persuasive speech for covid 19

Persuasive Essay Guide

Persuasive Essay About Covid19

How to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid19 | Examples & Tips

11 min read

Steps to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Here are the steps to help you write a persuasive essay on this topic, along with an example essay:

Step 1: Choose a Specific Thesis Statement

Your thesis statement should clearly state your position on a specific aspect of COVID-19. It should be debatable and clear. For example:

Step 2: Research and Gather Information

Collect reliable and up-to-date information from reputable sources to support your thesis statement. This may include statistics, expert opinions, and scientific studies. For instance:

COVID-19 vaccination effectiveness data
Information on vaccine mandates in different countries
Expert statements from health organizations like the WHO or CDC

Step 3: Outline Your Essay

Create a clear and organized outline to structure your essay. A persuasive essay typically follows this structure:

Introduction
Background Information
Body Paragraphs (with supporting evidence)
Counterarguments (addressing opposing views)

Step 4: Write the Introduction

In the introduction, grab your reader's attention and present your thesis statement. For example:

Step 5: Provide Background Information

Offer context and background information to help your readers understand the issue better. For instance:

Step 6: Develop Body Paragraphs

Each body paragraph should present a single point or piece of evidence that supports your thesis statement. Use clear topic sentences, evidence, and analysis. Here's an example:

Step 7: Address Counterarguments

Acknowledge opposing viewpoints and refute them with strong counterarguments. This demonstrates that you've considered different perspectives. For example:

Step 8: Write the Conclusion

Summarize your main points and restate your thesis statement in the conclusion. End with a strong call to action or thought-provoking statement. For instance:

Step 9: Revise and Proofread

Edit your essay for clarity, coherence, grammar, and spelling errors. Ensure that your argument flows logically.

Step 10: Cite Your Sources

Include proper citations and a bibliography page to give credit to your sources.

Remember to adjust your approach and arguments based on your target audience and the specific angle you want to take in your persuasive essay about COVID-19.

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Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid19

When writing a persuasive essay about the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important to consider how you want to present your argument. To help you get started, here are some example essays for you to read:

Check out some more PDF examples below:

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Pandemic

Sample Of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 In The Philippines - Example

If you're in search of a compelling persuasive essay on business, don't miss out on our “ persuasive essay about business ” blog!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Vaccine

Covid19 vaccines are one of the ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but they have been a source of controversy. Different sides argue about the benefits or dangers of the new vaccines. Whatever your point of view is, writing a persuasive essay about it is a good way of organizing your thoughts and persuading others.

A persuasive essay about the Covid-19 vaccine could consider the benefits of getting vaccinated as well as the potential side effects.

Below are some examples of persuasive essays on getting vaccinated for Covid-19.

Covid19 Vaccine Persuasive Essay

Persuasive Essay on Covid Vaccines

Interested in thought-provoking discussions on abortion? Read our persuasive essay about abortion blog to eplore arguments!

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Integration

Covid19 has drastically changed the way people interact in schools, markets, and workplaces. In short, it has affected all aspects of life. However, people have started to learn to live with Covid19.

Writing a persuasive essay about it shouldn't be stressful. Read the sample essay below to get idea for your own essay about Covid19 integration.

Persuasive Essay About Working From Home During Covid19

Searching for the topic of Online Education? Our persuasive essay about online education is a must-read.

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid 19

Covid-19 has been an ever-evolving issue, with new developments and discoveries being made on a daily basis.

Writing an argumentative essay about such an issue is both interesting and challenging. It allows you to evaluate different aspects of the pandemic, as well as consider potential solutions.

Here are some examples of argumentative essays on Covid19.

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 Sample

Argumentative Essay About Covid19 With Introduction Body and Conclusion

Looking for a persuasive take on the topic of smoking? You'll find it all related arguments in out Persuasive Essay About Smoking blog!

Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19

Do you need to prepare a speech about Covid19 and need examples? We have them for you!

Persuasive speeches about Covid-19 can provide the audience with valuable insights on how to best handle the pandemic. They can be used to advocate for specific changes in policies or simply raise awareness about the virus.

