Government communication has been playing an important role in mass vaccination to conduct the largest vaccination campaign of the world for COVID-19 and to counter vaccine hesitancy. This study employs the health belief model to examine the association between government communication and the COVID-19 vaccination intention. A survey of Chinese adults (N = 557) was conducted in March 2021, and partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to estimate the multi-construct relationships. The findings indicate that government communication has both direct positive association with vaccination intention and indirect association with vaccination intention through the mediation of perceived severity, benefits, and barriers. Multi-group comparisons suggest that individuals from private sectors are more easily mobilized to receive COVID-19 vaccination by government communication than those from public sectors. Similarly, the correlation between government communication and the vaccination intention of individuals with a good health status was stronger than that of those with a poor health status. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are further discussed.

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BackgroundIn China, controversy about genetically modified organisms (GMO) is ongoing and some regard GMO as a “product of a conspiracy,” which affects people’s attitudes (PAs) toward GMO. Beliefs in conspiracy theories (BCT) are formed from the information that people are exposed to. Information exposure not only constructs a pseudo-environment for individuals to perceive the world, but also generates external stimuli for their mental states and attitudes. People’s objective knowledge and self-assessed knowledge play an important moderating role in this process.MethodThe study adopted the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, with conspiracy beliefs as mediating variables, to test the mechanism of the independent variable of information exposure on the dependent variable of PAs toward GMO. Objective knowledge and self-assessed knowledge were introduced as moderator variables to explore the different roles of knowledge. A survey of Chinese adults was conducted in February 2022, and partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to estimate the multi-construct relationships.ResultsInformation exposure was significantly and directly connected with PAs toward GMO. BCT also played a significant mediating role. Unofficial information exposure reinforced beliefs in conspiracy theories. Stronger beliefs in conspiracy theories reduced people’s willingness to consume GMO foods and made them pessimistic about the development prospects of GMO foods. In contrast, exposure to official information weakened people’s beliefs in conspiracy theories and increased their willingness to consume GMO foods. In addition, the level of knowledge had a moderating role. Individual’s objective knowledge can effectively reduce the negative relationship of conspiracy beliefs on attitudes toward GMO development. Conversely, individual’s self-assessed knowledge can enhance the negative relationship of conspiracy beliefs on attitudes toward GMO development.ConclusionBased on psychological and cognitive dimensions, this study provides a new perspective on how information exposure and people’s attitudes toward GMO are related to each other and enriches the variable measurement dimension of knowledge. Simultaneously, it provides a localized explanation of the factors affecting people’s attitudes toward GMO in China, providing a new theoretical basis for the subsequent development strategy of GMO foods.

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