Does Framing and Humor Improve the Effectiveness of Messages About COVID-19 Vaccine

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Beliefs

Treatments: Behavioral: Corrective message framing and humor

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05085613

00015120B

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study seeks to assess the efficacy of educational messages to correct misperceptions. People hold a number of misperceptions that are relevant to public health, including misperceptions regarding COVID vaccines. Some people incorrectly think the COVID vaccines authorized by FDA are not safe or effective. These misperceptions can reduce adherence to public health recommendations and result in continued spread of COVID. This study will test if humor and different types of framing increase the efficacy of messages to correct misperceptions about FDA's authorized coronavirus vaccine safety and effectiveness. The frames tested will include: framing the vaccine as a way to boost economic recovery and framing the vaccine as a way to increase freedom to choose how to behave. The addition of humor will also be tested. Message efficacy will be measured via improved accuracy of beliefs after being exposed to the message. In other words, participants will be asked how safe and effective FDA authorized COVID vaccines are before seeing a message, then they will see a message about why the COVID vaccines are safe and effective, and then they will again be asked how safe and effective they think the vaccines are. This study will also assess the accuracy of inferential beliefs. This will be accomplished by asking participants questions about other vaccines that either are or are not authorized by FDA. If participants have understood the messages and updated their mental models of how FDA evaluates vaccines, they should be able to infer if other vaccines are safe and effective based on their FDA authorization status.

Hypotheses

H1: Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will be more likely to increase their agreement with the statement that the FDA will only authorize coronavirus vaccines that are safe and effective after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition.

H2: Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will agree more strongly with the statement that the FDA approved flu vaccine is safe and effective after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition.

H3. Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will agree more strongly with the statement that the ResVax vaccine, which was not approved by the FDA for the treatment of RSV, is a safe and effective after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition.

H4. Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will be more likely to increase behavioral intentions to get an FDA authorized COVID vaccine after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition.

Enrollment: 100 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 21 to 99 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Are 21 years of age or older.
• Have not participated in the cognitive interview.
• Have not yet received a COVID vaccine.
• Are registered with MTurk in the United States.
• Have completed >= 5,000 HIITs within the MTurk system
• Have a HIIT approval rating of >= 97%
• Rate their agreement with the following statement as less than or equal to 50 out of 100: "To what extent do you agree with the following: "The FDA only authorizes COVID vaccines that are safe and effective."

Exclusion criteria

• Are younger than 21 years of age
• Participated in the cognitive interviews
• Have already received a COVID vaccine.
• Are not registered with MTurk in the US
• Have completed < 5,000 HIITS
• Have a HIIT approval rating of <97%
• Rate their agreement with the following statement as greater than 50 out of 100: "To what extent do you agree with the following: "The FDA only authorizes COVID vaccines that are safe and effective."

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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100 participants in 4 patient groups

Vaccine Corrective Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

A message that explains why people are hesitant to accept the FDA authorized COVID vaccines are safe and effective and how the vaccines are evaluated as safe and effective by FDA.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Corrective message framing and humor

Vaccine corrective with economic recovery framing

Experimental group

Description:

The content of the control message with the addition of the text, "If everyone gets vaccinated, we can keep schools, stores, and other businesses open so more Americans can keep working and supporting their families." The message will also include a picture of an "open for business" sign.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Corrective message framing and humor

Vaccine corrective with freedom framing

Experimental group

Description:

The content of the control message with the addition of the text, "Everyone getting vaccinated is the key to freedom! A vaccine can give us the freedom to hang out with friends, shop, and worship together again safely." The message will also include a picture of an American flag.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Corrective message framing and humor

Vaccine corrective with humor

Experimental group

Description:

The content of the control message with the addition of the text, "Unfortunately, everyone getting vaccinated means leaving the house again." The message will include a meme of a cat being pulled/rescued from a window with text boxes labeling the cat as "People at home working in sweatpants" and the rescuer as "COVID Vaccines."

Treatment:

Behavioral: Corrective message framing and humor