Check out some examples of persuasive speeches on Covid-19:

Persuasive Speech About Covid-19 Example

Persuasive Speech About Vaccine For Covid-19

You can also read persuasive essay examples on other topics to master your persuasive techniques!

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19 requires a thoughtful approach to present your arguments effectively.

Here are some tips to help you craft a compelling persuasive essay on this topic:

Choose a Specific Angle

Start by narrowing down your focus. COVID-19 is a broad topic, so selecting a specific aspect or issue related to it will make your essay more persuasive and manageable. For example, you could focus on vaccination, public health measures, the economic impact, or misinformation.

Provide Credible Sources

Support your arguments with credible sources such as scientific studies, government reports, and reputable news outlets. Reliable sources enhance the credibility of your essay.

Use Persuasive Language

Employ persuasive techniques, such as ethos (establishing credibility), pathos (appealing to emotions), and logos (using logic and evidence). Use vivid examples and anecdotes to make your points relatable.

Organize Your Essay

Structure your essay involves creating a persuasive essay outline and establishing a logical flow from one point to the next. Each paragraph should focus on a single point, and transitions between paragraphs should be smooth and logical.

Emphasize Benefits

Highlight the benefits of your proposed actions or viewpoints. Explain how your suggestions can improve public health, safety, or well-being. Make it clear why your audience should support your position.

Use Visuals -H3

Incorporate graphs, charts, and statistics when applicable. Visual aids can reinforce your arguments and make complex data more accessible to your readers.

Call to Action

End your essay with a strong call to action. Encourage your readers to take a specific step or consider your viewpoint. Make it clear what you want them to do or think after reading your essay.

Revise and Edit

Proofread your essay for grammar, spelling, and clarity. Make sure your arguments are well-structured and that your writing flows smoothly.

Seek Feedback

Have someone else read your essay to get feedback. They may offer valuable insights and help you identify areas where your persuasive techniques can be improved.

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Common Topics for a Persuasive Essay on COVID-19

Here are some persuasive essay topics on COVID-19:

The Importance of Vaccination Mandates for COVID-19 Control
Balancing Public Health and Personal Freedom During a Pandemic
The Economic Impact of Lockdowns vs. Public Health Benefits
The Role of Misinformation in Fueling Vaccine Hesitancy
Remote Learning vs. In-Person Education: What's Best for Students?
The Ethics of Vaccine Distribution: Prioritizing Vulnerable Populations
The Mental Health Crisis Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 on Healthcare Systems
Global Cooperation vs. Vaccine Nationalism in Fighting the Pandemic
The Future of Telemedicine: Expanding Healthcare Access Post-COVID-19

In search of more inspiring topics for your next persuasive essay? Our persuasive essay topics blog has plenty of ideas!

To sum it up,

You have read good sample essays and got some helpful tips. You now have the tools you needed to write a persuasive essay about Covid-19. So don't let the doubts stop you, start writing!

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are there any ethical considerations when writing a persuasive essay about covid-19.

Yes, there are ethical considerations when writing a persuasive essay about COVID-19. It's essential to ensure the information is accurate, not contribute to misinformation, and be sensitive to the pandemic's impact on individuals and communities. Additionally, respecting diverse viewpoints and emphasizing public health benefits can promote ethical communication.

What impact does COVID-19 have on society?

The impact of COVID-19 on society is far-reaching. It has led to job and economic losses, an increase in stress and mental health disorders, and changes in education systems. It has also had a negative effect on social interactions, as people have been asked to limit their contact with others.

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Persuasive Essay Writing

Persuasive Essay About Covid 19

Top Examples of Persuasive Essay about Covid-19

Published on: Jan 10, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 29, 2024

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

The coronavirus pandemic has everyone on edge. You can expect your teachers to give you an essay about covid-19. You might be overwhelmed about what to write in an essay.

Worry no more!

Here are a few examples to help get you started.

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Pandemic

Sample Of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 In The Philippines - Example

Check out some more persuasive essay examples to get more inspiration and guidance.

Examples of Persuasive Essay About the Covid-19 Vaccine

With so much uncertainty surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine, it can be challenging for students to write a persuasive essay about getting vaccinated.

