Estimating the Effect of Narratives and Imagery on COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake

• In Event: The Politics of Disaster Response: COVID-19 and Beyond

Abstract

Previous research indicates risk communication in the form of narratives is an effective way to shape individual behavior during crisis, however little is known about the efficacy of graphic images as a means of communicating best-practices. This omission is problematic given the public health and emergency management communities’ robust use of media campaigns before, during, and after disaster. This study fills this void by using a novel experimental survey design to test the effect of narrative and non-narrative messages on intention to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The sample is representative of U.S. citizens (n = 3900). The questionnaire was launched January 11, 2021 and is in the field as of February 3, 2021. Message treatments are graphic images pairing narrative words with a call to action. Three treatments test the narrative mechanism of character selection by manipulating the victim character: yourself, your circle (e.g., family and close friends), and your community. The hero character (target audience) and call to action (vaccinate) are held constant across all conditions, with the latter being presented separately as the control condition. Assignment to treatment and control conditions is randomized with approximately equal numbers of participants in each condition. The survey also includes a suite of questions gauge the participants’ experience with COVID-19, vaccine history and attitudes, risk perceptions, risk mitigation and exacerbation behaviors, worldviews on individualism and collectivism, and demographics. Outcome variables include questions about affective response and intention to vaccinate. The motivation for this research is to gain further precision regarding the power of visual narrativity in communicating COVID-19 risk reduction by testing the effects of character selection on affective response and intent to get the COVID-19 vaccination. The context of the COVID-19 vaccines is important because vaccine refusal and hesitancy are enduring issues with a long history of risk communication challenges for public health agencies.

Authors

• Elizabeth Ann Shanahan, Montana State University

• Deserai Anderson Crow, University of Colorado Denver

• Meng Li

• Kristin Taylor, Wayne State University

• Elizabeth Koebele, University of Nevada, Reno

• Rob A. DeLeo, Bentley University

• Elizabeth Ann Albright, Duke University