ArticleHealth psychology and behavioral medicine2026
'Cough and sneeze into your elbow': a field study testing the effects of persuasive messages on compliance with behavioral measures to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses.
Article in Health psychology and behavioral medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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.
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.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- 'Cough and sneeze into your elbow': a field study testing the effects of persuasive messages on compliance with behavioral measures to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Effective persuasive messages can contribute to enhancing pandemic preparedness and public health. An essential requirement for this is an excellent understanding of the effects of exposure to persuasive messages on compliance with behavioral measures against the spread of respiratory viruses. This field study tested the effects of persuasive messages on compliance with two behavioral measures to prevent the spread of viruses that cause respiratory infections such as COVID-19 and the flu: coughing/sneezing into the elbow and staying home when ill with respiratory infection symptoms. Materials and methods: A field study with an observational pre-post design was conducted at four educational institutions representing all common post-secondary school educational levels in the Netherlands. Data were collected among students and employees via online questionnaires before ( Results: Exposure frequency, behavioral measure type, demographic characteristics, trust in government, prosocial orientation, perceived health, educational institution, and student/employee status showed significant multivariate main effects and univariate main and/or interaction effects on the outcomes (intention to comply, attitude, social norms, moral norm, self-efficacy, response-efficacy, and risk perception; Conclusion: In conclusion, messages positively influenced behavioral determinants - a critical prerequisite for behavior change and compliance. Findings also highlight that people are likely more willing to comply with measures that have less adverse personal and social impact. To enhance compliance more is needed, for instance explanations of the relevance and effectiveness of measures, and practical support to enact the measures. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.