Here are a few examples of persuasive essays about vaccination against covid-19.

Check these out to learn more.

Persuasive essay on the covid-19 vaccine

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Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Integration

Writing a persuasive essay on Covid-19 integration doesn't have to be stressful or overwhelming.

With the right approach and preparation, you can write an essay that will get them top marks!

Here are a few samples of compelling persuasive essays. Give them a look and get inspiration for your next essay.

Integration of Covid-19 Persuasive essay

Integration of Covid-19 Persuasive essay sample

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid-19

Writing an argumentative essay can be a daunting task, especially when the topic is as broad as the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Read the following examples of how to make a compelling argument on covid-19.

Argumentative essay on Covid-19

Argumentative Essay On Covid-19

Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19

Writing a persuasive speech about anything can seem daunting. However, writing a persuasive speech about something as important as the Covid-19 pandemic doesnât have to be difficult.

So let's explore some examples of perfectly written persuasive essays.

Persuasive Speech About Covid-19 Example

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay

Here are seven tips that can help you create a strong argument on the topic of covid-19.

Check out this informative video to learn more about effective tips and tricks for writing persuasive essays.

1. Start with an attention-grabbing hook:

Use a quote, statistic, or interesting fact related to your argument at the beginning of your essay to draw the reader in.

2. Make sure you have a clear thesis statement:

A thesis statement is one sentence that expresses the main idea of your essay. It should clearly state your stance on the topic and provide a strong foundation for the rest of your content.

3. Support each point with evidence:

To make an effective argument, you must back up each point with credible evidence from reputable sources. This will help build credibility and validate your claims throughout your paper.

4. Use emotional language and tone:

Emotional appeals are powerful tools to help make your argument more convincing. Use appropriate language for the audience and evokes emotion to draw them in and get them on board with your claims.

5. Anticipate counterarguments:

Use proper counterarguments to effectively address all point of views.

Acknowledge opposing viewpoints and address them directly by providing evidence or reasoning why they are wrong.

6. Stay focused:

Keep your main idea in mind throughout the essay, making sure all of your arguments support it. Donât stray off-topic or introduce unnecessary information that will distract from the purpose of your paper.

7. Conclude strongly:

Make sure you end on a strong note. Reemphasize your main points, restate your thesis statement, and challenge the reader to respond or take action in some way. This will leave a lasting impression in their minds and make them more likely to agree with you.

Writing an effective persuasive essay is a piece of cake with our guide and examples. Check them out to learn more!

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you begin a persuasive essay.

To begin a persuasive essay, you must choose a topic you feel strongly about and formulate an argument or position. Start by researching your topic thoroughly and then formulating your thesis statement.

What are good topics for persuasive essays?

Good topics for persuasive essays include healthcare reform, gender issues, racial inequalities, animal rights, environmental protection, and political change. Other popular topics are social media addiction, internet censorship, gun control legislation, and education reform.

What impact does COVID-19 have on society?

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on society worldwide. It has changed the way we interact with one another. The pandemic has also caused economic disruption, forcing many businesses to close or downsize their operations.

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Persuasion key in encouraging people to stay home during Covid-19

13 April 2021

Read: Telegraph (£)

Lessons learned: What makes vaccine messages persuasive

You’re reading Lessons Learned, which distills practical takeaways from standout campaigns and peer-reviewed research in health and science communication. Want more Lessons Learned? Subscribe to our Call to Action newsletter .

Vaccine hesitancy threatened public health’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scientists at the University of Maryland recently reviewed 47 randomized controlled trials to determine how COVID-19 communications persuaded—or failed to persuade—people to take the vaccine. ( Health Communication , 2023 DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2023.2218145 ).

What they learned: Simply communicating about the vaccine’s safety or efficacy persuaded people to get vaccinated. Urging people to follow the lead of others, by highlighting how many millions were already vaccinated or even trying to induce embarrassment, was also persuasive.

Why it matters: Understanding which message strategies are likely to be persuasive is crucial.

