An examination of the interplay of message framing and vaccine safety information sources on COVID-19 vaccination promotion

Through a between-subjects, 2 [message framing: gain versus loss]x2 [vaccine safety information sources: official authorities versus vaccinated laypeople] full factorial survey experiment, this study examined how individuals' intentions to get COVID-19 vaccine were influenced by the framing of health campaign messages and vaccine safety information sources. In this study, 304 participants were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions. The results revealed that there was no overall significant difference between gain and loss framed messages in vaccination promotion. However, the relative persuasiveness of gain and loss framed messages differed when vaccination safety information was provided by different sources, as gain-framed messages were more persuasive when information about vaccine safety information was provided by the official authority, while loss-framed messages worked better when vaccine safety information was offered by vaccinated laypeople. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings for vaccine health communication were discussed.