“We” are in This Pandemic, but “You” can get Through This: The Effects of Pronouns on Likelihood to Stay-at-Home During COVID-19

Abstract

We examine how first-person plural and second-person singular pronouns used in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) communications impact people's likelihood to follow stay-at-home recommendations. A 2 (first-person plural [“we”] vs. second-person singular [“you”]) by continuous trait self-control between-subjects experiment ( N = 223) was used to examine individuals’ adherence to stay-at-home recommendations. Results suggest that “you”-based appeals may be more broadly effective in garnering stay-at-home adherence, whereas low self-control individuals are less responsive to “we” appeals. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

What’s in the message? An analysis of themes and features used in vaping prevention messages

“…For example, research suggests that the effects of closeness-implying pronouns (“we” versus “you”) used in messaging depend on whether the closeness implied by the pronoun is consistent with how individuals perceive their relationship with the brand ( Sela et al, 2012 ). In other words, if youth do not perceive a close relationship with the brand – such as is likely the case with youth vaping messages – then it is more advisable to use “you” language than “we.” A study exploring pronoun use in terms of health suggestions similarly echoes that “you”-based appeals may be more broadly effective among audiences ( Tu et al, 2021 ).…”

A bibliometric analysis of linguistic research on COVID-19

“…Contributing to the sociolinguistics of crisis communication, Ahmad and Hillman ( 2021 ) examined the communication strategies employed by Qatar's government in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. While a study by Gallardo-Pauls ( 2021 ) proposed a specifically linguistic/discursive model of risk communication, Tu et al ( 2021 ) inquired into how pronouns “we” and “you” affected the likelihood to stay at home differently. In another study, Tian et al ( 2021 ) investigated the role of pronouns in crafting supportive messages and hope appeals and facilitating people to cope with COVID-19.…”

Real-time processing of indexical and generic expressions: Insights from, and implications for, COVID-related public health messages

“…To the best of our knowledge, earlier work on first and second person pronouns in COVID messages (and health messages more generally) is fairly limited, and yields a divergent set of results. In recent work, Tu et al (2021) tested COVID stay-at-home appeals with either you or we, such as "stay home, you can get through this / we can get through this together." They found that messages with second-person you are more effective than ones with firstperson plural we when it comes to shaping people's self-reported likelihood of staying at home vs. going to a friend's party in a hypothetical scenario.…”

“…Kaiser 2021) or the likelihood of different hypothetical or future actions (e.g. Tu et al 2021). These kinds of studies do not provide a measure of incremental, real-time processing and do not provide insights into whether certain linguistic options are harder to process than others.…”