Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines
Objective To examine the impact of the government communicating uncertainties relating to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness on vaccination intention and trust after people are exposed to conflicting information.Design Experimental design where participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups.S...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group
2022-09-01
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| Series: | BMJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/9/e051352.full |
| _version_ | 1798003068131868672 |
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| author | Eleonore Batteux Avri Bilovich Samuel G B Johnson David Tuckett |
| author_facet | Eleonore Batteux Avri Bilovich Samuel G B Johnson David Tuckett |
| author_sort | Eleonore Batteux |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Objective To examine the impact of the government communicating uncertainties relating to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness on vaccination intention and trust after people are exposed to conflicting information.Design Experimental design where participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups.Setting Online.Participants 328 adults from a UK research panel.Intervention Participants received either certain or uncertain communications from a government representative about COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, before receiving conflicting information about effectiveness.Main outcome measures Vaccination intention and trust in government.Results Compared with those who received the uncertain announcement from the government, participants who received the certain announcement reported a greater loss of vaccination intention (d=0.34, 95% CI (0.12 to 0.56), p=0.002) and trust (d=0.34, 95% CI (0.12 to 0.56), p=0.002) after receiving conflicting information.Conclusions Communicating with certainty about COVID-19 vaccines reduces vaccination intention and trust if conflicting information arises, whereas communicating uncertainties can protect people from the negative impact of exposure to conflicting information. There are likely to be other factors affecting vaccine intentions, which we do not account for in this study.Trial registration number Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/c73px/. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T12:02:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ab5739c776de48c7908405285d557954 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2044-6055 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T12:02:05Z |
| publishDate | 2022-09-01 |
| publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMJ Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-ab5739c776de48c7908405285d5579542022-12-22T04:24:49ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552022-09-0112910.1136/bmjopen-2021-051352Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccinesEleonore Batteux0Avri Bilovich1Samuel G B Johnson2David Tuckett3Centre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty, University College London, London, UKCentre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty, University College London, London, UKDepartment of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UKCentre for the Study of Decision-Making Uncertainty, University College London, London, UKObjective To examine the impact of the government communicating uncertainties relating to COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness on vaccination intention and trust after people are exposed to conflicting information.Design Experimental design where participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups.Setting Online.Participants 328 adults from a UK research panel.Intervention Participants received either certain or uncertain communications from a government representative about COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness, before receiving conflicting information about effectiveness.Main outcome measures Vaccination intention and trust in government.Results Compared with those who received the uncertain announcement from the government, participants who received the certain announcement reported a greater loss of vaccination intention (d=0.34, 95% CI (0.12 to 0.56), p=0.002) and trust (d=0.34, 95% CI (0.12 to 0.56), p=0.002) after receiving conflicting information.Conclusions Communicating with certainty about COVID-19 vaccines reduces vaccination intention and trust if conflicting information arises, whereas communicating uncertainties can protect people from the negative impact of exposure to conflicting information. There are likely to be other factors affecting vaccine intentions, which we do not account for in this study.Trial registration number Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/c73px/.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/9/e051352.full |
| spellingShingle | Eleonore Batteux Avri Bilovich Samuel G B Johnson David Tuckett Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines BMJ Open |
| title | Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines |
| title_full | Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines |
| title_fullStr | Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines |
| title_full_unstemmed | Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines |
| title_short | Negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic: an online randomised controlled trial on COVID-19 vaccines |
| title_sort | negative consequences of failing to communicate uncertainties during a pandemic an online randomised controlled trial on covid 19 vaccines |
| url | https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/12/9/e051352.full |
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