Positive emotions and credibility: Understanding how a community-engaged online campaign featuring clinician testimonials improved rural vaccine promotion.
Ran Tao, Liwei Shen, Mahima Bhattar et al.
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
In 30 seconds
This four-arm randomized survey experiment tested the community-engaged Communities Confronting COVID-19 campaign among 1,364 rural U.S. residents. It compared rural clinician testimonials with non-testimonial clinician videos and rural community-leader messengers. Rural clinician testimonials were rated as more effective than non-testimonial videos and were associated with greater positive emotion, which in turn had positive indirect associations with perceived message effectiveness, perceived social benefits of vaccination, and general vaccine confidence. Clinicians also had higher perceived credibility than community leaders. Neither condition significantly reduced vaccine misbeliefs or provoked reactance.
Key findings
- Rural clinician testimonials were rated as more effective by rural audiences than non-testimonial clinician videos.
- Positive emotions following clinician testimonials had positive indirect associations with perceived message effectiveness, vaccine social benefits, and general vaccine confidence.
- Rural clinicians were perceived as more credible advocates than community leaders; credibility was associated with stronger message effectiveness, perceived vaccine benefits, and general confidence.
- Neither condition significantly reduced vaccine misbeliefs or provoked reactance.
Why it matters
The findings suggest that both messenger credibility and positive emotional responses may be relevant to how rural audiences evaluate vaccine messages and general vaccine confidence. For campaign design, clinician testimonials from the communities being served may offer a useful approach to communicating vaccine benefits. However, the reported outcomes were perceptions and indirect associations, and the campaign did not significantly reduce vaccine misbeliefs.
What to keep in mind
The study used a single-session survey experiment, so it does not establish whether the observed perceptions translate into vaccination behavior or persist over time.