On June 30, GSL Director Steven Hoffman was quoted in a Washington Post article discussing the recent development of National Collegiate Athletic Association coaches such as Nick Saban (University of Alabama), Nick Orgeron (LSU) or Bob Huggins (University of West Virginia) encouraging Americans to wear masks.
In the article, Hoffman explained that given the coaches’ celebrity status in their respective regions, coaches amplifying good public health advice is “one of the best examples for the potentially powerful and helpful role that celebrities can play right now.”
The theory behind this goes back to research conducted by Hoffman on celebrities’ influence on people’s health-related behaviours. In a 2015 paper titled “Biological, psychological and social processes that explain celebrities’ influence on patients’ health-related behaviors” he and collaborator Charlie Tan found that “humans are biologically, psychologically and socially hardwired to follow celebrities’ medical advice.”
Read the full article here.
A shorter version of the Washington Post article has also appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Previous