Persuasiveness of Public Health Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Message Framing, Threat Appraisal, and Source Credibility Effects

Abstract

This study examines the relative effectiveness of the UK government’s public health messages used during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on the use of a loss versus gain frame. We look at the effect of framing on behavioural inclination to follow COVID-19 guidance, as well as affective mechanisms and individual characteristic moderators that might explain said willingness. We ran two studies with a voluntary sample of the UK adult population (total n = 300). Across both studies, we only find a significant impact of message framing on the level of negative affect triggered, with the loss frame triggering a higher negative affect. Instead, attitude to public health communication had a direct and indirect effect on behavioural inclination. Our results suggest that threat minimisation and satisfaction with authorities handling a health crisis might be key to consider when developing effective public health communications.