Invoking the good of the community is common guidance for promoting public health behaviors, appearing in academic articles, policy briefs, and the popular press. This strategy may seem intuitive in public health emergencies that require large-scale, community-wide efforts. But recent work suggests it is not effective in promoting Covid-19 preventive behaviors relative to appeals that are closer to home (one's own or one's family's wellbeing). In a survey experiment (N = 500), we find that appeals to the wellbeing of the community did not increase Covid-19 vaccine information-seeking at a critical juncture—December 2020, when vaccine rollout plans had just been released publicly. Rather, appeals to the wellbeing of people's family's fared slightly better. This message strategy is more likely to be effective in promoting vaccine uptake.
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