Didactic and narrative persuasion: An experiment to promote colorectal cancer screening

The "Whole-Of-Society" Approach for Misinformation Correction: How Expert Didactic TikTok Videos Motivate Citizen Fact-Checking and Vaccine Promotion

This study employs an experimental design to examine the effects of expert didactic corrective TikTok videos on motivating people's intentions to engage in citizen fact-checking and vaccine promotion. Our findings reveal that participants who watched expert didactic debunking videos, compared to those viewing layperson testimonial videos, reported higher intentions to correct others' misperceptions of COVID-19 vaccines and promote COVID-19 vaccines to those who have not completed the recommended vaccination. The impacts of expert didactic videos on fact-checking and vaccine-promoting intention are mediated by participants' perceived expertise of the video's source. Our findings contribute to the theoretical understanding of how multimodal correction messages motivate individuals' intentions for interpersonal behavioral outcomes. Practically, our research emphasizes the "whole-of-society" approach to combating health misinformation on video-based platforms such as TikTok.

Facing the Emotional Barriers to Colorectal Cancer Screening. The Roles of Reappraisal and Situation Selection

BACKGROUND

Disgust, embarrassment, and fear can hinder the attendance of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. However, individuals can respond to these emotions differently. The present study tested whether reappraising a negative stimulus versus avoiding a negative stimulus is associated with age; whether these two emotion regulation strategies (reappraisal and situation selection) moderate the effects of disgust, embarrassment and fear on CRC screening intention; and the efficacy of a message based on participants' preferred emotion regulation strategy.

METHODS

We recruited 483 Italian participants (aged 40-84 years) through snowball sampling. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions differing for a message promoting CRC screening with an affective lever, a cognitive lever, both levers or none. Key variables included emotion regulation strategies, emotional barriers and intention to get screened.

RESULTS

The preference for reappraisal over situation selection increased with age. Reappraisal neutralized the effect of disgust on CRC screening intention. The combined message with both affective and cognitive levers increased CRC screening intention (b = 0.27, β = 0.11, SE = 0.13 p = .049), whereas reading the message based only on the affective (b = 0.16, β = 0.06, SE = 0.14 p = .258) or the cognitive (b = 0.22, β = 0.09, SE = 0.14 p = .107) lever was not effective.

CONCLUSIONS

Communication campaigns should support the activation of a reappraisal strategy of emotion control, and messages promoting CRC screening should highlight both the instrumental (i.e., early detection) and affective (i.e., peace of mind) benefits of attendance.