Interviewers can activate harmful assumptions with the questions they ask. We can disrupt these assumptions with ‘spot, bridge and move.’
- Spot the harmful beliefs that might be activated by a question
- Bridge away from those beliefs – with a bridging phrase, or by picking up on an aspect of the question that’s helpful
- Move with a reframed answer that responds to those harmful beliefs.
We can also incorporate framing recommendations into spokespeople briefings and key messages.
Here’s what this could look like in practice:
Q: Kids like sweet foods – and eating too many sweets make you obese. Some parents just don’t care enough to step up and stop kids from eating junk. Isn’t that right
Tip:
Spot – this question ignores the role of advertising in engineering tastes, others, and blames parents for individual, personal failings.
Before:
Everyone likes sweet food! But there’s no way that parents can control everything their kids do. Kids can order fast food online from their phones, delivered straight to their doors… It’s too hard, and it’s asking too much. That’s why we need to support parents – not criticise them.
After:
We all need to put children’s health first. And when unhealthy options are in the spotlight – with TV and online advertising targeted directly at children – it’s not surprising that junk food has a starring role in kids minds. It’s past time to close the curtain on junk food ads aimed at children – for every child’s health.
Tip:
Metaphor trigger strong mental images – so journalists will often pull them into article headlines.