Princeton Researchers Discover New Way To Encourage COVID Vaccinations and Masking

In the face of a global pandemic, with more than 200 million worldwide infections and 4 million deaths, and despite unprecedented efforts by public health officials, celebrities and influencers to convince everyone to wear masks and get vaccinated as soon as possible, the results are mixed .

Now, two Princeton researchers have discovered an approach that they found successfully motivated people to make appointments for vaccinations and to consistently follow measures such as social distancing and wearing masks.

“We think we’re onto something unique that hasn’t been tried yet in the COVID context,” said Joel Cooper, a professor of psychology at Princeton. “I kept thinking, there is a group of people who will never reach public service announcements because they already agree. Oh, they may not be the most enthusiastic, but they already agree that vaccines are good and people should take them. But they are the ones who look for excuses. “Oh, it’s too hard.” “I couldn’t do it now.” These are the people who cannot be reached with the other methods, but with our method.”

Rather than targeting the very vocal minority of people who insist they will never be vaccinated, Cooper and his graduate student Logan Pearce focused on individuals whose actions are inconsistent with their outspoken beliefs. In total, they studied 101 participants.

Joel Cooper, a professor of psychology at Princeton University, is the lead author of an exciting new study that shows how you can get people from vaguely supporting public health choices — including mask-wearing, social distancing and vaccinations — to concrete steps. to take to implement them. Credit: Photo by Sameer A. Khan/Photobuddy

“It is extremely important to convince the remaining doubters, but the data highlights a more baffling and alarming story,” Cooper said. “In a recent survey, between 80 and 90% of adults agreed that wearing a mask is an effective method of preventing the spread of COVID-19, but only 50% of respondents said they ‘always’ or even ‘usually’ a mask when in close contact with other people. Getting people to behave in accordance with CDC guidelines is critical, not just to believe they are doing the right thing to do.”

“I’d love to convince the anti-vaxxers, but I honestly don’t know what might convince them right now,” said Pearce, a psychology graduate student and the lead author of their paper in the journal Basic and Applied Social. Psychology. “I thought, ‘It’s easier to convince people who already think it’s the right thing to do, but they’re still not doing it.”

Seeking What Works: Advocacy Plus Mindfulness

Previous research had shown that inducing cognitive dissonance — asking people to keep two conflicting things in mind at the same time — can be an effective tool to encourage behavioral changes. Pearce and Cooper created cognitive dissonance in their study participants by first encouraging them to advocate for a public health position — such as “It’s important to wear masks” or “Vaccinations will help us end the pandemic” — and then ask them to recall occasions when they did not act in accordance with that attitude. People feel uncomfortable with cognitive dissonance, and the easiest way to alleviate that discomfort is to change behaviors to become consistent with attitudes.

Some research has shown that just the mindfulness piece—encouraging people to remember when their actions didn’t match their beliefs—can change behavior, but Cooper has found no evidence of this in his own work. The advocacy piece, vigorously advocating the belief or behavior, is vital, he said. Without it, he said, the mindfulness work can tip the scale in a counterproductive way.

Logan Pearce, a second-year psychology graduate student at Princeton University, is the lead author of a compelling new study that reveals how to persuade people of vaguely supportive public health choices — including mask-wearing, social distancing and vaccinations — to make concrete decisions. steps to implement them. Credit: Don Pearce

“People form an image of themselves based on their behavior,” he said. “When you tell people, ‘Well, remember you didn’t do this,’ whether it’s going to the gym or wearing masks, it shouldn’t be surprising that they say, ‘Yeah, I think I’m kind of the person who doesn’t do this. I guess I don’t exercise, I don’t put on a mask, I go to the store without taking one. I didn’t really mean to, but this has to be who I am.” So to me, the idea of ​​just reminding yourself of, if you will, “bad behavior” or behavior that conflicts with your attitude, it’s not surprising to me that it doesn’t work.

Their research was conducted in two waves, with data collected one week apart. During the first session, participants in the cognitive dissonance test group first advocated consistent adherence to safety protocols and were then asked to recall times when they acted unsafely or failed to get vaccinated when they had the chance. Other volunteers were assigned to one of three control groups: advocacy only, mindfulness only, or neither. Participants in all three groups watched a short video encouraging mask-wearing and other anti-COVID-19 measures.

A week later, the researchers assessed their participants’ reported behavior. Members of the cognitive dissonance group were much more likely to adhere to guidelines and make vaccination appointments during the intervening week than participants in any of the control groups.

Pearce found the 101 participants through the online tool Prolific while working remotely at her home near Atlanta. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 67 and came from 18 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Portugal.

Much of this research was done before vaccines were widely available, so Cooper and Pearce focused largely on mask wearing and social distancing. When they launched the study, they decided to add a few questions about whether the participants had made an appointment or planned to take the photos.

Take it home: Competitions and church groups

Pearce and Cooper look for ways to apply their findings on a large scale, by causing dissonance on a larger scale. “I want this project to reach beyond academia to really make a difference,” Pearce said.

She suggested holding competitions in which people compete by writing or recording persuasive arguments to get vaccinated, either through video, essay, poem or drawing. Similar efforts included the “Wear a Mask New York Ad Contest” and the “Mask Up Alabama Video Contest”.

What sets her competition apart is the second step: including mindfulness. Rules require participants to include reminders of times when they were not actually following COVID-19 guidelines, such as choosing to forgo a vaccination when one was available. Admitting this makes the contestant more likely to change their own behavior and encourages others to make better choices.

For community leaders who don’t want to host a contest, Pearce and Cooper have other ideas. For example, a church group may suggest its members do the exercise as an act of public service.

But whichever approach is taken, the combination of the two is key, Pearce said. “I can use cognitive dissonance in my life to change my own behavior, and I want to help other people do the same.”

“Promoting Covid-19 Safe Behavior Using Cognitive Dissonance” by Logan Pearce and Joel Cooper, September 20, 2021, Basic and Applied Social Psychology.
DOI: 10.1080/01973533.2021.1953497

This research was funded by Princeton University.