Emotional responses to prosocial messages increase willingness to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic may be one of the greatest modern societal challenges that requires widespread collective action and cooperation. While a handful of actions can help reduce pathogen transmission, one critical behavior is to self-isolate. Public health messages often use persuasive language to change attitudes and behaviors, which can evoke a wide range of negative and positive emotional responses. In a U.S. representative sample ( N = 955), we presented two messages that leveraged either threatening or prosocial persuasive language, and measured self-reported emotional reactions and willingness to self-isolate. Although emotional responses to the interventions were highly heterogeneous, personality traits known to be linked with distinct emotional experiences (extraversion and neuroticism) explained significant variance in the arousal response. While results show that both types of appeals increased willingness to self-isolate (Cohen's d = 0.41), compared to the threat message, the efficacy of the prosocial message was more dependent on the magnitude of the evoked emotional response on both arousal and valence dimensions. Together, these results imply that prosocial appeals have the potential to be associated with greater compliance if they evoke highly positive emotional responses.

Parental Hesitancy and Concerns around Accessing Paediatric Unscheduled Healthcare during COVID-19: A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…This messaging may explain why many parents in the present survey stated that they felt that services were needed more by others or that they did not want to burden the health system at such a time. Emotional engagement with public health messages can also elicit unknown responses and needs to be better understood in the context of COVID-19 [ 28 ]. Indeed, fear of COVID-19 was a key cause for concern in the present sample.…”

The consequences of COVID-19 on social interactions: an online study on face covering

“…In the last months, many scholars have outlined the social and emotional consequences of COVID-19 on people’s well-being 12 – 14 , also discussing what social and behavioral science can do to support pandemic response, thus calling for a timely mobilization of the scientific community to produce research to “ directly inform individual and collective behaviour in response to the pandemic” 15 . Some researchers responded to the call by investigating crucial aspects that can influence and promote people’ intention to adhere to distancing measures and to wear sanitary masks (e.g., content and language of messages and appeals) 16 – 19 . Interestingly, an online study conducted in the United States in the spring of 2020, showed that women are more prone to wear a sanitary mask than men, and that men feel more negative emotions when wearing a face covering 16 .…”

Coronavirus risk perception and compliance with social distancing measures in a sample of young adults: Evidence from Switzerland

“…A study by Heffner et al investigates pro-social framed messages versus threat-related messages on participants’ willingness to self-isolate. They find that both types of messages perform equally well [ 26 ].…”