Public Health Communication Approaches for Building Common Ground

Changes in the information landscape and increasing polarization in society over recent decades have made it more difficult to establish common ground, which poses a profound challenge to effective health communication and public health in general. We highlight the importance of assessing health communication approaches for their potential to bring people together and reduce polarization. We outline several communication approaches that use existing common ground (e.g., appeals to shared values, shared identity, common goals, social norms) or cultivate common ground (e.g., dialogue to bridge divides, trust-focused communication, efforts to humanize scientists), positing that by furthering common ground, these approaches can serve to increase a shared understanding of contentious health topics and foster greater trust in science and evidence-based health information. We end by cautioning against the use of approaches that may be shown to be effective on some measures but may also inadvertently create further polarization, such as the use of certain fear appeals, disparaging humor, or stigmatizing language. (Am J Public Health. 2025;115(4):511-518. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2024.308003).