Abstract
Between the mid-sixties and the mid-seventies, the so-called “consumer decade,”‘ Congress enacted a large number of consumer protection laws, many in the area of health and safety.’ In recent years, some of these laws and the regulations promulgated under them have inspired harsh criticism. Some critics, including many Reagan Administration appointees, have argued that rather than regulate, government should inform and educate the public about the risks associated with various hazards and let individuals choose whether or not to take the risks.
Such a view is hardly novel. In fact, for several reasons the use of information and education as alternatives to direct regulation has always appealed to government agencies. First, many regulators believe that large numbers of injuries and illnesses cannot be prevented through direct regulation. Second, information and education programs seem to preserve individual choice while avoiding direct government involvement in industry’s production and pricing activities. Third, because information and education programs usually bypass the complex procedural schemes most agencies must follow in order to promulgate rules, information and education programs permit-superficially, at least easier and faster action than rulemaking. Finally, information and education programs can be used to enhance the image of agencies and their staffs-a point that is rarely lost on government administrators.
The popularity of persuasion campaigns, of course, says little about their effectiveness. While we do not challenge the value of all information and education programs, we suggest their popularity rests more on philosophical and ideological grounds than on solid empirical evidence supporting their ability to alter consumer behavior. We question the efficacy of many education campaigns currently underway, especially those undertaken by health and safety agencies.
In this Article, we explore some of the myths surrounding information and education programs. We suggest that if they are to produce even modest changes in consumer behavior, many of these programs require more careful planning, larger expenditures and longer implementation periods than they usually receive. To illustrate our point, we examine in some detail three recent health and safety education campaigns-one promoting safety belt use,’ one advancing burn prevention measures and one urging lifestyle changes to combat heart diseases that we believe underline the difficulties facing even the most skilled attempts to promote behavioral change through the use of information and education techniques.
In choosing these campaigns, we sought “exceptional” programs. The programs described herein purported to incorporate “state of the art” persuasion techniques and contained sophisticated, detailed evaluation schemes, characteristics by no means common to all information and education programs. In two campaigns, the program results have been extensively evaluated. In the third, preliminary but, we believe, significant results have been obtained. Our analysis of these campaigns highlights some of the social, psychological, financial, and occasionally political, factors that affect and often impede the success of educational campaigns generally. We hope our analysis will convince government officials and other policymakers to undertake education campaigns with the same care and restraint currently accorded regulatory proceedings.
