The coronavirus pandemic has shown how difficult it is to communicate the facts, risks and uncertainties around health topics effectively and with transparence.

Yet, this task is enormously important to avoid uncertainty and to enable a better understanding among different target audiences - be it health professionals, politicians or the general public. In the Risk Communication project group we work as an interdisciplinary team with research results and information out of the Robert Koch Institute in order to present them in an appropriate manner to various target groups. To this end, we use methods from empirical cognitive and behavioural sciences, such as the development and testing of various communication formats and media.

Research Topics

The project group’s research can be placed at the interface between psychology and public health. In particular, we focus on risk and uncertainty communication, information needs from health professionals and the public (e.g. concerning long/post COVID), public health misinformation (and how to counteract it), and infodemic management.

Social Media

The Risk Communication Project Group supports the RKI's social media team:
Social Media at RKI

Group Members

Yvonne Daschowski, research associate
Dr. Ines Lein, scientific coordinator

Collaborations

Harding Center for Risk Literacy at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Potsdam:
Research and development of methods and instruments that enable informed, risk-literate and efficient decisions in an increasingly digitalised everyday life.

Max-Planck-Institute for Human Development, emeritus group Gigerenzer and
Center for Adaptive Rationality:
Development of instruments for different areas, e.g. medicine, consumer protection and natural hazards that explain probabilities and uncertainties in a transparent manner to a lay audience.

Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom:
Research on communication of risks and uncertainty on medical topics.

University of Erfurt:
Collaboration with Prof. Cornelia Betsch and Dr. Mirjam Jenny from the Institute for Planetary Health Behavior (IPB)

Federal Institute for Public Health (BIÖG)
Collaboration for the PreventNCD project; Lessons learned from Covid: Effective health communication in crises and beyond

We are involved in the WHO Infodemic Management Network.