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“It Happened to Me and It’s Serious”: Conditional Indirect Effects of Infection Severity Narrated in Testimonial Tweets on COVID-19 Prevention

Author

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  • Juan-José Igartua

    (Department of Sociology and Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, Campus Unamuno (Edificio FES), University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

  • Laura Rodríguez-Contreras

    (Department of Sociology and Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, Campus Unamuno (Edificio FES), University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

  • Íñigo Guerrero-Martín

    (Department of Sociology and Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, Campus Unamuno (Edificio FES), University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

  • Andrea Honorato-Vicente

    (Department of Sociology and Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, Campus Unamuno (Edificio FES), University of Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain)

Abstract

The health crisis caused by COVID-19 resulted in societal breakdowns around the world. Our research is based on determining which features of testimonial messages are most relevant in increasing persuasive impact. An online experiment with a 2 (severity infection narrative: low vs. high) × 2 (infection target: narrative’s protagonist vs. protagonist’s father) between-subject factorial design was carried out. Young people between 18 and 28 years (N = 278) were randomly assigned to one of the four experimental conditions, where they were asked to read a narrative message in the form of a Twitter thread describing a COVID-19 infection (with mild or severe symptoms) that affected either the protagonist of the message (a 23-year-old young person) or their father. After reading the narrative message, the mediating and dependent variables were evaluated. A message describing a severe COVID-19 infection affecting their protagonist to increase the perception of personal risk increased the persuasive impact through an increase in cognitive elaboration and a reduction in reactance. Our study highlights that creating persuasive messages based on social media targeted at young people that describe a careless behavior resulting in a severe COVID-19 infection can be an appropriate strategy for designing prevention campaigns.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan-José Igartua & Laura Rodríguez-Contreras & Íñigo Guerrero-Martín & Andrea Honorato-Vicente, 2023. "“It Happened to Me and It’s Serious”: Conditional Indirect Effects of Infection Severity Narrated in Testimonial Tweets on COVID-19 Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(13), pages 1-22, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:13:p:6254-:d:1183463
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Diana Tsoy & Danijela Godinic & Qingyan Tong & Bojan Obrenovic & Akmal Khudaykulov & Konstantin Kurpayanidi, 2022. "Impact of Social Media, Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) on the Intention to Stay at Home during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-32, June.
    2. Juan-José Igartua & Laura Rodríguez-Contreras, 2020. "Narrative Voice Matters! Improving Smoking Prevention with Testimonial Messages through Identification and Cognitive Processes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-15, October.
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