➡️ Idea worth stealing: The authors found that a message’s source didn’t significantly influence its persuasiveness. But messages were more persuasive when source and receivers shared an identity, such as political affiliation.

What to watch: How other formats, such as interactive chatbots and videos, might influence persuasiveness. And whether message tailoring could persuade specific population subgroups.

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From public servant to public health student

Exploring the intersection of health, mindfulness, and climate change

Conference aims to help experts foster health equity

Building solidarity to face global injustice

Testing persuasive messaging to encourage COVID-19 risk reduction

Affiliations.

1 Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
2 Center for the Study of American Politics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
3 Department of Political Science, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
4 Institute for Global Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
5 Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
6 Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
PMID: 35320285
PMCID: PMC8942219
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0264782

What types of public health messages are effective at changing people's beliefs and intentions to practice social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19? We conducted two randomized experiments in summer 2020 that assigned respondents to read a public health message and then measured their beliefs and behavioral intentions across a wide variety of outcomes. Using both a convenience sample and a pre-registered replication with a nationally representative sample of Americans, we find that a message that reframes not social distancing as recklessness rather than bravery and a message that highlights the need for everyone to take action to protect one another are the most effective at increasing beliefs and intentions related to social distancing. These results provide an evidentiary basis for building effective public health campaigns to increase social distancing during flu pandemics.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
COVID-19 / prevention & control*
Health Education / methods*
Health Promotion / methods
Persuasive Communication*
Physical Distancing*
Risk Reduction Behavior
Self Efficacy
Social Values

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Open access
Published: 01 February 2022

Persuasive narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s posts on Facebook

Sanjana Arora ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0107-7061 1 ,
Jonas Debesay 2 &
Hande Eslen-Ziya ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7113-6771 1

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 9 , Article number: 35 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Cultural and media studies
Politics and international relations

This article explores the Facebook posts of Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg to highlight the key features of her crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on data from Solberg’s Facebook posts from February 27, 2020 to February 9, 2021 (i.e., starting from the day when the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Norway until the time of data collection for this study). Out of her 271 posts, 157 of them were about COVID-19 and were chosen for analysis. The analyses identified five major themes: (1) Promoting responsibility and togetherness (2) Coping (3) Being in control amidst uncertainty (4) Fostering hope and (5) Relating with the followers. Drawing inspiration from Boin, Stern and Sundelius’, work on persuasive narratives, this study shows the ways that Solberg’s posts about COVID-19 exhibit all five identified frame functions. In addition, the findings add contextual nuances to the frame functions through the theme of ‘Responsibilization and togetherness’, which are reflected through references to Norwegianness and the cultural concept and practice of dugnad . This study adds to our knowledge about how persuasive narratives are incorporated into the social media communication strategies of leaders and highlights the usefulness of this framework for studying ongoing and future crises.

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Introduction.

The economic and social disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is having major impacts on people’s livelihoods and their health. As of 18 April 2021, there have been 140,322,903 confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections and 3,003,794 deaths (WHO, 2021 ), making the COVID-19 pandemic an unprecedented global health crisis of the century. As countries across the world grapple with mitigating the risks associated with the pandemic, communication—an essential component of planning, response, and recovery during crisis (Houston et al., 2014 )—has been one of the integral parts of the crisis management (Reddy and Gupta, 2020 ). Crisis communication highlights legitimation strategies, but also indicates how government institutions themselves make sense of crises (Brandt and Wörlein, 2020 ). Moreover, crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic can disrupt the socio-political order of societies, leaving a cognitive void in the minds of the public that can be filled with fear and uncertainty (Boin et al., 2016 ). In Norway, COVID-19 has been called a fear-driven pandemic that is based on alarming information of long-term illness and disability that is out of politicians control (Vogt and Pahle, 2020 ). Having control over the dramaturgy of political communication is thus central to effective leadership and crisis management (Boin et al., 2016 ). Effective communication can help societies handle uncertainty and promote adherence to behaviour change while fostering hope among the citizens (Finset et al., 2020 ).

