Understanding public support for COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures over time:Does it wear out?

Background: COVID-19 mitigation measures intend to protect public health, but their adverse psychological, social, and economic effects weaken public support. Less favorable trade-offs may especially weaken support for more restrictive measures. Support for mitigation measures may also differ between population subgroups who experience different benefits and costs, and decrease over time, a phenomenon termed “pandemic fatigue.” Methods: We examined self-reported support for COVID-19 mitigation measures in the Netherlands over 12 consecutives waves of data collection between April 2020 and May 2021 in an open population cohort study. Participants were recruited through community panels of the 25 regional public health services, and through links to the online surveys advertised on social media. The 54,010 unique participants in the cohort study on average participated in 4 waves of data collection. Most participants were female (65%), middle-aged [57% (40–69 years)], highly educated (57%), not living alone (84%), residing in an urban area (60%), and born in the Netherlands (95%). Results: COVID-19 mitigation measures implemented in the Netherlands remained generally well-supported over time [all scores >3 on 5-point scale ranging 1 (low)−5 (high)]. During the whole period studied, support was highest for personal hygiene measures, quarantine and wearing face masks, high but somewhat lower for not shaking hands, testing and self-isolation, and restricting social contacts, and lowest for limiting visitors at home, and not traveling abroad. Women and higher educated people were more supportive of some mitigation measures than men and lower educated people. Older people were more supportive of more restrictive measures than younger people, and support for more socially restrictive measures decreased most over time in higher educated people or in younger people. Conclusions: This study found no support for pandemic fatigue in terms of a gradual decline in support for all mitigation measures in the first year of the pandemic. Rather, findings suggest that support for mitigation measures reflects a balancing of benefits and cost, which may change over time, and differ between measures and population subgroups

Fear appeals motivate acceptance of recommendations: evidence for a positive bias in the processing of persuasive messages

Three experiments are reported that tested the hypothesis that the use of fear appeals in health persuasion may lead to positively biased systematic processing of a subsequent action recommendation aimed at reducing the health threat and, consequently, to more persuasion, regardless of the quality of the arguments in the recommendation. The levels of participants' vulnerability to as well as the seventy of a health risk were varied independently, followed by a manipulation of the quality of the arguments in the subsequent action recommendation. The dependent variables included measures of persuasion (attitude, intention, and action), negative affect, and cognitive responses. The results show that participants who felt vulnerable to the health threat were more persuaded, experienced more negative emotions, and had more favorable cognitive responses. Both negative emotions concerning one's vulnerability and positive thoughts concerning the recommendation mediated the effects of vulnerability on persuasion. © 2003 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc

Transportation into narrative worlds and the motivation to change health-related behavior

Stories are considered to be a potent means to change health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behavior because of recipients’ transportation into the narrative world. Little emphasis, however, has been given to the link between transportation and process variables that are pertinent to health behavior. Connecting narrative persuasion to the health action process approach, a model comprising transportation, risk severity, selfefficacy, and outcome expectancies, was specified to predict behavioral intentions. In an experiment, a short narrative video clip on drinking and driving was presented under conditions of low versus high transportation. A structural equation model showed that transportation directly influenced risk severity, which in turn influenced outcome expectancies and self-efficacy. Whereas outcome expectancies and self-efficacy were positively related to behavioral intentions, the link between risk severity and intentions was negative when the other variables were included in the model. Implications and future research on narrative health communication are discussed

Transportation into narrative worlds and the motivation to change health-related behavior

Stories are considered to be a potent means to change health-related attitudes, beliefs, and behavior because of recipients’ transportation into the narrative world. Little emphasis, however, has been given to the link between transportation and process variables that are pertinent to health behavior. Connecting narrative persuasion to the health action process approach, a model comprising transportation, risk severity, selfefficacy, and outcome expectancies, was specified to predict behavioral intentions. In an experiment, a short narrative video clip on drinking and driving was presented under conditions of low versus high transportation. A structural equation model showed that transportation directly influenced risk severity, which in turn influenced outcome expectancies and self-efficacy. Whereas outcome expectancies and self-efficacy were positively related to behavioral intentions, the link between risk severity and intentions was negative when the other variables were included in the model. Implications and future research on narrative health communication are discussed

What works best: objective statistics or a personal testimonial? An assessment of different types of message evidence on risk perception

Objective: In an experimental online study we compared the effects of different types of persuasive evidence in promoting the acceptance of a personal health risk. Design: 118 men who have sex with men (MSM) at-risk for infection with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) were recruited via a range of websites and randomly assigned to one of 4 conditions (2 experimental and 2 control): narrative evidence (i.e., a personal account), statistical evidence (i.e., abstract prevalence data), mere assertion of increased risk, and no risk information. Main Outcome Measures: Narrative evidence was expected to more effective than statistical evidence in increasing MSM's perceived risk of infection with HBV an intention to obtain vaccination. Results and Conclusion: As predicted, perceptions of personal risk and intention to obtain vaccination against HBV were highest after presentation of narrative evidence, and risk perception mediated the effect of type of message evidence on intention. We propose that narrative evidence effectively promotes a sense of personal risk because it is less affected by defensive message processing resulting from the threat to important self-beliefs that seems inherent in health risk communication. © 2008 American Psychological Association

Factors associated with hepatitis B vaccination among men who have sex with men. A systematic review of published research

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Environmental correlates of physical activity and dietary behaviours among young people: A systematic review of reviews

An extensive body of research exists on environmental influences on weight-related behaviours in young people. Existing reviews aimed to synthesize this body of work, but generally focused on specific samples, behaviours or environmental influences and integration of findings is lacking. Hereto, we reviewed 18 reviews representing 671 unique studies, aiming to identify what environmental factors do and do not affect physical activity and dietary behaviours in children and adolescents. Eleven reviews focused exclusively on physical activity, six on diet, and one review focused on both physical activity and dietary behaviours with only small overlap in included studies. Physical activity was more consistently related to school and neighbourhood characteristics than to interpersonal and societal environments. In contrast, interpersonal factors played a pronounced role in dietary behaviours; no school, neighbourhood or societal factors were consistently related to dietary behaviours. This review of reviews adds to the literature by providing a comprehensive synthesis of factors related to physical activity and dietary behaviours that could be targeted in interventions. Moreover, by identifying factors that are unrelated to physical activity and dietary behaviours, this review may help to narrow the scope of future studies and environmental interventions.</p