Concerns With Entertainment-Education: Zombie Pandemic Preparedness and the Unanticipated Promotion of a Weapons Culture

Abstract

Entertainment-education has proved to be an engaging medium through which to explore health and social issues in populations. Given the popularity of the zombie theme in popular culture it is no surprise therefore that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted this theme in an effort to engage youth and young adults in emergency preparedness. However, an earlier observational study involving elementary school children based on this premise raised concerns that it may have unexpectedly promoted a focus on firearms. A randomized control study involving 89 children (average age 10.4 years) was therefore conducted to explore this possibility in more depth. One group was exposed to a natural disaster scenario, while the other group was exposed to the zombie pandemic theme. When subsequently asked to prepare emergency kit lists, participants in the zombie themed scenario were 15.84 times as likely to include firearms in their lists compared with participants who were exposed to the natural disaster scenario. Although the sample size in this study was small, it is suggested that future interventions using entertainment-education need to explore all aspects of the messages implicit in their chosen medium, rather than just focusing on one element.