Convenings Drive Critical Research Through the Mercury Project

In seventh grade, Heather Lanthorn was diagnosed with scoliosis. It marked the beginning of a profound journey into the complexities of doctor-patient communication.

Many doctor appointments later, her dreams of becoming a dancer were dashed by spinal fusion surgery.

But this setback ignited her passion for helping public health officials embed social and behavioral sciences in their practices in the service of better communication and behavior.

Now, as a scientist and Program Director for the Mercury Project at the Social Science Research Council, she supports researchers testing approaches to ensure public health information is clear, credible, concrete, timely, and transparent — a tall order but essential qualities as the world navigates the health effects of climate change.

The Mercury Project, a $25 million initiative seeded by The Rockefeller Foundation in 2021, brings together 133 members from diverse disciplines across Africa, Asia, the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Regular convenings underpin the project, allowing participants to problem-solve together, learn from outside experts, and co-create knowledge products as they study how people perceive the world, how those perceptions influence health behaviors, and how they can build science-based health decision-making.

At The Rockefeller Foundation’s DC office, Juan Francisco Santini provides closing remarks for researchers and philanthropists on strategies for collecting and analyzing evidence, in May 2023. (Photo Courtesy of the Mercury Project)

Spurring this ongoing collaboration among a diverse group was the consortium’s first accomplishment, along with the creation of a research framework from their initial gathering.

Another accomplishment: a joint letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) that has been used within the WHO to advocate for the importance of the behavioral sciences in health.

And a third: the Mercury Project has been invited to lead a session at the 2025 World Vaccine Congress in Washington, DC on the importance of using social and behavioral sciences to help understand and increase vaccine demand. The session will bring together public, philanthropic, and private-sector representatives.

At The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center, SSRC President Anna Harvey welcomes attendees for a four-day convening in August 2022 about strengthening research rigor. (Photo Courtesy of the Mercury Project)

Lessons to Transform Public Health of the Future

What’s ahead? The Mercury Project’s footprint is already expanding. While initially focused on Covid-19 vaccines, its ongoing research will enhance future communications as public health officials wrestle with climate change challenges ranging from emerging diseases to the effects of more frequent and severe extreme weather events.

This year, for the first time, both WHO and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance have identified climate change as a strategic priority. G7 leaders reaffirmed their commitment to countering the effects of climate change on health and the G20 Health Working Group has included climate change and health as a key priority.

“Climate change will expose new diseases,” Lanthorn said, “and vaccines are going to be part of the process of fighting them. Both novel and re-emerging diseases as well as new vaccines will require careful attention to the demand side of vaccination, including high-quality communication and service delivery. We have to move at the speed of science and of crisis.”

Reliable vaccines now can be developed much faster, and we can be confident in them. But we have to convey that to a sometimes-skeptical public.
Heather Lanthorn
Program Director
The Mercury Project

Global confidence in vaccines has declined markedly, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a UNICEF report, public perception of the importance of vaccines for children dropped significantly in 52 out of 55 countries studied, with some countries experiencing declines as steep as 44 percentage points.

Policymakers, implementers, and philanthropists gather at The Rockefeller Foundation’s Washington, DC office in May 2023. (Photo Courtesy of the Mercury Project)

This drop is attributed to misinformation, decreased trust in authorities, and political polarization, among other factors. In the United States, most people still say they trust medical science, but the numbers have fallen since 2020. The growing distrust in science and health care was discussed at the World Economic Forum annual meeting last year.

This trend makes the Mercury Project work urgent.

“Assessing trusted information and acting quickly is challenging in today’s world, but the climate crisis demands swift action to save lives and protect ourselves,” said Estelle Willie, Director of Health Policy and Communications at The Rockefeller Foundation. “Research supported by the Mercury Project will provide the evidence needed to help decision-makers reach people more effectively in times of need.”

Mercury Project grantees traveled from 25 cities around the world to work together at the Mercury Project's second annual in-person convening in Washington, DC. (Graph Courtesy of the Mercury Project)

From YouTube to Radio Dramas

Mercury Project teams are investigating various strategies to boost build vaccine trust in a change climate, studying how information circulates within social networks, the influence of YouTube, and the contribution of health-related dramas on radio, among other approaches, said Rebecca Gluskin, a senior data scientist and the Mercury Project’s former Co-Director.

“We live in an era with endless information channels — anyone can be a source — yet many are tuning out,” Gluskin said. “The Mercury Project highlights that public health officials need to break down silos and use a mix of strategies to communicate effectively.”

It's all about combining approaches, because no single method works on its own.
Rebecca Gluskin
Former Co-Director
The Mercury Project

Samantha Horn, a behavioral scientist, is part of a University of Chicago team working with Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and others to investigate two approaches to encourage vaccination.

“A lot of the misinformation research has taken place in the U.S. and the challenges are so different regionally,” Horn said. “In Sierra Leone, for instance, most people get their health information through WhatsApp.”

For Horn, the project convenings have been important because they occur “just as we are devising trials and conducting research. For instance, our team planned to show participants a video and leave it at that. At a convening, it was suggested that we improve learning by asking participants questions after they saw the video. So we incorporated that into our research.”

Fortunate Machingura of Zimbabwe, Sikhululiwe Mkwananzi of Zimbabwe, Paul Kawale of Malawi, and Heather Lanthorn of the United States at a convening at The Rockefeller Foundation’s DC office in May 2023 to discuss challenges in gathering and analyzing evidence. (Photo Courtesy of the Mercury Project)

At another convening, she said, “someone else showed us how we could track WhatsApp data to follow what participants were doing with the health information in the month after seeing the video. That was very important to our studies.”

A team from Experiments in Government and Politics (EGAP), a global network dedicated to research, evaluation, and learning, is testing approaches to both counter inaccurate health information and change social media users’ engagement with reliable information.

In one of their studies in Kenya, South Africa, and Bolivia, 600 social media influencers, including journalists and activists, were recruited. Half received digital literacy training, fact-checking resources, and modest compensation. The study tracked their followers’ posting and sharing choices over six months to see evaluate the spread of vaccine mis- and dis-information.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is among the panelists opening the Nobel Prize Summit on Truth, Trust, and Hope in May 2023, attended by Mercury Project participants. (Photo Courtesy of the Mercury Project)

“I totally believe in the power of convenings,” said Horacio Larreguy, Associate Professor of Economics and Political Science at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City, and an EGAP member. He cited the benefits of getting project feedback at early stages, bringing together people with varied specialties, and working collaboratively toward a common goal.

The monthly sessions include presentations from the project’s researchers, as well as from specialists talking about issues ranging from measuring trust to providing data privacy.

The optimum frequency for convenings varies, but for the Mercury Project, once a month is very helpful. “Our online meetings serve as a virtual water cooler,” Lanthorn said. “Researchers discuss their challenges and collaboratively develop tangible solutions. It makes the work deeper, easier, faster, and I even think more fun.”

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