Identifying ways to promote sleep duration and quality is an important area to focus on within public health. Interventions to encourage healthier sleep include implementing regular exercise, bright light therapy, stimulus control therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, and more (Buboltz et al., 2009). However, these therapies are limited, as research has indicated that individuals generally overestimated their knowledge of proper sleeping habits and the extent to which they practice it themselves (Hicks, Lucero-Gorman, & Bautista, 1999). Counselors and sleep specialists, especially within colleges, have increasingly turned to encourage better sleep through education by emphasizing better sleeping habits, maintaining sleep schedules, and developing good sleep environments. These findings on sleep among college students are just as true at Macalester.

Positively framed messages are those that are framed in terms of possible gains from a product or behavior. Conversely, negatively framed messages are those framed as a lass. In the photo above, the frozen yogurt pint on the left employs negative framing, while the one on the right uses positive framing.

The other aspect of framing I explore in this experiment are different temporal frames. Present-oriented messages focus on the immediate gains or losses from adopting a behavior, while future-oriented messages focus on long-term effects. For example, anti-smoking PSAs often employ future temporal framing, where they detail the long-term risks of smoking such as lung cancer and tooth decay. Meanwhile, an advertisement for nicotine gum may use present-oriented messages, by emphasizing the positive effects that occur within a number of days.

Through this experiment, I hope to examine the types of messages that are likely to encourage certain behaviors. Specifically, I plan on looking at whether positively framed messages or negatively framed messages have more of an effect on one's intent to modify sleep behaviors. Positive framing emphasizes the benefits of a behavior or action, while negative framing emphasizes the losses of doing or not doing an action. I further plan on analyzing whether temporal framing affects one's intent to modify sleep behaviors. In doing this, we will be able to understand whether framing messages in the present or future and emphasizing short-term or long-term gains and losses affect one's intent to modify sleep.

I plan on using a 2x2 between-subject design method, with subjects divided into four groups. Subjects will be randomly assigned into a group, and complete a survey remotely.

Based on a participant's assignment in one of the four groups, they will be presented with a visual or textual PSA on sleep with either a present or future-oriented frame. After being presented with this PSA, participants will be presented with a set of statements and asked to respond on a scale from ‘Strongly Agree’ to ‘Strongly Disagree’. Participants will also have the option to provide a written response.

For the second part of the experiment, I will repeat the first experiment but with a positive or negative frame based on their group assignment. After both parts of the experiment are completed, participants will respond to demographic questions such as age, sex, year in school, estimated hours of sleep, stress level, campus involvement, etc.

Despite this finding, all groups reported a low level of personal impact from each PSA between 2.5-3 out of five. Additionally, the preliminary regressions do reflect the relationship discussed above, however, none of the regression results were statistically significant.

We hope to gather additional responses in order to increase the robustness of our results and clarify some of the ambiguities in our data.

Through this research project, I learned a lot about the ways studying economics can be used to answer questions about public health beyond simply studying the economy. The knowledge I got in one of my previous CGH classes, Health Psychology, was incredibly useful in giving me ideas on how to bridge the topic of Behavioral Economics into public health to produce an interesting CGH project. Although I don’t plan to pursue health promotion as a future career, this was a new area of exploration for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I learned that I am more interested in analyzing health data by investigating individuals, rather than analyzing large-scale data on states and countries. I hope that in the future, the knowledge that comes from this experiment can contribute positively to the Macalester community, such as through Residential Life and Health Promotion. Overall, I am glad that I was able to do a research project on public health on a more personal scale, and I am excited to take this knowledge with me in my life after Macalester.

Buboltz Jr., W. C., Brown, F., & Soper, B. (2001). Sleep habits and patterns of college students: A preliminary study. Journal of American College Health, 50(3), 131-135. doi:10.1080/07448480109596017

Hicks, R. A., Lucero-Gorman, K., Bautista, J., & Hicks, G. J. (1999). Ethnicity, sleep hygiene knowledge, and sleep hygiene practices. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 88(3_suppl), 1095-1096. doi:10.2466/pms.1999.88.3c.1095

Medic, G., Wille, M., & Hemels, M. E. (2017). Short- and long-term health consequences of sleep disruption. Nature and Science of Sleep, 9, 151-161. doi:10.2147/NSS.S134864

Trockel, M. T., Barnes, M. D., & Egget, D. L. (2000). Health-related variables and academic performance among first-year college students: Implications for sleep and other behaviors. Journal of American College Health: J of ACH, 49(3), 125-131. doi:10.1080/07448480009596294

Vail-Smith, K., Felts, W. M., & Becker, C. (2009). Relationship between sleep quality and health risk behaviors in undergraduate college students. College Student Journal, 43(3), 924-930.

Image Credits:

Lesley Ingram-Sills (2021, January 14). Seven tips to get your sleep cycle back on track during lockdown. The Conversation. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/seven-tips-to-get-your-sleep-cycle-back-on-track-during-lockdown-135595

Chang, W. (2015, December 15). Framing. Medium. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://medium.com/psychology-secrets-for-marketing/framing-494a30f784f2