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The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.
George Bernard Shaw
Introduction
The conventional idea of communication is the process of delivering and/or exchanging information, and this notion is a well-practiced principle in public health promotion. But the other equally important property of communication – the one that speaks to the word’s Latin root (communicare = sharing together) – defines it as a way to share meaning, the foundation of (communicative) relationships. Communication scholars know about the importance of factors other than the message and channels that determine whether or not communication leads to liking and acceptance. The sharing of meaning in communication highlights the importance of people openly discussing and arriving at an understanding of each other’s positions and accepting them as legitimate in the context of exploring and realising a desired outcome. Not coincidentally, it is mostly in this aspect of communication where many of the barriers to effective health communication surface.
Since the key to effective health communication lies in its ability to communicate well, an accepted axiom is that a health promoter needs to identify relevant antecedents to behavioural responses and translate those into convincing but uncomplicated message cues that are designed to overcome barriers (1,2). Those largely come from research about the correlation between psychological constructs (beliefs, attitudes, efficacies and so on) and resultant behaviours. Yet, barriers that pertain to the ‘sharing of meaning’ concept might benefit from a more humanistic vision of health communication discourse, one that values individual autonomy and liberty, human sense and reason as a guide for decision-making, and decentralised participatory democracy. A humanistic approach accedes to the idea that people are able to make choices, have responsibility, and seek or create their own meanings and values (3–5).
Since universally accepted best health practices do not really exist, any message has to pass through the filter of a particular worldview on both the senders’ and receivers’ sides. This often creates a discrepancy between the expected and actual message reception and response (6–9). Moreover, the assumption of a rational human actor made implicitly by health psychological models is a contestable issue. In many instances message recipients do not follow a cognitive judgment process of message elements but, to the contrary, follow automatic...