Effects of Prosocial and Hope-Promoting Communication Strategies on COVID-19 Worry and Intentions for Risk-Reducing Behaviors and Vaccination: Experimental Study.
Effects of Prosocial and Hope-Promoting Communication Strategies on COVID-19 Worry and Intentions for Risk-Reducing Behaviors and Vaccination: Experimental Study.
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DOI：
10.2196/41959
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发表时间：
2023-08-01
影响因子：
2.2
通讯作者：
Han, Paul K J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Scharnetzki, Elizabeth;Waterston, Leo;Scherer, Aaron M;Thorpe, Alistair;Fagerlin, Angela;Han, Paul K J
COVID-19大流行引发了对包括疫苗接种在内的建议降低风险行为的广泛恐惧和怀疑。卫生机构面临着需要与公众沟通的方式，既提供保证，促进降低风险的行为。传播策略，促进亲社会（PS）的价值观和希望被广泛使用，然而，现有的研究这些策略的说服力提供了混合的证据。也很少有研究比较有效的PS和促销（HP）的战略。本研究旨在评估PS和HP信息在安抚公众和激励COVID-19降低风险行为方面的比较有效性。我们进行了一项基于网络的析因实验，在该实验中，不同的美国公众样本被随机分配阅读来自州政府公共卫生部门制作的公共网站的现有COVID-19信息的消息，这些信息包括替代框架语言：PS，HP或没有额外的框架（对照）。然后，参与者完成了衡量COVID-19担忧和COVID-19降低风险行为和疫苗接种意图的调查。在HP条件下，COVID-19担忧出乎意料地高于对照和PS条件。降低COVID-19风险行为的意图在两组之间没有差异;然而，HP中COVID-19疫苗接种的意图高于对照组，这种影响是由COVID-19担忧介导的。在某些情况下，HP沟通策略在激励降低风险行为方面可能比PS策略更有效，但却以促进担忧为代价。
The COVID-19 pandemic has engendered widespread fear and skepticism about recommended risk-reducing behaviors including vaccination. Health agencies are faced with the need to communicate to the public in ways that both provide reassurance and promote risk-reducing behaviors. Communication strategies that promote prosocial (PS) values and hope are being widely used; however, the existing research on the persuasiveness of these strategies has offered mixed evidence. There is also very little research examining the comparative effectiveness of PS and hope-promoting (HP) strategies. The aim of this study is to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of PS and HP messages in reassuring the public and motivating COVID-19 risk–reducing behaviors. A web-based factorial experiment was conducted in which a diverse sample of the US public was randomized to read messages which adapted existing COVID-19 information from a public website produced by a state government public health department to include alternative framing language: PS, HP, or no additional framing (control). Participants then completed surveys measuring COVID-19 worry and intentions for COVID-19 risk–reducing behaviors and vaccination. COVID-19 worry was unexpectedly higher in the HP than in the control and PS conditions. Intentions for COVID-19 risk–reducing behaviors did not differ between groups; however, intentions for COVID-19 vaccination were higher in the HP than in the control condition, and this effect was mediated by COVID-19 worry. It appears that HP communication strategies may be more effective than PS strategies in motivating risk-reducing behaviors in some contexts but with the paradoxical cost of promoting worry.