Nudge, nudge – Dr Frankenstein is at the door!
Casting off the cobwebs in The Red Knob Coal Bunker and dusting ourselves down, it’s not often that we post a missive on the Red Knob blog in these days of The Catastrophe brought to us by the current overlords at UK Plc – if you stick your helmet (oo’er) above the parapet too many times you’ll get pot shots taken at you, or possibly a cruise missile. Not that we don’t have plenty to say of course, but we could ask who beyond our over subscribed readership ( we do have them you know – honest!) is listening? We can blather until we’re blue in the face, or spout words of the wisest erudition , but there are only so many brick walls you can batter your head against until you do yourself serious damage, ie a case of let’s give it a rest. So, it comes as a very welcome surprise today amidst the ongoing pie slinging match surrounding Messrs Murdoch and co, that a headline has sneaked through about UK Plc’s stance on preventative work on health – that nudging people in the right direction on it’s own won’t do, that further incentives are required if people are to consider changing their behaviours around health. Beyond another worthy message ‘there’s no health without mental health’ – and if we don’t get that right we can forget the rest, there seems to be a welcome change in direction in terms of what needs to be applied to preventative health work – ie what we at The Red Knob have been foaming at the mouth about for an aeon or two, the appliance of the sciences of human behaviour alongside that of the social sciences. It’s extremely welcome and long overdue (although we wonder how long it will take to seep down into the Sociology smitten basement of sexual health…). So we thought we’d better put up our hands excitedly at the back of the class - “but Miss we told you so!”
An interesting view on this can be found in The Guardian ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/19/nudge-is-not-enough-behaviour-change ); as the article points out, beyond the gaps in our knowledge of human behaviour, and ‘credible evidence bases within the social science disciplines’ ( The Guardian said it, not us… ) that there is a ‘lack of commitment to the interdisciplinary research needed to integrate perspectives on the various drivers of behaviour, including genes, neurons, thoughts, feelings, habitats, social interactions, and cultural influences.‘ The article goes on to say amongst other things that if UK Plc wants to follow this line, then we need to invest more money in the sciences and that perhaps the Research Council should invest money in interdisciplinary research. On that score we can say those folks at The Guardian obviously aren’t aware of the interdisciplinary sniping wars that bedevil any mention of one side perhaps admitting that the other side has something valid to say after all – put a neuroscientist in a room with a sociologist and you’ve got a good case for the TV show Celebrity Death Match – if there were any celebrities in either field of course. Ouch!
The central point of The Guardian article is about ‘nudging’ people in the right direction – and that you can’t ‘nudge’ people without incentives. Well, maybe some you can and some you can’t etc, but the greater point for The Red Knob is that finally there is the acknowledgement that the very valid sciences of human behaviour have a place in informing preventative work. That doesn’t mean to say that Dr Frankenstein is about to be unleashed – but that neuroscience or evolutionary psychology may offer other explanations about why people behave as they do. It also means that the wider application of the social sciences will be required in order to engage with populations – especially in terms of resources and media. A central tenet of The Red Knob has been since its inception that a reciprocal base of practice acknowledging both the social sciences and the sciences of human behaviour is required to address health concerns , and at least there’s a hint now that – especially in terms of sexual health, we may not have to stick with one-size-fits all Sociology solutions ( or do we hear the sound of drawbridges being drawn up? ). We’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out – but you can be sure it’s a theme we’ll be returning to (just as long as the pen of the mighty red nib keeps a flowin’!)
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