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rapidly evolve, and social media plays a pivotal role in meeting the communication needs of the public during such crisis (Van Dijck, 2013 ). As social media use increases during crises, leaders and public officials may utilise this platform to communicate, which in return helps reduce public panic and builds trust (Kavanaugh et al., 2012 ). As a result of the cultural and symbolic value of social media in contemporary times (Jenzen et al., 2021 ), the communication of public leaders in the midst of uncertainty and fear facilitates interpersonal and group interaction. Research has shown that, when compared to the traditional media platforms, social media platforms are used by leaders and elected officials to communicate, inform, and engage with their citizens (Golbeck et al., 2010 ). They use social media to spread messages farther and faster than it would be possible with traditional media (Sutton et al., 2013 ). What leaders post on social media can give insights into their communication and leadership strategies during crises. Understanding how leaders communicate with the public during crises will not only provide us with the knowledge about their governance styles but will also guide us to their meaning-making in times of uncertainty. Based on this assumption we will be studying the Facebook posts of Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, with the aim to highlight the key features of her communication. In doing so, we will take an exploratory rather than confirmatory perspective (Boudreau et al., 2001 ).

Solberg, member of the Conservative Party and in power since 2013, was defeated by the centre-left as this paper was being revised. Solberg has had a long career in politics, becoming a deputy representative to the Bergen City Council in 1979 when she was 18 years old. She was elected to the Parliament in 1989 where she was the youngest member of her party group (Notaker and Tvedt, 2021 ). Solberg’s tough stance on issues such as immigration earned her the nickname of ‘Jern-Erna’ [Iron Erna] (Reuters, 2013 ). However, upon her appointment as Prime Minister, Solberg displayed a ‘softer side’ by caring about voters’ jobs, health, and schools (Notaker and Tvedt, 2021 ).

The first Norwegian COVID-19 patient was diagnosed on February 26, 2020. While the initial spread of infection was relatively slow, cases increased quickly by March 12 th , after winter break for schools ended and many Norwegians returned from skiing holidays in Northern Italy (Dagsavisen, 2020 ). On March 12, the Norwegian Directorate of Health (NDH) adopted comprehensive measures to prevent the spread, which included closing day care centres, schools, and educational institutions. The measures also included a ban on cultural events, closed swimming gyms and pools, a halt to all service provisions that involved being less than one meter away from another person, and prohibiting visits to recreational cabins Footnote 1 , among others. Behavioural measures such as recommendations to keep physical distance, encourage handwashing, quarantine, stay home when ill, work from home, and avoid public transportation were also included. Following the lockdown, Norway became the first European country to announce that the situation was under control due to low levels of hospitalizations and mortalities (Christensen and Lægreid, 2020 ). In Norway, as of March 22, 2021, there have been over eighty thousand confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and more than six hundred deaths due to COVID-19. Norway has had far fewer COVID-19 cases, deaths, and hospitalizations per capita than most other countries in Western Europe or the United States (Christensen and Lægreid, 2020 ). Compared to its Scandinavian neighbours Denmark and Sweden, the proportion of cases of infections and deaths have been much lower (WHO, 2021 ), despite the three countries sharing similar social welfare and healthcare systems. Recently, a report submitted by the Corona Committee in Norway also concluded that the overall handling of the crisis by the government has been good. Not only has the number of infections and deaths in Norway been much lower than most countries in Europe, but the healthcare services have also remained stable, and society has remained relatively open (Lund, 2021 ). It is probable that good governance and responsible leadership demonstrated by the Norwegian cabinet and Prime Minister Erna Solberg contributed to this success.

In Norway, there is considerably less focus on individualization of candidates in political parties as compared to for instance the US, since the electoral system in Norway is based on proportional representation (Karlsen and Enjolras, 2016 ). Despite this, with the presence of digital and social media, there has been increasing focus on the individual candidates, leading to ‘decentralising personalisation’ (Karlsen and Enjolras, 2016 ; Balmas et al., 2014 ). Given this context, Erna Solberg’s Facebook account during the COVID-19 pandemic serves as an intermediary platform between the government’s role and her own personal profile as the Prime Minister who has been handling the COVID-19 crisis. Solberg has used Facebook more actively than other outlets like Twitter and has more followers on Facebook than any other platform. The proportion of Facebook users in Norway vis-a-vis other social media platform is also the highest (for example, 84% of people use Facebook compared to 22% who use Twitter who use Twitter) (Werliin and Kokholm, 2016 ). Facebook thus serves as an important platform for public leaders in Norway during crises, and therefore, by analysing Solberg’s Facebook posts, we aim to demonstrate the key features of her communication strategy during the COVID-19 crisis.

