Rapid discovery of optimal messages for behavioral intervention: the case of Hungary and Covid-19

Abstract

The right messaging plays an important role in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. The present study aims at uncovering the way people think about governmental measures against COVID-19. Two hundred and sixteen Hungarians participated in this on-line study. A conjoint-based experimental design was used to reveal the power of messages as drivers of voluntary social distancing based on the perceived risk of COVID-19, the ways to practice social distancing and to assure it, and preferences regarding the communicator of the social distancing policy. Results revealed three major mindsets: Pandemic observers, Order-followers, and Health-conscious. Members of each mindset respond differently to messages. To enhance compliance with social distancing and contain the virus, we suggest using the prediction tool we developed to identify the belonging of people or groups in the population to mindsets in the sample and address people using effective mindset-tailored messaging.

Using Conjoint-based Experimental Design to Assess Willingness to Purchase Florida Peaches

“…The OLS regression model Eq. [1] comprises an AC and 36 coefficients (Gabay et al, 2021;Porretta et al, 2019). (Moskowitz and Silcher, 2006).…”

“…The other type of segmentation ("mind-set segmentation") was done by k-cluster analysis (Duncan et al, 2015). In the k-cluster analysis, the software SYSTAT 13 (Systat Software, Chicago, IL) was used to segment the participants' data, based on the IV for each element (Gabay et al, 2021;Porretta et al, 2019). The k-cluster analysis was applied to the matrices of 302 rows (one per participant) and 35 columns (one per element).…”

Communicating with ethnic minorities during COVID-19: An experimental test of the effect of self-, ingroup-, and intergroup-focused messages

“…Therefore, it is crucial to understand how different messages affect adherence across groups. A vast body of literature has addressed different approaches aimed toward fostering policy compliance [ [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] ]. However, the messages developed to date target general society and may be less effective for minorities.…”