The News Articles
MAY, RECRUITMENT
We chose to use a mock news article as a vehicle for the manipulation of threat (and later efficacy). We chose an article format for its ecological validity, given that at the time we commenced this study, daily reports were being circulated across news media with threatening information about COVID-19. Hence, the impact of threat being manipulated through written media was of primary interest. All participants read an article which included information regarding the prevalence and severity of COVID-19. Both articles were matched for length and contained the same information, with the statistics included updated on the day recruitment began (18 May 2020), using the website 