Vaccinating to protect others: The role of self-persuasion and empathy among young adults

Abstract

Direct persuasion (providing arguments) is usually a less effective influence technique than self-persuasion (self-creation of arguments). As most young adults are unafraid to contract COVID-19, self-persuasion focused on protecting the health of others may be an effective method of increasing vaccination rates in this population. Thus, empathy seems to be a crucial factor affecting vaccination intentions. We conducted two experiments using the theory of planned behavior. Study 1 (N = 366) compared the effectiveness of self-persuasion targeted at others' health versus personal health and direct persuasion in encouraging COVID-19 vaccination intention. Results indicate that among young adults, self-persuasion targeted at others' health (compared to other forms of persuasion) has an indirect effect on vaccination intention through utility and social norms beliefs. Moreover, as empathy increases, utility, social norms, and control beliefs increase, which is associated with a greater COVID-19 vaccination intention. Study 2 (N = 375) investigated the applicability of self-persuasion in health communication through a poster framed as an open-ended question. We found that the poster with self-persuasion targeted at others’ health, enhanced vaccination intention, compared with a direct persuasion poster. Together, our findings demonstrate the potential of self-persuasion targeted at others' health in increasing COVID-19 vaccination uptake among young adults.

The vaccine-education paradox in a cross-country analysis: education predicts higher and lower vaccination rates

“…In turn, reactance is associated with a negative attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination (Drążkowski & Trepanowski, 2021). Therefore, encouraging highly educated people to vaccinate should be subtle so as to not induce states of reactance in them, by using various forms of self-persuasion (Drążkowski et al, 2022).…”