Identifying and Solving Psychological Barriers to Effective Engagement

Abstract: To achieve important outcomes, like engaging patients in cancer screening, gaining trust from constituents, addressing moral concerns, or making high-quality decisions, individuals and organizations must effectively engage other people. This symposium brings together five papers that examine why individuals fail to engage effectively and introduce solutions. The first three papers identify causes of ineffective engagement across healthcare, policing, and workplace contexts. Low et al. demonstrate that inconsistent with physician expectations, health screening messages emphasizing urgency backfire. Dittmann and Dobson document that people in highly oppositional roles, like police, overestimate how much benign interactions with community members build trust. Dorison and Tulan demonstrate that individuals make intentional decision-making errors to avoid conflict. The next two papers explore solutions. Stalford and Kundro show that a third-party perspective can help people engage in more effective moral objections. Lee, Bruno, and Wallace focus on victim avoidance during leader transitions and explore shared identity as a resource for trust repair. Our symposium provides a nuanced understanding of why individuals engage ineffectively and highlights solutions.

Keywords: engagement, conflict avoidance, trust