Communications about the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) often employ metaphors, which can help people understand complex issues. For example, public health messages may focus on “fighting” the disease, attempting to rouse people to action by instilling a sense of urgency. In contrast, change-focused metaphors may foster growth mindsets and self-efficacy—cornerstones of well-being and action. We randomly assigned participants to read one of two articles—either an article about coronavirus that focused on fighting the war or an article that highlighted the possibility of change. In Study 1 (N = 426), participants who read the war, relative to the change, message reported lower growth mindsets and self-efficacy and these in turn, predicted lower well-being and weaker intentions to engage in health behaviours. In Study 2, (N = 702), we sought to replicate findings and included a no treatment control. We failed to replicate the effects of message condition, although both messages predicted greater self-efficacy compared to the control. Similar to Study 1, growth mindsets predicted intentions to engage in recommended health behaviours and self-efficacy predicted both well-being and action. We discuss theoretical reasons for discrepancies as well as practical applications for developing public health communications.

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COVID-19 时代的幸福：隐喻和心态重要吗？

关于 2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 的交流经常使用隐喻，这可以帮助人们理解复杂的问题。例如，公共卫生信息可能侧重于“抗击”疾病，试图通过灌输紧迫感来激发人们采取行动。相比之下，以变革为中心的隐喻可能会培养成长心态和自我效能感——这是幸福和行动的基石。我们随机分配参与者阅读两篇文章中的一篇——一篇关于冠状病毒的文章专注于抗击战争，一篇文章强调了改变的可能性。在研究 1 ( N = 426），阅读战争的参与者，相对于变化，消息报告了较低的成长心态和自我效能，而这些反过来又预示着较低的幸福感和较弱的参与健康行为的意图。在研究 2 ( N  = 702) 中，我们试图复制研究结果并包括无治疗对照。我们未能复制信息条件的影响，尽管与对照相比，这两种信息都预测出更大的自我效能。与研究 1 类似，成长心态预测了参与推荐的健康行为的意图，而自我效能则预测了幸福感和行动。我们讨论了差异的理论原因以及发展公共卫生传播的实际应用。