ABSTRACT

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors conduct three online studies to examine effects of health messages that use descriptive norms to bring attention to pervasive social distancing violations and vaccine resistance. The studies provide empirical evidence that when social messages show examples of widespread noncompliant behaviors, they may unintentionally increase resistance to social distancing guidelines and vaccinations. Backfire effects are more pronounced when audiences highly identify with noncompliant actors or pay more attention to others’ behaviors. We also show that injunctive norms should be included to alleviate backfire effects. The studies suggest that governments and authorities can more effectively encourage compliance with health guidelines by focusing on the majority of compliant individuals rather than broadcasting images of noncompliant individuals.

摘要

在 COVID-19 大流行的背景下，作者进行了三项在线研究，以检验健康信息的效果，这些健康信息使用描述性规范来引起人们对普遍存在的社会疏远违规行为和疫苗耐药性的关注。这些研究提供了实证证据，表明当社交信息显示广泛存在的不合规行为的例子时，它们可能会无意中增加对社交距离准则和疫苗接种的抵制。当观众高度认同不顺从的演员或更加关注他人的行为时，适得其反的效果会更加明显。我们还表明，应包括强制性规范以减轻适得其反的影响。