Planetary Health: Integrating Perspectives From Health and Environmental Communication.

Given the strong links between individual and environmental health, health communication strategies may also hold potential to tackle environmental challenges. This special issue compiles findings from six studies that explored how health and environmental communication can inform planetary health interventions that benefit both the natural environment and individual health. Three of these studies examined strategies that target individual pro-environmental behaviour. In sum, some approaches shown to be effective in health communication (e.g. risk-based communication, value framing), were not effective in two studies included here. Two studies suggested environmental challenges may require a broader focus than a single-behaviour perspective and one found identity and self-efficacy as crucial drivers of behavioural spillover. An additional three studies investigated both individual and social factors to address environmental challenges. The importance of social identity was confirmed in these studies. Moreover, these studies argued that behaviours should not merely be considered from a rational decision-making perspective, but also include emotional drivers, social reactive decision-making and misperceptions of social norms. Where health communication often (and sometimes inadvertently) tends to focus on the individual and reasoned processes, when it comes to communication to increase pro-environmental behaviours, social and emotional influences certainly need to be considered too.