Kaňková Jaroslava, Saumer Melanie, Neureiter Ariadne, Darovskikh Sofia, Shargina Elena, Matthes Jörg
Advertising and Media Psychology Research Group, Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Front Public Health. 2023 Oct 6;11:1190847. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1190847. eCollection 2023.
To 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.
In an experimental study ( = 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.
Findings 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.
Further implications for online health communication strategies are discussed.
为应对当前的新冠疫情，高疫苗接种率至关重要。然而，年轻人尤其倾向于对疫苗接种持犹豫态度。在社交媒体上，经常以激进的口吻呼吁年轻人接种疫苗，声称除了接种别无选择，其他做法都是错误的。
在一项实验研究（N = 410）中，我们调查了（a）社交媒体帖子中同理心沟通方式与激进沟通方式，以及（b）沟通者的来源对年轻人对新冠疫苗接种的支持态度的影响。我们将沟通者的性别作为调节变量，将违背预期、心理距离以及沟通者的可信度作为中介变量。
研究结果表明，激进的沟通方式通常会对年轻人的新冠疫苗接种态度产生负面影响，这完全由违背预期和沟通者的可信度所介导。沟通者的性别和来源并未调节这一中介过程。
探讨了对在线健康沟通策略的进一步影响。
