Facts Tell, Stories Sell? Assessing the Availability Heuristic and Resistance as Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Persuasive Effects of Vaccination Narratives.

Autor:	Vandeberg L; Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.; Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands., Meppelink CS; Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands., Sanders J; Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands., Fransen ML; Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Jazyk:	angličtina
Zdroj:	Frontiers in psychology [Front Psychol] 2022 Mar 07; Vol. 13, pp. 837346. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Mar 07 (Print Publication: 2022).
DOI:	10.3389/fpsyg.2022.837346
Abstrakt:	Online vaccine-critical sentiments are often expressed in appealing personal narratives, whereas vaccine-supporting information is often presented in a non-narrative, expository mode describing scientific facts. In two experiments, we empirically test whether and how these different formats impact the way in which readers process and retrieve information about childhood vaccination, and how this may impact their perceptions regarding vaccination. We assess two psychological mechanisms that are hypothesized to underlie the persuasive nature of vaccination narratives: the availability heuristic (experiment 1, N = 418) and cognitive resistance (experiment 2, N = 403). The results of experiment 1 showed no empirical evidence for the availability heuristic, but exploratory analyses did indicate that an anti-vaccination narrative (vs. expository) might reduce cognitive resistance, decrease vaccination attitudes and reduce attitude certainty in a generally pro-vaccination sample, especially for those who were more vaccine hesitant. Preregistered experiment 2 formally tested this and showed that not narrative format, but prior vaccine hesitancy predicts cognitive resistance and post-reading attitudes. Hesitant participants showed less resistance toward an anti-vaccine text than vaccine-supporting participants, as well as less positive post-reading attitudes and attitude certainty. These findings demonstrate belief consistency effects rather than narrative persuasion, which has implications for scientific research as well as public health policy. Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. (Copyright © 2022 Vandeberg, Meppelink, Sanders and Fransen.)
Databáze:	MEDLINE
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