O'Dowd, I. orcid.org/0000-0001-9773-5780, Joyal‐Desmarais, K., Scharmer, A. et al. (2 more authors) (Cover date: August 2023) Should health communication regarding COVID‐19 emphasize self‐ or other‐focused impacts of mitigation behaviors? Insights from two message matching studies. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 23 (2). pp. 363-392. ISSN 1529-7489
Abstract
Mask-wearing, social distancing, and vaccination remain effective ways to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Yet, many hesitate to enact some or all these preventive behaviors. We created three persuasive messages—framed to promote benefits to either (1) oneself, (2) close-others, or (3) distant-others—to determine whether the effectiveness of these messages varied based on personality differences (specifically independent/interdependent self-construal and chronic construal level). In two online experiments (N = 862), we measured individual differences and showed participants one of the three messages. Consistent interactions between interdependent self-construal and message conditions showed that those high in interdependent self-construal responded most positively to the self-focused messages promoting mask-wearing, social distancing, and COVID-19 vaccination. Those low in interdependent self-construal responded most negatively to the self-focused messages. Although no interaction effect was observed for independent self-construal, and inconsistent evidence emerged for construal level, other-focused messages performed either better or equally well to the self-focused messages for most participants and may thus be promising for future public health communication efforts.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. Agricultural Economics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of International Association of Agricultural Economists. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Psychology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Oct 2023 14:36 |
Last Modified: | 12 Oct 2023 14:36 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/asap.12349 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:204131 |