SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Behavior change through the use of messages is a common objective across the Defense community. The ability for analysts to craft effective messages is a challenge, and there are many features of messages that can be varied and that have moderating effects on sharing messages and creating effective behavior change. However, current research has not established definitive causal relationships between specific types of messages or message features and behavior change. Additionally, even such a set of empirically validated causal mechanisms of persuasion is not immediately useful to the Defense community. To benefit Warfighter well-being or foreign population stability, neuroscience research findings must be integrated into usable models and tools. Through this effort, we will establish causal pathways and produce translational insights for how to increase sharing and promote trust in high-quality, evidence-based information, eventually resulting in action by conducting a series of intervention tournaments. During these tournaments we will test operationalizations of message framing and use insights from these activities to populate models in our Brain-Based Prediction of Influence Message Effectiveness (BB-PRIME) Decision Dashboard, a message creation tool that aids analysts in creating influence messages.
