TY  - JOUR
AU  - Scharnetzki, Elizabeth
AU  - Waterston, Leo
AU  - Scherer, Aaron M
AU  - Thorpe, Alistair
AU  - Fagerlin, Angela
AU  - Han, Paul K J
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/8/1
TI  - Effects of Prosocial and Hope-Promoting Communication Strategies on COVID-19 Worry and Intentions for Risk-Reducing Behaviors and Vaccination: Experimental Study
JO  - JMIR Form Res
SP  - e41959
VL  - 7
KW  - COVID-19
KW  - communication
KW  - hope
KW  - prosocial
KW  - vaccination
KW  - risk
KW  - behavior
KW  - vaccine
KW  - effect
KW  - effectiveness
KW  - social
KW  - messages
KW  - public
KW  - web-based
KW  - survey
AB  - Background: 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. Objective: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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. 
SN  - 2561-326X
UR  - https://formative.jmir.org/2023/1/e41959
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/41959
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37379364
DO  - 10.2196/41959
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/41959
ER  -