COVID-19 Communication Handbook: How to Design Behaviourally-Informed Communication

"In any health crisis, media and communication can play an important role in saving lives. Effective communication informed by behavioural insights can help prevent and reduce the spread of disease, and guide those affected towards health services and treatment."

Developed by the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change (CSBC), Ashoka University, India, this handbook is designed to help policymakers, communication practitioners, and development and humanitarian agencies think through how risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) can be conducted effectively using behavioural insights during the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers explanations and examples of how CSBC has designed and tested COVID-19 communication, which is grounded in ongoing testing and research to identify behaviourally sound recommendations that have worked in past health emergencies.

Following a user guide for the COVID-19 communication handbook, the contents include:

• Background - describes how the COVID-19 outbreak in India has impacted various aspects of life at the individual and societal levels and highlights the fact that behaviourally informed RCCE can mitigate many of the negative impacts while encouraging and enforcing the positive behaviours (e.g., frequent handwashing, social distancing, and working from home).
• How to design effective communication during COVID-19 - summarises the key behavioural insights from a global literature review conduced by CSBC.
  • Understanding behavioural principles - examines nudges, cognitive biases, and heuristics that can be leveraged to inform behaviour change.
  • How to understand technical information - highlights key technical information contained in government-issued advisories, although such information alone, even if in simple, understandable language, is unlikely to prompt significant behaviour change.
  • How to design behaviourally-informed messages - covers how to convert this technical information into behaviourally informed messages.
  • How to test messages for desired change - explains (in part through lists of sample questions to ask) how to test the effectiveness, relevance, likability, and comprehension of the communicated messages.
  • How to choose a medium to communicate - provides an overview of the various options of communication platforms available, along with considerations to make while matching the appropriate channels to the intended audiences.
• Conclusion - reminds readers that leveraging tested behavioural principles such as making messages readable and consistent and reducing inconsistency and repetition when designing COVID-19 communication can have payoffs, including enhanced message comprehension, improved attitudes toward healthy behaviours, increased intent to take action, enhanced self-efficacy, and increased participation in preventive behaviours.
• Glossary of key terms and abbreviations