Several forms of public messages can increase vaccination intentions, but messaging that emphasizes personal health benefits has the largest impact.

«Our findings suggest that several forms of public messages can increase vaccination intentions, but messaging that emphasizes personal health benefits had the largest impact,» says UW Ph.D. student Madison Ashworth, lead author of a paper that appears today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new research is the latest in a series of coronavirus-related studies conducted by UW College of Business economists Ashworth, Linda Thunstrom, Todd Cherry, Stephen Newbold and David Finnoff.

The researchers were among the first to identify vaccine hesitancy as a potential stumbling block in the effort to end the COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccine hesitancy has turned out to be prevalent. Recent surveys suggest that 60-70 percent of U.S. adults intend to be vaccinated for COVID-19, which falls short of the threshold identified by public health experts to achieve herd immunity.

To examine the impact on vaccine intentions of a variety of public health messages, the researchers surveyed a representative sample of 3,048 adults in the United States. The economists compared three messages that described the benefits of taking the vaccine: benefits to personal health; benefits to the health of family, friends and community members; and benefits to local and national economies — as well as a fourth message that emphasized the rigor and safety protocols of the vaccine development process. They also examined the effect of combining multiple messages.

The message about private health benefits increased intended vaccinations by 16 percentage points, significantly more than the other messages.

Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Wyoming. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.