Measuring the impact of message format about handwashing on behavioural intentions in the first weeks of COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented threat to global health. During times of public health crises, governments and healthcare practitioners must effectively communicate preventive guidelines to the public to reduce viral transmission. Public compliance with recommended health behaviours is essential to the success of the overall pandemic response. This online experiment investigated the persuasiveness of visual message format on COVID-19 handwashing guidelines on people's behavioural intentions. A total of 350 participants, recruited through Amazon's MTurk, were randomly assigned to one of three information format conditions: text, infographic, or video. Results indicated that perceived severity, benefits, self-efficacy, cues to action, and perceived barriers significantly predicted people's intentions to comply with suggested preventive guidelines. There were no significant differences between the three information formats, in terms of behavioural intentions. These results have consequences for identifying and implementing public health strategies for a global health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic to achieve higher citizen engagement, and for understanding future emerging infectious disease preparedness.

Disgusting Face, Disease-Ridden Place?: Emoji Influence on the Interpretation of Restaurant Inspection Reports.

Every year, millions of Americans get sick from foodborne illness and it is estimated half of all reported instances occur at restaurants. To protect the public, regulators are encouraged to conduct restaurant inspections and disclose reports to consumers. However, inspection reporting format is inconsistent and typically contains information unclear to most consumers who often misinterpret the inspection results. Additionally, consumers are increasingly searching for this information in a digital context. Limited research explores inspection reports as communication tools. Using affect-as-information and ELM as theoretical frameworks, this experiment investigated how discrete emotions (e.g., disgust) conveyed through pictorial cues (i.e., emojis) influenced consumers' processing of inspection reports. Participants, recruited from Amazon's MTurk, were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions in a 3 (emoji: smiling vs. disgusted vs. none) x 2 (violation level: low vs. high) between-subjects design. Then, participants completed a questionnaire regarding perceptions and cognitive processing of the message. Results revealed that, compared to text, disgusted face emoji increased risk perceptions and avoidance behavior. In terms of emotion, smiling face emoji motivated participants to feel more emotions related to sanitation. In turn, positive feelings decreased elaboration likelihood. As predicted by ELM, involvement also predicted elaboration, such that participants who were highly involved with inspection reports elaborated more than those less involved. Involvement also moderated the relationship between emoji presented and elaboration. Practical implications are also discussed.