's book efficiently. *Pay particular attention to the pages starting at the end of chapter 2, beginning with the section "The Rider and the Elephant", which includes Figure 2.4 -- the social intuitionist model of judgment.  Then carry on with chapters 3 and 4.  No need to get bogged down in the discussion of philosophers in chapters 1 and 2.

Lesson Plan

  • Students come ready to discuss readings:

    • Key questions:

      • What is the Elephant/Rider Metaphor? What is the role of intuition and reasoning in judgement? What is the Social Intuitionist Model of Judgment? Why are these concepts important for K2A, approaches to advocating for population health policies, and the design of public/population health communication?

  • I do: Learn from examples from Gen Squeeze: Review this video by me Links to an external site. trying to defend younger folks by busting myths, and making the case that the social determinants of health are deteriorating for younger Canadians because hard work doesn't pay off like it used to.  Am I talking to your elephants? Your riders? Or am I missing both??? 
  • We do: Consider this commercial made by Dr. Theresa Tam Links to an external site. encouraging Canadians to update their vaccination . Let’s reverse engineer the approach.  Is she speaking to the rider, or to the elephant?
  • You do: Submit an Online Discussion Post. Tell us about one key element from the Elephant and Rider metaphor that you believe should be central to K2A activities.  Describe a place in your own life where you can see the Elephant/Rider playing out (i.e. work, school, family, media).  What critical questions do you think might be valuable to be asking of the Elephant and Rider metaphor in a Public Health context?  (Pass/fail: 1/5 of your 15% Online Discussion Grade)  TA to Mark.