JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Vaccine hesitancy is one of many factors that have impeded efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 infodemic, misinformation has undermined public trust in vaccination, led to greater polarization, and resulted in a high social cost where once close social connections have experienced conflict or disagreements about public health response.

Objective:

The purpose of the current paper is to describe the theory behind the development of a digital behavioural science intervention – The Good Talk! – designed to target vaccine hesitant individuals through their close contacts (e.g., family, friends, colleagues) and describe the methodology of a research study to evaluate its efficacy.

Methods:

The Good Talk! utilizes an educational serious game approach to boost the skills and competences of vaccine advocates to have open conversations about COVID-19 with their close contacts who are vaccine hesitant. The game teaches vaccine advocates evidence-based conversation skills to help them speak with individuals who have opposing points of view or who may ascribe to non-scientifically supported beliefs while retaining trust, identifying common ground, and fostering acceptance and respect of divergent views. The game is currently in development and will be available online, free to access for participants worldwide, and accompanied by a promotional campaign to recruit participants using social media channels. The efficacy of the intervention will be evaluated in a randomized controlled trial comparing The Good Talk! game to a control group who plays the widely known non-educational game Tetris.

Results:

The study will evaluate a participant’s open conversation skills, and their self-efficacy and behavioural intentions to have an open conversation with a vaccine hesitant individual both prior to and following game play.

Conclusions:

The outcome of the project is to promote more open conversations about COVID-19 vaccination. We hope our approach will encourage more governments and public health experts to engage in their mission to reach their citizens directly with digital health solutions and to consider such interventions as an important tool in infodemic management. Clinical Trial: The trial will be registered on the German Clinical Trials Register [trial number and URl provided when registration is finalised].