Sound Disclosures: Assessing when a Disclosure is Worthwhile

Abstract

In this article, the authors introduce the notion of a “sound disclosure” and define it from the perspective of academic, business, and legal/policy (expert) constituencies. The authors define sound disclosure as the direct linkage of a policy standard to a dedicated, rigorous consumer testing methodology that measures explicitly stated communication objectives put forth in the policy. Sound disclosure results when the policy is influenced by the disclosure testing. Consequences of a sound disclosure testing regime can include withdrawing the disclosure from the marketplace because of harmful, unintended consequences to the target population or, conversely, adding supplementary materials (e.g., educational primes) to maximize the disclosure's effectiveness. Drawing from previous research, the authors illustrate various standards of sound disclosure efficacy.