1. Introduction
infection, deaths, viral infection, COVID-19 infection
VIRUS, DISEASE, VIRAL INFECTION, COVID-19 INFECTION, INFECTION, EVENTS
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.Testimonial messages have become a popular strategy for designing prevention campaigns in the field of health communication [However, our work focuses on a different context: COVID-19 prevention. The health crisis caused by COVID-19 resulted in societal breakdowns around the world, infecting to date more than 700 million people and causing more than 6 million deaths worldwide [Some of the earliest research during the pandemic showed that there were large differences in people’s ability to adopt measures to reduce virus transmission [The challenge posed by COVID-19 at the level of medical treatment was, therefore, joined by the challenge faced by health communication professionals in designing prevention campaigns. Specifically, one of the most critical elements was to determine how health campaigns should be designed to raise awareness and encourage people to avoid risky social contacts or to refrain from attending celebrations, parties or similar events in enclosed spaces. The work presented here contributes to health communication research and focuses on analyzing the most effective strategies for preventing COVID-19, a viral infection that is easily transmitted through social contact. Given that COVID-19 spreads when an infected person exhales droplets and very small respiratory particles containing the virus [We present the results of an online experiment in which testimonial messages for the prevention of COVID-19 were created by manipulating two independent variables. The testimonial message, written in the first person and designed as a Twitter “thread”, featured a young man who indicated having celebrated their birthday by organizing a party with their friends without adopting any preventive measures. As a consequence of such a party, a COVID-19 infection affecting the young person themselves or a relative with whom they lived, their father (target of the infection), was mentioned. On the other hand, the narrative described the symptoms experienced by the infected person as mild or severe (severity of infection). In this context, the current study draws on research on narrative persuasion, focusing specifically on the role of identification with the protagonist, narrative transportation, reactance and cognitive elaboration. The aim is to shed light on the psychological mechanisms underlying the impact of message characteristics on preventive measures, including the perceived personal risk of contracting COVID-19, perceived severity of the disease and intentions to adopt preventive behaviors.