Project Description
Housed in the School of Communication at the University of Miami, the COMPAS lab is a joint collaboration between the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Center for Communication, Culture, and Change (4C). The purpose of this lab space is to develop, test, and implement innovative communication message design strategies to encourage cancer prevention and screening behaviors. In doing so, COMPAS members address important practical theoretical, and design-based issues that can advance research in cancer communication. The lab is composed of research and creative faculty across the School of Communication whose expertise lies in social science research and evaluation, game design (both digital and tabletop), journalism, advertising, web design, public relations, and theory development and assessment.
Our faculty and graduate students are particularly interested in novel message delivery formats, such as embedding educational and persuasive content in narratives (written and audiovisual) and games, to elicit behavior change. We also have a distinct expertise in creating culturally appropriate educational and persuasive messages in more traditional formats (e.g., pamphlets, posters, brochures, etc.) that are developed through extensive pretesting within a target population to understand the unique motivations, barriers, and facilitators to behavior change.
