摘要：South Africa faces a number of significant public health crises. While much has been done over the past decadesto address the quadruple disease burden, we have, nonetheless, witnessed a rise in non-communicable diseases(responsible for 39% of deaths in 2010) and a failure to curb HIV/AIDS infection rates (35% of deaths in 2010). 1-3Given that behavioural risk factors contribute significantly to the global disease burden, there is a growing movementtowards the application of evidence-based behavioural science interventions to issues of public health; publichealth in South Africa would greatly benefit from joining this movement. 4,5 These interventions have the benefit ofbeing amenable to testing in randomised controlled trials, are relatively cheap and cost-effective, and even whenthey yield only small effects they can have significant positive impacts on public health when scaled up. 4,6 A subsetof these interventions focuses on changing behaviour through shifting social norms perception. In this paper, wefocus on social norms as an important site for behavioural change interventions, and consider its applicability toissues of public health in South Africa.
关键词：evidence-based intervention; social psychology; tobacco smoking; interpersonal violence; unsafe sex
