The MECHANISMs Study

In order to develop better public health interventions, it is important to understand the mechanisms by which they exert their effects.  Interventions that act on groups of people or whole populations may be more effective at reducing health inequalities than those that target individuals.  Changing social norms is one way of affecting behaviour in groups of people but these social norms often depend on connections and shared 'understandings' between members of the poulation.  The connections between people are what characterise their shared 'social network', and this may affect the way that social norms spread among people.  Public health scientists know surprisingly little about how best to measure and evaluate the spread of social norms and their effect on behaviour.

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