Background on crisis and crisis communication

Crisis is defined as a rare, and significant public situation creating undesirable consequences (Coombs, 2015 ; Gruber et al., 2015 ). In most cases it is ‘an unpredictable event that threatens important expectancies of stakeholders and can seriously impact an organization’s performance and generate negative outcomes’ (Coombs, 2015 : p. 3). Crisis communication on the other hand is referred as the strategies used to lessen the uncertainties during crisis via the dissemination and exchange of information (Collins et al., 2016 ). Effective crisis communication establishes reliability and maintains public trust. It should be frequent, consistent and involve compassionate messages conveyed in an inspired and transformational communication style. It is essential that public officials and leaders when communicating crisis relevant information be efficient and informative. Past research has shown the importance of repetition of the consistent interaction to help the message reach the recipients clearly and increase compliance behaviour in cases of crisis (Stephens et al., 2013 ). Inconsistent messages on the other hand were found to cause misperception and confusion, leading to a non-compliant behaviour by the recipients. The content of the message as well as its tone is also an important indicator of whether the recipients will comply or not (Sutton et al., 2013 ). Sources of crisis communication, such as leaders and public health officials, are perceived to be reliable and trustworthy when they exhibit concern and care (Heath and O’ Hair, 2010 ). In addition, they can be more effective in building relationship with the public, if they consider the cultural factors that play a role in their communicating about risks (Aldoory, 2010 ).

Boin et al. ( 2016 ) argue that crisis communication is one of the key challenges, which leaders face during a crisis situation. During crisis communication, leaders are required to frame ‘meaning’ of the crisis in order to shape how public perceives the risks, consequences and how they respond to the measures being taken. Developing a persuasive narrative in communication is thus integral to succesful framing of the crisis and for a strategic leadership. The construction of a successful persuasive narrative requires five frame functions: namely that the narrative will offer a credible explanation of what happened, it will provide guidance, instil hope, show empathy, and suggest that leaders are in control (Boin et al., 2016 ). In doing so, leaders aid the public’s understanding of the facts associated with crisis while sumltaneously acknolwedging and appealing to collective emotions. In incorporating these frame functions, leaders are posed with various choices and decision-making such as how they choose to or not choose to dramatise the situation, the language that they use and how they appeal to the colleactive emotions and stress.

As digital media technologies became popular resources for getting and spreading information, public officials and leaders also increasingly started using them as domains during the crises. In fact, for some scholars the use of social media while enabling mutual interaction between the leaders and recipients has altered the field of crisis communication altogether. For instance, it was found that as social media enables constant and effective communication, it was used more regularly than traditional media outlets during crisis (Kim and Liu, 2012 ). Similarly, Utz et al. ( 2013 ) discussed how for effective crisis communication strategy, the use of media channels, social media—Twitter, and Facebook—versus traditional— newspapers—was more critical than the type of the crisis. Moreover, Schultz et al. ( 2011 ) concluded that when compared to traditional media networks, crisis communication received less negative response when social media was used. Hence, it is not to our surprise that public officials nowadays are turning to social media platforms for communicating with the masses during crisis. They not only use these tools to communicate about crisis but also request information from the public. This was the case during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis where social media was employed by political leaders across the globe to mediate the communication of information about the pandemic as well as for reaching out to their citizens. This paper by focusing on the Norwegian case and more specifically on the Norwegian Prime Minister’s Facebook use during the time of COVID-19 pandemic aims to explore the use of social media platforms by political leaders during crisis. Our goal is to better understand how political leaders adapt social media technologies in their communication strategies during crises.

