Information delivered by a chatbot has a positive impact on COVID-19 vaccines attitudes and intentions.

Abstract

The Coronavirus disease; COVID-19 vaccines will not end the pandemic if they stay in freezers. In many countries, such as France, COVID-19 vaccines hesitancy is high. It is crucial that governments make it as easy as possible for people who want to be vaccinated to do so, but also that they devise communication strategies to address the concerns of vaccine hesitant individuals. We introduce and test on 701 French participants a novel messaging strategy: A chatbot that answers people's questions about COVID-19 vaccines. We find that interacting with this chatbot for a few minutes significantly increases people's intentions to get vaccinated (ß = 0.12) and has a positive impact on their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination (ß = 0.23). Our results suggest that a properly scripted and regularly updated chatbot could offer a powerful resource to help fight hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccines. Public Significance StatementInteracting a few minutes with a chatbot answering the most common questions about COVID-19 vaccines increased people's intention to get vaccinated and had a positive impact on their attitudes toward the vaccines. Chatbots could be a powerful resource to fight COVID-19 vaccines hesitancy.

Scaling up interactive argumentation by providing counterarguments with a chatbot

“…After reading the rebuttals against criticisms of GMOs, a large number of participants adopted strongly pro-GMOs views: the number of participants with an average score of at least 5 (on the 1-7 attitude scale) went from 104 to 299 (out of 601), and the number of participants with an average score of at least 6 went from 15 to 107 (out of 601). A subsequent study found similar results in another domain: a chatbot aimed at alleviating concerns about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines generated more positive attitudes towards these vaccines, and higher intentions to vaccinate 69 .…”

“…These effect sizes compare very favourably with those observed in other interventions, such as refs. [8][9][10]62,[67][68][69] . After reading the rebuttals against criticisms of GMOs, a large number of participants adopted strongly pro-GMOs views: the number of participants with an average score of at least 5 (on the 1-7 attitude scale) went from 104 to 299 (out of 601), and the number of participants with an average score of at least 6 went from 15 to 107 (out of 601).…”

Preliminary evidence that brief exposure to vaccination-related internet memes may influence intentions to vaccinate against COVID-19

“…10 Finally, the best test of an intervention's efficacy will involve real-world vaccine uptake data. Here, however, like other existing COVID-19 studies ( Altay et al, 2021 ; Duquette, 2020 ; Green et al, 2021 ; Loomba et al, 2021 ; Moehring et al, 2021 ; Sprengholz et al, 2021 ), self-reported vaccination intentions were the only available option given vaccines were not yet publicly/widely available when the studies were conducted. Nevertheless, recent longitudinal studies suggest intentions account for more than 40% of the variability in actual uptake, measured months later ( Fall et al, 2018 ; Ng et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Vaccine hesitancy is a top 10 threat to global health ( World Health Organization, 2019 ), and has become particularly relevant during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Although numerous approaches exist to counter such hesitancy—including recent vaccine-supportive, electronic communications (e.g., text-based “nudges” and chat box programs, Altay et al, 2021 ; Milkman et al, 2021 )—little is known about the effects of exposure to naturally circulating internet memes. Across the studies reported here, memes supportive of vaccination and/or unsupportive of antivaxxers were found to increase intentions to vaccinate, although this effect was only evident before the first safe/effect vaccine was announced, suggesting such effects may be dependent on contextual variables such as the stage of vaccine development and its personal relevance to one's life.…”

“…One recent large-scale flu vaccine study showed that certain nudges—two text messages indicating, for example, the vaccine was waiting/reserved for them—boosted appointment attendance and vaccine uptake relative to a single text message or the usual care control group ( Milkman et al, 2021 ). Among experimental studies examining COVID-19 vaccination intentions specifically, one study found that interactions with a “chat box” (i.e., a computer program that provided pre-recorded answers after participants selected a question from a fixed list of options) increased positive attitudes towards, and intentions to receive, a COVID-19 vaccine ( Altay et al, 2021 ). Separate studies found that providing the vaccine-hesitant with messages of physician or scientist vaccine endorsement, of how the vaccine can reduce the likelihood of harm to self or others, or about descriptive norms regarding vaccine acceptance, increased intentions to get a COVID-19 vaccine ( Green et al, 2021 ; Moehring et al, 2021 ).…”