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This chapter introduces the book and the research on which it is based. The key problem addressed in this book relates to the gap between knowledge and action in the field of humanitarian aid. Drawing on focus groups and individual interviews with member of the UK public, and on interviews with NGO professionals, the book takes into account sociocultural and political scripts as well as biographical, emotional, and psychodynamic factors that shape and affect how members of the public understand, respond, and act in relation to humanitarian, international development issues and their communications. These factors are considered against the ways in which NGO professionals plan, design, produce, and disseminate their communications about humanitarian and international development causes.