Misdirecting Persuasive Efforts during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Targets People Choose May Not Be the Most Likely to Change

Abstract

Persuading people to engage in specific health behaviors is critical to prevent the spread of and mitigate the harm caused by COVID-19. Most of the research and practice around this issue focuses on developing effective message content. Importantly, though, persuasion is often critically dependent on choosing appropriate targets-that is, on selecting the best audience for one's message. Three experiments conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic explore this target selection process and demonstrate misalignment between who persuaders target and who will display the greatest attitude and behavior change. Although people prefer to send messages encouraging COVID-19 prevention behaviors to targets with slightly negative attitudes toward the behaviors in question, their messages can often have more impact when sent to targets whose attitudes are slightly favorable. Recent insights in categorical perception and message positioning effects in persuasion help explain this misalignment.

The effects of short messages encouraging prevention behaviors early in the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In Study 2, we found that highly to moderately skeptical individuals were less likely to change their behavior in response to the short messages than individuals who were less skeptical. This is consistent with work [36] which found that people tend to think that individuals with slightly negative attitudes towards a behavior will be most persuadable, but actually, people with slightly positive attitudes towards a behavior are more persuadable.…”

Resistance to Persuasion: Examining the Influence of Political Ideology on COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Hesitancy

“…In their examination of the role of political ideology in consumer reaction to multiple consumption regulations (e-cigarettes, food warning labels, and using mobile phones while driving), Irmack and others (2020) found that the position held by the political party that subjects support affects how they cognitively and affectively process information presented to them about an issue. Moreover, numerous studies demonstrate that political ideology is a key contributor to individuals' attitudes about the level of threat attributed to the COVID-19 virus (Cakanlar et al, 2020;Kelly et al, 2020;Nowlan and Zane 2020;Roozenbeek et al, 2020;Van der Linden et al, 2020), as well as the efficacy of the vaccine (Bechler and Tormala, 2020;Chou and Budenz, 2020;Tyson et al, 2020).…”

“…Since studies show that attitude certainty remains relatively stable over time (DeMarree et al, 2020), the current level of anti-vaccine attitude certainty is likely to remain unchanged without effective intervention. That said, studies indicate that presenting opposing messages to those confident of their attitudes could trigger reactance (Bechler and Tormala, 2020). Therefore, a clearer understanding of the antecedents and consequences driving individuals' attitude certainty about the COVID-19 vaccine is critical.…”

Looking Back and Looking Forward: (Re)Interpreting Consumer Insights in a Time of Transition

“…Finally, in "Misdirecting Persuasive Efforts during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Targets People Choose May Not Be the Most Likely to Change," Bechler and Tormala (2021) document how existing attitudes also matter, and show that a more efficient way to increase compliance is to target those with slightly positive attitudes toward the advocated actions, as opposed to the typical preferred targets-those with slightly negative attitudes.…”