The Unraveller
One that Shaon Lahiri is attempting to unravel.
An assistant professor in the School of Public Health, Lahiri addresses global health issues by probing the human behavior that causes them – or that resists easy resolution.
Lacking understanding of women’s behavior in rural Kenya that leads to high teen pregnancy rates, Western-based philanthropic organizations might be tempted to helicopter in and provide modern contraceptives. But Lahiri’s research found that legal and social forces, not a lack of supply, are what inhibit the use of contraception. By leveraging gender norms that highly value female mentors, Lahiri and his cohort of women’s groups could provide contraception and encouragement for positive results.
“Simple supply-side approaches are likely to fail without considering the social forces,” he says. “The beauty of the field is that it applies to so many things.”
Combining elements of psychology, economics and public health, Lahiri has investigated diverse issues around the globe – how to reduce tobacco use in China, drug abuse in the U.S. and domestic partner violence in Rwanda, to name a few.
That diverse experience and global reach is a metaphor for Shaon (rhymes with town) Lahiri’s life. Born in India to English-speaking Bengali parents, he moved to the Arab sultanate of Oman as a child, just as women there secured the right to vote. While he was attending the American International School, Lahiri’s English lost most of its Indian lilt and reinforced a social dilemma: Not quite Indian nor Omani nor American, he was the quintessential “other.”
Coming stateside for college at the University of Michigan, Lahiri studied psychology, focusing on what makes serial killers tick.
Following an epiphany about the power of social determinants in shaping individuals’ behavior, Lahiri switched gears and earned a master’s degree in public health from Imperial College of London and a doctorate in social and behavioral sciences in public health from George Washington University. During and since, he has hunted cultural underpinnings to construct strategies for behavior change.
That kind of science leads to surprising conclusions. Research on the ubiquitous DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, in which police helped youth improve their decision-making to avoid drug abuse, found 40 years of ineffectiveness – or worse.
Why? “Backfiring scare tactics and cringe,” Lahiri says, referring to lame authenticity, awkwardness or embarrassment. “The canonical example is when parents try to use cool slang and fall flat. It can have a boomerang effect in public health.”
The idea of cringe brings to mind the 1938 movie Reefer Madness, in which wildly exaggerated claims about the effect of marijuana transformed the film into a comedy about the idiocy of authority figures – or the oft-parodied “This is Your Brain on Drugs” public service announcement, to which teens shrugged. Research has demonstrated, too, that cringey videos for charitable causes can significantly reduce a person’s intention to talk to family and friends about mental health.
For Lahiri – who peppers his undergraduate public health, global health and health promotion courses with snippets of his research – addressing the cultural challenges underlying public health boils down to three words: Other people matter.