“I am Young, Why Should I Vaccinate?” How empathetic and aggressive communication on social media impact young adults’ attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination

Frontiers in Public Health

Public Health

Sofia Darovskikh¹  Elena Shargina¹  Melanie Saumer¹  Ariadne Neureiter¹  Jörg Matthes¹  Jaroslava Kaňková² 

[1] Advertising and Media Psychology Research Group, Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria;null;

关键词: COVID-19;    vaccination support;    health communication;    expectancy violation;    psychological distance;    credibility;    communication style;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpubh.2023.1190847

 received in 2023-03-21, accepted in 2023-09-19,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

IntroductionTo combat the current COVID-19 pandemic, high vaccination rates are of crucial value. However, young people in particular tend to be hesitant toward vaccination. On social media, young adults are often called to vaccinate in an aggressive tone, arguing that there is no choice than to vaccinate and that all else is wrong.MethodsIn an experimental study (N = 410), we investigated the effects of (a) empathetic vs. aggressive communication styles in social media postings and (b) the origin of the communicator on young adults’ supportive attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccinations. We treated the gender of the communicator as a moderator, and expectancy violation, psychological distance as well as the perceived credibility of the communicator as mediators.ResultsFindings showed that an aggressive communication style generally had a negative impact on young adults’ COVID-19 vaccination attitudes, fully mediated by expectancy violation and perceived credibility of the communicator. Gender and the origin of the communicator did not moderate this mediation processes.DiscussionFurther implications for online health communication strategies are discussed.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Kaňková, Saumer, Neureiter, Darovskikh, Shargina and Matthes.