The paper "Understanding Tailoring in Communicating About Health" by Robert P. Hawkins, Matthew Kreuter, Kenneth Resnicow, Martin Fishbein, and Arie Dijkstra explores the concept of tailoring in health communication. Tailoring refers to the process of creating personalized messages that are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of individual recipients, aiming to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of the communication. The authors argue that tailoring involves two main goals: enhancing cognitive preconditions for message processing and modifying behavioral determinants of goal outcomes. They propose three basic strategies for achieving these goals: personalization, feedback, and content matching. Personalization strategies aim to increase attention and motivation by making the message seem more relevant and meaningful to the recipient. Feedback strategies involve presenting individuals with information about themselves, such as attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, to influence psychosocial determinants of health behaviors. Content matching strategies target key theoretical determinants of the behavior of interest, such as knowledge, outcome expectations, normative beliefs, efficacy, and skills, to address specific gaps in the individual's readiness to perform the behavior. The paper also discusses the mechanisms through which tailoring can affect message processing and immediate determinants of goal outcomes. It highlights the importance of attention, effortful processing, peripheral/emotional processing, and self-reference in message processing, as well as the role of attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy in influencing behavior. Finally, the authors suggest that research on tailoring should focus on understanding how and why tailoring works, rather than simply whether it does. They recommend specific research designs, such as dismantling designs and parametric or 'dosing' designs, to compare the effectiveness of different tailoring strategies and tactics. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research to better understand the impact of individual assessment on tailoring outcomes and to improve the effectiveness of health communication.The paper "Understanding Tailoring in Communicating About Health" by Robert P. Hawkins, Matthew Kreuter, Kenneth Resnicow, Martin Fishbein, and Arie Dijkstra explores the concept of tailoring in health communication. Tailoring refers to the process of creating personalized messages that are tailored to the specific needs and preferences of individual recipients, aiming to enhance the relevance and effectiveness of the communication. The authors argue that tailoring involves two main goals: enhancing cognitive preconditions for message processing and modifying behavioral determinants of goal outcomes. They propose three basic strategies for achieving these goals: personalization, feedback, and content matching. Personalization strategies aim to increase attention and motivation by making the message seem more relevant and meaningful to the recipient. Feedback strategies involve presenting individuals with information about themselves, such as attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, to influence psychosocial determinants of health behaviors. Content matching strategies target key theoretical determinants of the behavior of interest, such as knowledge, outcome expectations, normative beliefs, efficacy, and skills, to address specific gaps in the individual's readiness to perform the behavior. The paper also discusses the mechanisms through which tailoring can affect message processing and immediate determinants of goal outcomes. It highlights the importance of attention, effortful processing, peripheral/emotional processing, and self-reference in message processing, as well as the role of attitudes, norms, and self-efficacy in influencing behavior. Finally, the authors suggest that research on tailoring should focus on understanding how and why tailoring works, rather than simply whether it does. They recommend specific research designs, such as dismantling designs and parametric or 'dosing' designs, to compare the effectiveness of different tailoring strategies and tactics. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research to better understand the impact of individual assessment on tailoring outcomes and to improve the effectiveness of health communication.