Making online HIV/AIDS PSAs more effective

This study investigates the effects of fear appeals and sexual appeals on information processing of online HIV/AIDS-prevention public service announcements (PSAs) in terms of attention, arousal and memory under the framework of Limited Capacity Model of Motivated Mediated Messages (LC4MP). The experiment, with a 2 by 2 within-subject design, was conducted both in the lab ( N = 77) and online ( N =108). The difference is that subjects in the lab were measured for physiological attention and arousal while online subject were not. Physiological and self-reported data consistently show that high sexual appeals increase attention and enhance arousal. Self-reported data show that high fear appeals increase attention and enhance arousal, but physiological data don\u27t support it. Self-reported data show that high fear appeals and high sexual appeals may lead to poorer cued recognition. Videos using both high fear appeals and high sexual appeals are most attention getting and most arousing, but they lead to poorer cued recognition, probably due to cognitive overload. In addition, this study investigates the persuasive power of fear appeals and sexual appeals in terms of perceived message effectiveness, attitude towards and intention of safe sex. High fear appeals and high sexual appeals both persuade people to use a condom more often to prevent HIV/AIDS. The combined use of high fear appeals and high sexual appeals leads to the most persuasive messages. Fear appeals predict attitude towards and intention of safe sex directly and through perceived threat. Sexual appeals do not predict attitude towards and intention of safe sex. In conclusion, sexual appeals are effective strategies to raise people\u27s awareness, although they do not lead to more positive attitude towards and intention of safe sex. Fear appeals may enhance attention and arousal, but when fear appeals are too high, they may backfire. However, they predict attitude towards and intention of safe sex, so fear appeals are effective strategies to change attitude and intention. Videos with both high fear appeals and high sexual appeals are most attention getting, most arousing, and most persuasive, but they may lead to poorer cued recognition due to cognitive overload

Factors Driving the Popularity and Virality of COVID-19 Vaccine Discourse on Twitter: Text Mining and Data Visualization Study

BackgroundCOVID-19 vaccination is considered a critical prevention measure to help end the pandemic. Social media platforms such as Twitter have played an important role in the public discussion about COVID-19 vaccines. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate message-level drivers of the popularity and virality of tweets about COVID-19 vaccines using machine-based text-mining techniques. We further aimed to examine the topic communities of the most liked and most retweeted tweets using network analysis and visualization. MethodsWe collected US-based English-language public tweets about COVID-19 vaccines from January 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021 (N=501,531). Topic modeling and sentiment analysis were used to identify latent topics and valence, which together with autoextracted information about media presence, linguistic features, and account verification were used in regression models to predict likes and retweets. Among the 2500 most liked tweets and 2500 most retweeted tweets, network analysis and visualization were used to detect topic communities and present the relationship between the topics and the tweets. ResultsTopic modeling yielded 12 topics. The regression analyses showed that 8 topics positively predicted likes and 7 topics positively predicted retweets, among which the topic of vaccine development and people’s views and that of vaccine efficacy and rollout had relatively larger effects. Network analysis and visualization revealed that the 2500 most liked and most retweeted retweets clustered around the topics of vaccine access, vaccine efficacy and rollout, vaccine development and people’s views, and vaccination status. The overall valence of the tweets was positive. Positive valence increased likes, but valence did not affect retweets. Media (photo, video, gif) presence and account verification increased likes and retweets. Linguistic features had mixed effects on likes and retweets. ConclusionsThis study suggests the public interest in and demand for information about vaccine development and people’s views, and about vaccine efficacy and rollout. These topics, along with the use of media and verified accounts, have enhanced the popularity and virality of tweets. These topics could be addressed in vaccine campaigns to help the diffusion of content on Twitter

A Psychophysiological Study Of Processing Hiv/Aids Public Service Announcements: The Effects Of Novelty Appeals, Sexual Appeals, Narrative Versus Statistical Evidence, And Viewer’S Sex

This study used self-reports and physiological measures—heart rate (HR) and skin conductance level (SCL)—to examine the effects of novelty appeals, sexual appeals, narrative versus statistical evidence, and viewer’s sex on cognitive and emotional processing of HIV/AIDS public service announcements (PSAs) among heterosexually active single college students. Novelty or sexual appeals differently affected self-reported attention and cognitive effort as measured by HR. High- rather than low-novelty HIV/AIDS PSAs, perceived as more attention-eliciting, did not lead to more cognitive effort. High- rather than low-sex HIV/AIDS PSAs, not perceived as more attention-eliciting, led to more cognitive effort as reflected by greater HR deceleration. Novelty or sexual appeals also affected self-reported emotional arousal and SCL differently. HIV/AIDS PSAs with high rather than low levels of novelty or sexual appeals led to greater self-reported arousal, but not greater SCL. Message evidence interacted with message appeals to affect cognitive effort. Participants exerted greater cognitive effort during high- rather than low-novelty narrative HIV/AIDS PSAs, and during low- rather than high-novelty statistical ones. The advantage of high over low sexual appeals was more obvious in statistical than in narrative HIV/AIDS PSAs. Males reported greater emotional arousal than females during high- rather than low-sex HIV/AIDS PSAs