JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has continued to affect life in the United States, the important role of non-pharmaceutical preventive behaviors (such as wearing a face mask) in reducing harm has become clear. In parallel to the pandemic, researchers have observed an “infodemic” of misinformed or inconsistent narratives about COVID-19. There is growing evidence that misinformed COVID-19 narratives are associated with a wide variety of undesirable behavior (e.g., burning down cell towers). Further, individuals’ adherence to recommended COVID-19 preventive guidelines has been inconsistent, and such mandates have engendered opposition and controversy. Recent research suggests the possibility that trust in science and scientists may be an important thread to weave throughout these seemingly disparate components of the modern public health landscape. Thus, this paper describes the protocol for a randomized trial of a brief, digital intervention to increase trust in science.

Objective:

The objective of this trial is to examine if exposure to a curated infographic can increase trust in science, reduce believability of misinformed narratives, and increase likelihood to engage in preventive behaviors.

Methods:

This trial is a randomized, placebo-controlled superiority trial with 2 parallel groups. A sample of 1,000 adults ages 18 and older who are representative of the United States population by gender, race/ethnicity, and age will randomly be assigned (1:1 allocation) to an intervention or placebo-control arm. The intervention will be a digital infographic with content that has been developed based on principles of trust in science by a health communications expert and then both pretested and pilot tested for viability. Outcomes will be trust in science, COVID-19 narrative belief latent profile membership, and likelihood to engage in preventive behaviors, and will be controlled by eight theoretically-selected covariates.

Results:

This study was funded in August 2020, approved by the Indiana University Institutional Review Board on September 15, 2020, and prospectively registered with ClinicalTrials.gov.

Conclusions:

COVID-19 misinformation prophylaxis is important. This experiment investigates the impact of a low-dose, easily disseminated intervention to increase trust in science, with the intention of affecting misinformation believability and thereby preventive behavioral intentions. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT[SUBMISSION IN QUEUE FOR PRS REVIEW 9/16/2020]