Improving preventive health behaviors in the COVID-19 crisis: a messaging intervention in a large nationally representative sample

Abstract

Public health communication play an important role in the fight against COVID-19. We used five well-established psychological levers to improve on the efficacy of two posters used by the French authorities (one on protective behaviors and one on proper handwashing). The five levers were: simplification (streamlining the posters), sunk costs (emphasizing the costs already paid to fight the pandemic), morality (emphasizing the duty to help others), self-protection (emphasizing the personal risks), and disgust (pointing out and illustrating that not following the protective behaviors or proper handwashing had consequences that should trigger disgust). We tested on a large (N = 3000) nationally representative French sample whether versions of the posters using these levers, compared to a control condition, were clearer, better recalled, and increased people’s intention to follow the posters’ recommendations. On the whole, there were no effects of the manipulations on any of the measures. The only consistent pattern was that the control protective behavior poster was better recalled than the alternatives (except for the simplified version), possibly because it contained one fewer message. The lack of effect on behavioral intentions might be attributed to the potential saturation in terms of health communication at the time of the experiment. Our results--mostly null and potentially negative--confirm the importance of testing interventions before using them in a public health campaign, even if they are grounded in successful past interventions.

A randomized controlled trial to test the effect of simplified guidance with visuals on comprehension of COVID-19 guidelines and intention to stay home if symptomatic

“…Nor did it change participants’ perception of their ease of understanding (which was 4.05 in each condition) or the anxiety they felt on reading the guidance, which was a little/ somewhat (averaged 2.38). This result is consistent with a French trial, which found that simplifying two posters designed to promote preventive behaviours and handwashing, by streamlining them, had no effect on intention to perform preventative behaviours [ 17 ]. Nevertheless, we do know that receiving communications is important: a Chinese national cross-sectional survey found that exposure to risk communication messages was positively associated with engaging in preventive behaviours [ 18 ].…”

Cultural influence on COVID-19 cognitions and growth speed: the role of cultural collectivism

“…Our success in reducing COVID-19 transmission relies on people voluntarily adopting prevention behaviors. A number of studies have investigated messaging strategies that have potential in promoting preventive behaviors in response to COVID-19 (Everett et al, n.d.;Figueroa et al, 2021;Hacquin et al, 2020;Ma & Miller, 2021;Pink et al, 2020;Sobande, 2020). The current study highlights the importance of considering culture when designing such messages.…”

Don’t get it or don’t spread it: Comparing self-interested versus prosocial motivations for COVID-19 prevention behaviors

“…They found that only the "you" and "family" treatments increased intentions to stay home, relative to the control, and none of their treatments had a significantly positive effect on self-reported behavior in the follow-up; however, their follow-up survey showed high attrition rates, which has the potential to induce selection effects and undermine causal inference. In a study of French participants, Hacquin et al (2020) manipulated the language of two public health posters across a variety of treatment conditions (including one that used other-focused language and one that used self-focused language) and compared each treatment to a control poster 55 . They found no significant difference in prevention behavior intentions across any of their conditions.…”