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After four years into the pandemic, we know that COVID-19 vaccines are effective, and it is crucial to increase public compliance with getting the COVID-19 vaccines. The current study examines the interplay of credibility perceptions, perceived benefits, and two different types of vaccine promotion messages: individual versus collective. Data was collected using an online randomized experiment. Findings demonstrated that individual versus collective frames did not influence everyone similarly. The results show a significantly moderated mediation model, such that the association between message frame and vaccine intention was mediated by the credibility of the message, and the relationship between message frame and perceived credibility was moderated by perceived benefits of the vaccine.

Political polarization surrounding the COVID-19 health crisis has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. We combine prior research on motivated reasoning, selective exposure, and news framing to understand the association between partisan media use and social distancing behavior related to COVID-19. To do so, we collected media content data and national survey data during the onset of the pandemic. We employed structural topic modeling (STM), dependency parsing, word co-occurrence, and manual coding to examine the media coverage. Next, we analyzed survey data collected with a Qualtrics panel from a sample of U.S. residents for factors explaining social distancing behaviors. Results reveal coverage from the right leaning outlets downplayed the virus and highlighted the consequences of lockdowns on the economy. Our survey findings show that even after accounting for a range of demographic, political orientation, and COVID-19 awareness variables, conservative media use was linked, although modestly, with a lower likelihood of social distancing behavior. Our findings echo past research on media framing of pandemics and their association with public attitudes and behavior.

The current study has three main purposes: to examine 1) the impact of theory-driven corrective messages using individual vs. collective frames on information-seeking intention 2) the mediating role of risk perceptions and 3) the moderating role of reflection and gender. Our findings from a randomized experimental study and Hayes' moderated, moderated mediation model show collective frames were associated with high-risk perceptions among women, which in turn led to higher information seeking intention. The second moderator reveals that people who scored higher on reflection were more willing to seek information. Our findings have critical implications for misinformation research by demonstrating the importance of theoretically driven messages in understanding misperceptions as well as people's information seeking behavior.

Despite the sheer devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, vaccine hesitancy is a major barrier to a successful implementation of the vaccine. We apply two moderators to examine the associations of efficacy and expectancies with COVID-19 vaccine intention. Specifically, we use national survey data collected online in 2020 (N = 1264) and a moderated moderated mediation PROCESS model to examine 1) the associations between self-efficacy about COVID-19 and vaccine intention mediated by positive outcome expectancies and 2) moderating roles of individual responsibility and partisan media use. The findings show that the path from efficacy to expectancies is moderated by individual responsibility, while the path from expectancies to vaccine intention is moderated by liberal media use. Our findings support the strategic application of SCT to emphasize the role of personal responsibility in campaigns to encourage vaccination for the COVID-19 virus.

Although there is a wide variety of scientific evidence that demonstrates the benefits of vaccination on a multitude of diseases, vaccination rates remain low while misperceptions about vaccines are on the rise. The primary objective of the present study is to examine the role of doctor-patient communication and vaccination. We test the impact of doctor-patient communication on trust in doctors' vaccine recommendations as a mediator, to understand the mechanisms leading to positive vaccination attitudes, and ultimately leading to actual H1N1 vaccination behavior. We use data from a nationally representative U.S. sample from one of the Multimedia Audience Research Systems (MARS) data sets collected by Kantar Media. Our results demonstrate the crucial role of doctor-patient communication in building patients' trust in doctors, which in turn positively impact vaccination attitudes and H1N1 vaccination behavior. Unlike other preventive health measures, getting vaccines after a pandemic is a critical decision because these vaccines are previously unknown. Our finding implies that verified communication from the physician's office may be one of the effective strategies during or after a pandemic. Our findings have implications for public health organizations to incorporate effective vaccination communication and could have critical implications for the COVID-19 vaccination.

This research examines the influence of norm-based messages (positively worded descriptive vs. negatively worded descriptive vs. injunctive vs. basic information) on intentions and risk perceptions about receiving human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination among young adults aged 18-29. Results from an experiment show that compared to the basic information condition, additional exposure to injunctive normative messages increased intention to seek further information about HPV vaccination, which in turn enhanced intention to get the vaccine. Negatively worded descriptive normative messaging should be used with caution since it resulted in the highest risk perceptions of the HPV vaccine, compared to positively worded descriptive norms and basic information messages. Theoretical and practical implications are further discussed.

Individuals increasingly rely on the Internet, and social media in particular, for health-related information. A recent survey reports that 80% of Internet users search for health information online. In the present study, we employ Twitter data to understand content characteristics and the patterns of content flow of the conversations about the HPV vaccine debate. Approaching the HPV vaccine conversations on Twitter as a social network, we can identify key self-formed subgroups-clusters of users who create "siloes" of interactions and information flow. Combining network analysis, computer-aided content analysis, and human-coded content analysis, we explored the communication dynamics within the groups in terms of group members' affective and cognitive characteristics. Our findings show that positive emotion is positively correlated with cluster density, an indicator of strong ties and rapid information flow. In the case of negative emotion, we found that anger is a significant negative predictor for graph density. We also found a correlation between certainty and tentativeness; both at cluster as well as at tweet level, suggesting that clusters bring together people who are sure about the HPV vaccine and people who are exploring for answers.