The Effect of Message Framing on COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions among the Younger Age Population Groups: Results from an Experimental Study in the Italian Context

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic has been recognized as a major threat to public health. Widespread acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines is crucial for achieving adequate immunization coverage to end the global pandemic. However, to date, there are still hesitant people, especially among the younger population groups. For this reason, it is essential to identify the psychological variables that may affect vaccination intention among these “at risk groups” and to select possible successful communication frames in order to increase vaccination rates. An online cross-sectional survey was carried out on 208 Italian citizens younger than 50 years old, to explore message framing effects on their intention to receive the vaccination and to understand the psychological factors influencing it. Results showed that depending on the goal (stimulate vaccination intention, vaccination trust, or vaccine attitude), not all the communication stimuli are equally effective on this target population. Furthermore, the study showed that sociodemographic variables do not help to explain the vaccination intention of the younger population groups, while the psychological variables have been found to have a stronger impact on such attitude. Trust and attitudes towards vaccines, concern about the pandemic and concern about infecting others have been found to be the most effective predictive variables of people vaccination intention. The study results underline the importance of understanding the psychological roots behind vaccine hesitancy to shape sensitization actions and vaccination campaigns targeting this population group.

The Global Impact of Vaccine Certificates on COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake: A Scoping Review

“…These findings were corroborated by other studies, which suggested that messaging and framing designed to garner increased trust in the safety/efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines and better understanding of the potential benefits of vaccines for population health and the economy/society at-largein other words, framing COVID-19 messaging to better appeal to the intrinsic facilitators that we identified in [Table 3]-was instrumental for the successful implementation of vaccines and vaccine certificates. [39,40,41,42]. Ultimately, our findings support the existing literature about the importance of incorporating framing and messaging about these intrinsic facilitators during COVID-19 vaccine and vaccine certificate campaigns.…”

Positive Attribute Framing Increases COVID-19 Booster Vaccine Intention for Unfamiliar Vaccines

“…The handful of studies examining framing on COVID-19 vaccine intention have produced mixed results [16][17][18][19]. However, those studies focused on vaccine-naïve individuals, did not employ attribute framing, and did not concern booster intentions.…”

“…However, those studies focused on vaccine-naïve individuals, did not employ attribute framing, and did not concern booster intentions. Further, those studies also either used fictitious COVID-19 vaccines [16,17] or did not name specific approved COVID-19 vaccines [18,19]. As such, participants either had limited knowledge of, or investment in, the framed vaccines.…”

The impact of side effect framing on COVID-19 booster vaccine intentions in an Australian sample

“…Information framing has been suggested as such an intervention, including by peak international bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) [6] . Several studies have investigated the effect of message framing on COVID-19 vaccine intention, with varied results [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] . However, with the exception of our own research [13] , none have focused on attribute framing [14] of side effect information for actual COVID-19 vaccines.…”