Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34909636›Full record

ArticleHealth policy OPEN2021

Messenger effects in COVID-19 communication: Does the level of government matter?

Nathen Favero, Sebastian Jilke, Julia A Wolfson, Chengxin Xu, Matthew M Young

Erratum issuedAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Health policy OPEN, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Nathen FaveroAmerican University, School of Public Affairs, Kerwin Hall - 340, Washington, DC 20016, United States.
Sebastian JilkeGeorgetown University, McCourt School of Public Policy, 37th & NW O Streets, Old North - 100, Washington, DC 20057, United States.
Julia A WolfsonUniversity of Michigan, School of Public Health, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, United States.
Chengxin XuInstitute of Public Service, Seattle University, 901 12th Avenue, Casey 210-09, Seattle, WA 98122, United States.
Matthew M YoungSyracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and International Affairs, 200 Eggers Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244, United States.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Public efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus rely on motivating people to cooperate with the government. We test the effectiveness of different governmental messengers to encourage preventive health actions. We administered a survey experiment among a sample (n = 1,545) of respondents across the United States, presenting them with the same social media message, but experimentally varying the government sender (i.e., Federal, State, County, a combination of Federal + County, and a control condition) to test whether local relevance influences messaging efficacy. We find that in an information saturated environment the messenger does not matter. There is, however, variation in treatment response by partisanship, education, income, and the degree to which respondents are affected by the pandemic. While the main effect of the level of government on intended behavior is null, public health organizations are universally perceived as more trustworthy, relevant, and competent than anonymous messengers.

Indexed as

COVID-19Health messagingMessenger effectSurvey experiment

Identifiers

PMID34909636
PMCPMC8664127

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.