Social Communication on the Covid-19 Pandemic
Manuela Zambianchi, Lorenzo Volpe
The study evaluated the perception of effectiveness of two specially-created persuasive messages concerning, respectively, vaccination and facemasks in order to reduce contagion from Covid-19, and their relationships with the theoretical constructs of Protection Motivation Theory (PTM). The messages were also evaluated in their relationship with sources of information on the pandemic and mistrust in political institutions and in the media. 101 subjects (mean age 42.16 years; SD = 20.68, 66 males and 35 females) participated in the study and filled in the Questionnaire on Motivation to Protect from Covid-19 and the Questionnaire on Perceived Effectiveness of Messages on Facemasks and on Vaccines. The results confirm the presence of significant positive correlations between the persuasive efficacy of the messages and the dimensions of the Questionnaire on Motivation to protect against Covid-19. Furthermore, the vision of the two specific messages is linked to a different assessment of mistrust in political institutions and in mass media, higher in the questionnaire completed immediately after the message on the vaccine. Information on the evolution of the pandemic acquired through traditional mass media appears to correlate positively with the effectiveness of both persuasive messages.
Keywords
Covid-19, Persuasive messages, Health, Communication design, Motivation to protect.
