Email is one of the easiest ways to contact policymakers, especially for researchers who want to share their expertise on complex topics like substance use, but can an email effectively foster connection? Researchers at Penn State recently found that policymakers were more likely to engage with emails about substance use research when the sender was sharing their own experience with substance use.
"There's a great deal of competition for policymakers' attention and very little research on which outreach techniques are effective," said Elizabeth Long, assistant research professor with Penn State's Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center and first author of the journal article published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports. "Our goal is to help researchers build non-partisan relationships with lawmakers, and connecting via email can be an important first step."
