During the COVID-19 pandemic, political partisanship has influenced information consumption, beliefs, and health behaviors. Communicating accurate information about COVID-19 exposure risk is crucial for empowering individuals to make informed decisions. In the present study, we used social media advertisements to experimentally test the efficacy of five messages about COVID-19 risks (varying the context specificity and emotional valence) across six demographic groups (N=221,829; stratified by age group and political leaning). Advertisements that emphasized local risk levels for specific scenarios were most effective, across all demographic groups. Emotional valence did not significantly influence user engagement. Although conservatives were less likely than liberals to engage with COVID-19 information after clicking on an advertisement, conservatives who did engage with our informational intervention responded beneficially and became less willing to take risks. Overall, evoking specific scenarios motivated information seeking about COVID-19, overcoming the political divide to facilitate risk communication and change behavioral intentions.

Communicating information about health risks empowers individuals to make informed decisions. To identify effective communication strategies, we manipulated the specificity, self-relevance, and emotional framing of messages designed to motivate information seeking about COVID-19 exposure risk. In Study 1 (N = 221,829), we conducted a large-scale social media field study. Using Facebook advertisements, we targeted users by age and political attitudes. Episodic specificity drove engagement: Advertisements that contextualized risk in specific scenarios produced the highest click-through rates, across all demographic groups. In Study 2, we replicated and extended our findings in an online experiment (N = 4,233). Message specificity (but not self-relevance or emotional valence) drove interest in learning about COVID-19 risks. Across both studies, we found that older adults and liberals were more interested in learning about COVID-19 risks. However, message specificity increased engagement across demographic groups. Overall, evoking specific scenarios motivated information seeking about COVID-19, facilitating risk communication to a broad audience.