Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Dec 16, 2021
Date Accepted: Aug 10, 2022
Date Submitted to PubMed: Sep 6, 2022
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Collective Values Promote the Willingness to Share Pro-Vaccination Messages on Social Media in China: Randomized Controlled Trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
The proliferation of vaccine misinformation on social media has seriously corrupted the public’s confidence in vaccination. Proactively sharing pro-vaccination messages on social media is a cost-effective way to enhance global vaccination rates and resist vaccine misinformation.
Objective:
This research examines the effect of value type (individual vs. collective) and message framing (gain vs. loss) on influenza vaccination intention(Experiment 1) and willingness to share pro-vaccination messages (Experiment 2) among Chinese adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary aim was to evaluate whether the message emphasized collective value more effectively on willingness to share than individual value.
Methods:
We enrolled 450 Chinese adults, allocated to Experiment 1(n=250) and Experiment 2(n=200). Participants were randomly assigned to the message described in each experiment in individual-gain, individual-loss, collective-gain, or collective-loss condition. Experiment 1 also included a control group. The primary outcome was influenza vaccination intention in Experiment 1 and willingness to share pro-vaccination messages in Experiment 2.
Results:
Influenza vaccination intention was stronger in the individual value condition than in the collective value condition: F(3, 166) = 4.96, p = 0.03, η2 = 0.03. The reversed result was found in willingness to share pro-vaccination messages. Specifically, participants who received a message emphasizing collective value had higher intention to share message than participants who read a message emphasizing individual value: F(3, 165) = 6.87, p = 0.01, η2 = 0.04,wherein the perceived responsibility for message sharing plays a mediating role (indirect effect = 0.23, 95% lower limit confidence interval = 0.41, 95% upper limit confidence interval = 0.07).
Conclusions:
Strengthened individual rather than collective value was more likely to persuade Chinese adults to vaccinate. However, these adults were more likely to share a message described by collective rather than individual value, and the perceived responsibility for message-sharing played a mediating mechanism. Clinical Trial: The study was conducted according to the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Nankai University (NKUIRB2020023, 2020-02-25).
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