Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is threatening not only health but also life worldwide. It is important to encourage citizens to voluntarily practise infection-prevention (IP) behaviours such as social distancing and self-restraint. Previous research on social cognition suggested th...
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The Royal Society
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
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| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200793 |
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| author | Fumiya Yonemitsu Ayumi Ikeda Naoto Yoshimura Kaito Takashima Yuki Mori Kyoshiro Sasaki Kun Qian Yuki Yamada |
| author_facet | Fumiya Yonemitsu Ayumi Ikeda Naoto Yoshimura Kaito Takashima Yuki Mori Kyoshiro Sasaki Kun Qian Yuki Yamada |
| author_sort | Fumiya Yonemitsu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is threatening not only health but also life worldwide. It is important to encourage citizens to voluntarily practise infection-prevention (IP) behaviours such as social distancing and self-restraint. Previous research on social cognition suggested that emphasizing self-identity is key to changing a person's behaviour. The present study investigated whether reminders that highlight self-identity would be effective in changing intention and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak, and hypothesized that those who read reminders highlighting self-identity (Don't be a spreader) would change IP intention and behaviour better than those who read ‘Don't spread’ or no reminder. We conducted a two-wave survey of the same participants with a one-week interval, during which we assigned one of three reminder conditions to the participants: ‘Don't spread’ (spreading condition), ‘Don't be a spreader’ (spreader condition) and no reminder (control condition). Participants marked their responses to IP intentions and actual behaviours each week based on the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare guidelines. While the results did not show significant differences between the conditions, the post hoc analyses showed significant equivalence in either IP intentions or behavioural scores. We discussed the results from the perspective of the effect size, ceiling effects and ways of manipulation checks as future methods with more effective persuasive messaging. Following in-principle acceptance, the approved Stage 1 version of this manuscript was pre-registered on the OSF at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KZ5Y4. This pre-registration was performed prior to data collection and analysis. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7ad09873e4034d818b6063a6d7f30932 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj-art-7ad09873e4034d818b6063a6d7f309322025-08-20T02:11:58ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032020-09-017910.1098/rsos.200793Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemicFumiya Yonemitsu0Ayumi Ikeda1Naoto Yoshimura2Kaito Takashima3Yuki Mori4Kyoshiro Sasaki5Kun Qian6Yuki Yamada7Graduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JapanGraduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JapanGraduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JapanGraduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JapanGraduate School of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JapanFaculty of Informatics, Kansai University, Osaka, JapanInstitute of Decision Science for a Sustainable Society, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JapanFaculty of Arts and Science, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JapanThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak is threatening not only health but also life worldwide. It is important to encourage citizens to voluntarily practise infection-prevention (IP) behaviours such as social distancing and self-restraint. Previous research on social cognition suggested that emphasizing self-identity is key to changing a person's behaviour. The present study investigated whether reminders that highlight self-identity would be effective in changing intention and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak, and hypothesized that those who read reminders highlighting self-identity (Don't be a spreader) would change IP intention and behaviour better than those who read ‘Don't spread’ or no reminder. We conducted a two-wave survey of the same participants with a one-week interval, during which we assigned one of three reminder conditions to the participants: ‘Don't spread’ (spreading condition), ‘Don't be a spreader’ (spreader condition) and no reminder (control condition). Participants marked their responses to IP intentions and actual behaviours each week based on the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare guidelines. While the results did not show significant differences between the conditions, the post hoc analyses showed significant equivalence in either IP intentions or behavioural scores. We discussed the results from the perspective of the effect size, ceiling effects and ways of manipulation checks as future methods with more effective persuasive messaging. Following in-principle acceptance, the approved Stage 1 version of this manuscript was pre-registered on the OSF at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KZ5Y4. This pre-registration was performed prior to data collection and analysis.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200793the spread of COVID-19moral identitymoral self-imagelabellingpersuaded communications |
| spellingShingle | Fumiya Yonemitsu Ayumi Ikeda Naoto Yoshimura Kaito Takashima Yuki Mori Kyoshiro Sasaki Kun Qian Yuki Yamada Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic Royal Society Open Science the spread of COVID-19 moral identity moral self-image labelling persuaded communications |
| title | Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full | Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_fullStr | Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_short | Warning ‘Don't spread’ versus ‘Don't be a spreader’ to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic |
| title_sort | warning don t spread versus don t be a spreader to prevent the covid 19 pandemic |
| topic | the spread of COVID-19 moral identity moral self-image labelling persuaded communications |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200793 |
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