Keynotes

Rajiv N. Rimal (Johns Hopkins University)
14 November 2019, 9:15 – 10:15

Social norms as sources of both influence and health communication refraction: Why and how the company you keep matters so much
Recent progress in social norms research is being expanded to include not just perceptions about what others think and do – as captured by the concepts of injunctive and descriptive norms – but also the kinds of normative environments to which people belong – collective norms. In his presentation, Rajiv N. Rimal will model some of the underlying processes that govern social influence, including the refraction of health communication messages. Watch the keynote here.

Rajiv N. Rimal is professor and chair of the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research focuses on the use of social and behavioral theory for disease prevention and harm reduction; he is especially interested in understanding social norms and how they influence choices that affect health outcomes. 

 

Kathleen Beullens (University of Leuven)
15 November 2019, 12:05 – 13:05

How social media use impacts offline health behaviors
Building on her work on alcohol-related social media effects, Kathleen Beullens will provide insight into how young individuals communicate about health and risk behavior online. She will discuss whether and how these online communications affect adolescents’ and emerging adults’ offline health-related behaviors. In addition, the implications of this body of work for prevention initiatives will be discussed. Watch the keynote here.

Kathleen Beullens is associate professor and coordinator of the Leuven School for Mass Communication Research. Her research focus lies on the (longitudinal) effects of different media uses (e.g., television, social media, video games, mobile phones) on children’s and adolescents’ health-related risk behavior and psychosocial well-being.