Futile or fertile? The effect of persuasive strategies on citizen engagement in COVID-19 vaccine-related tweets across six national health departments

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115591Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Health departments often used detrimental tactics in promoting COVID-19 vaccines.

  • Appeals to facts, anecdotes, and fear promoted citizen engagement.

  • Appeals to bandwagon reduced citizen engagement.

  • Messages about efficacies and benefits promoted citizen engagement.

  • Emphases of COVID-19 threats and cues to vaccinate harmed citizen engagement.

Abstract

National health departments across the globe have utilized persuasive strategies to promote COVID-19 vaccines through Twitter. However, the effectiveness of those strategies is unclear. This study thereby examined how national health departments deployed persuasive strategies to promote citizen engagement in COVID-19 vaccine-related tweets in six countries, including the UK, the US, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and India. Guided by the heuristic-systematic model and the health belief model, we found that national health departments differed significantly in the use of systematic-heuristic cues and health belief constructs in COVID-19 vaccine-related tweets. Generally, the provision of scientific information and appeals to anecdotes and fear positively, while appeals to bandwagon negatively, predicted citizen engagement. Messages about overcoming barriers and promoting vaccine benefits and self-efficacy positively affected engagement. Emphases of COVID-19 threats and cues to vaccinate demonstrated negative impacts. Importantly, health departments across countries often used futile or detrimental strategies in tweets. A locally adapted evidence-based approach for COVID-19 vaccination persuasion was discussed.

Keywords

COVID-19
Vaccine
Health belief model
Heuristic-systematic model
Persuasive strategies
Citizen engagement

Data availability

The authors do not have permission to share data.

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