Policymakers who want to encourage uptake of COVID-19 vaccines should focus on communicating the risks of not getting vaccinated, a study suggests.
The Chinese researchers say they found this approach, known as a loss-framing strategy, to be more persuasive in encouraging people to get vaccinated than focusing on benefits to individuals or others.
According to the researchers, that could be because when people believe a particular behavior is safe, focusing on the benefits tends to be beneficial.
“Despite their preventative properties, vaccines may be perceived as dangerous given their potential side effects,” the researchers wrote. “Hence, a loss-framing strategy may be more advantageous than a gain-framing strategy in promoting vaccination.”
writing Public Health JournalThe researchers reported how 1,085 participants were randomly assigned to four equal-sized groups, all of whom were aged 18 or older and had not yet received a full COVID-19 vaccination.
All participants were given information about the spread and mortality of COVID-19, but one group was given no further information, while the other group was given additional messages explaining the personal benefits of getting vaccinated, the benefits to others, or the risks of not getting vaccinated.
Participants were asked to rate on a 5-point scale whether they thought vaccination would be effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, and also to rate on a 5-point scale whether they would be willing to get vaccinated.
Overall, the survey results showed that a higher perception of the effectiveness of the vaccine was associated with greater willingness to get vaccinated. The team also found that those who received the additional messages were more willing to get vaccinated than those who did not.
However, the highest willingness to vaccinate was seen among participants who were informed about the potential harms of not getting vaccinated, including a higher chance of developing severe symptoms if they did not get vaccinated. In fact, participants in this group were 2.79 times more willing to get vaccinated compared to the group that did not receive the additional messages.
Further analysis suggested that three additional types of messages could strengthen the positive correlation between perceptions of vaccine effectiveness and intention to get vaccinated.
Dr Simon Williams, a behavioural scientist and public health researcher at Swansea University, said the results were in line with other studies showing that perceptions of vaccine effectiveness influence people's willingness to get vaccinated. This is highly relevant for a Covid-19 vaccine given that many countries have had challenges communicating that booster shots are still effective and important for certain groups, he said.
But he said that while the study suggests that conveying vaccine messages in terms of what people will lose by not getting vaccinated is more effective than conveying them in terms of the benefits, it is unclear whether the results would be the same in other countries. Some studies have come to different conclusions.
“Many studies have found that loss messages are effective for disease 'detection' messages, such as 'get tested' to detect disease early,” he says, “while 'benefit' messages are effective for preventive behaviors, such as 'get vaccinated' or 'eat healthy' to avoid disease.”
