The Effects of Agency Assignment and Reference Point on Responses to COVID-19 Messages

Area of Science:

• Public Health Communication
• Health Psychology
• Risk Perception

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic necessitates effective risk communication to encourage protective behaviors.
• Understanding how message framing influences public response is crucial as restrictions ease.
• Psychological reactance, source derogation, and counterarguing are key responses to health messages.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how assigning agency (SARS-CoV-2 vs. human) affects perceptions of the virus threat.
• To assess the impact of agency assignment and reference point (self vs. self-other) on message responses.
• To evaluate psychological reactance, source derogation, counterarguing, and behavioral intentions.

Main Methods:

• A study with 207 participants randomly assigned to four conditions.
• Conditions crossed agency assignment (SARS-CoV-2/human) and reference point (self/self-other).
• Measured perceptions of threat, psychological reactance, source derogation, counterarguing, and behavioral intentions.

Main Results:

• Assigning agency to SARS-CoV-2, compared to human agency, significantly increased psychological reactance.
• SARS-CoV-2 agency led to greater perceived freedom threat, anger, and negative cognitions.
• Increased source derogation and counterarguing were observed with SARS-CoV-2 agency assignment.

Conclusions:

• Framing SARS-CoV-2 as the agent increases negative responses and reactance.
• Reference point did not significantly influence threat perceptions or message responses.
• Findings inform strategies for crafting more effective public health messages during infectious disease outbreaks.