The Effect of Newspaper Reporting on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: a Randomised Controlled Trial (COVANEW)

NCT05582564 NA COMPLETED

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy can be observed at different rates in different countries. 1,068 people were surveyed in France and Italy to inquire about individual potential acceptance, focusing on time preferences, in a risk-return framework: having the vaccination today, in a month, and in 3 months; perceived risks of vaccination and COVID-19; and expected benefit of the vaccine. A randomized controlled trial was conducted to understand how everyday stimuli, such as fact-based news about vaccines, impact on audience acceptance of vaccination. The main experiment involved two groups of participants and two different articles about vaccine-related thrombosis taken from two Italian newspapers. One article used a more abstract description and language, and the other used a more anecdotical description and concrete language; each group read only one of these articles. Two other groups were assigned categorization tasks; one was asked to complete a concrete categorization task and the other an abstract categorization task.

Details

Lead sponsor	University of Bari Aldo Moro
Phase	NA
Status	COMPLETED
Enrolment	1068
Start date	Wed Jun 02 2021 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Completion	Mon Jan 31 2022 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Conditions

• Vaccine Hesitancy

Interventions

• abstract vs concrete texts

Countries

Italy