Our data that covers Erna Solberg’s Facebook posts between February 27, 2020, and February 10, 2021 (a total of 271 posts) were extracted from Footnote 2 into an Excel sheet. A total of 114 posts were removed as they were not related to COVID-19 leaving us 157 posts for further analysis. To aid the coding process, we noted the variables presented in Table 1 . These are: date, number of interactions, number, and type of reactions (e.g., angry, sad, like, etc.), URLs of links shared, and a description of the content of the posts that was later used in the qualitative analysis. We also noted if the posts were made during any particularly critical period (e.g., before, during or after new restrictive measures were introduced). The content of the posts and the number of likes and other reactions derived from this data should be considered a ‘snapshot’ of Solberg’s posts as they appeared at the time of data collection (Brügger, 2013 ), as it is possible that some posts have been subsequently removed, or that the numbers and types of reactions to the posts have changed by the publication date

The data was analysed through thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006 ): in the first step, we read all posts and generated the first set of codes. Next, we combined all the similar codes while labelling them in clusters and organised them into analytical themes/categories (see Fig. 1 ). The authors then discussed and reviewed these analytical themes and merged them into aggregate/conceptual themes. Lastly, we reviewed the aggregate themes through the lens of the five frame functions of persuasive narrative and identified commonalities and differences. We have included some posts under each theme to illustrate our analytical process and illuminate the themes (Sandelowski, 1994 ). All posts presented here were translated from Norwegian to English by the authors.

Schematic formulation of a theme from the categories captured in posts.

Our analysis resulted in five themes: (1) Promoting responsibility and togetherness (2) Coping (3) Being in control amidst uncertainty (4) Fostering hope and (5) Relating with the followers. In reviewing our findings from the framework of Boin et al. ( 2016 ), we found that all five frame functions of persuasive narrative were embedded in Solberg’s posts and aligned with our themes. Below we discuss our themes with reference to frame functions of Boin et al. ( 2016 ) for a persuasive narrative and in doing so, add contextual nuances to each theme.

Promoting responsibility and togetherness: we are in this together

Analysis of Solberg’s posts revealed a strong message of responsibility and togetherness. In almost all shares, she not only emphasized solidarity but also called for courage and responsibility. This Facebook post, shared soon after comprehensive shut-down measures were introduced, shows how important, for Solberg, was Norwegian solidarity expressed as ‘we’ (March 12, 2020):

Dear everyone. In times of crisis, we understand how dependent we are on each other. What unites us is more important than what separates us. This is not the time for ‘I’. This is the time for ‘we’.

Lunn et al. ( 2020 ) note that citizens are isolated during government induced or self-imposed quarantines: appeals to collective action and a spirit of ‘we-are-in-it-together’ are important ways to ensure compliance with quarantine and hence curb the rate of infection. Leaders in countries such New Zealand, UK, Brazil have also been found to have used a similar narrative emphasizing patriotic duty, love of country, and coming together as one, to mobilise community action (Dada et al., 2021 ).

Her posts were also imbued with appreciation and expression of gratitude towards healthcare workers and those who follow rules. For example, after introduction of the ban to travel to cabins and after the government’s decision to extend regulations until after Easter, Solberg posted the following on April 4, 2020, receiving a high number of likes:

I feel proud when I see how we handle this together. Many thanks to everyone who follows the advice from the health authorities. Many thanks to everyone in the health service who works hard and perseveres. Many thanks to all Norwegians for the patience, love and solidarity we now show each other

The use of the word ‘I’ and how it was being used in reference to ‘feel[ing] proud’, we argue, highlights the ‘positioning of self’ by Solberg. Davies and Harré ( 1990 ) claim that development of the notion of ‘positioning’ is a contribution to the understanding of personhood, and how speakers choose to position their personal identity vis-a-vis their discontinuous personal diversity (such as being the Prime Minister, politician, Norwegian citizen, etc.). In such posts, whether intentionally or unintentionally, we also see the discursive practices through which Solberg allocates meaning to her position as a Prime Minister by emphasising that she feels proud upon seeing those who follow advice. At the same time, her emphasis on ‘we’, as in how ‘ we handle this together’, places her as a member of the Norwegian masses.

Moreover, such references to togetherness and solidarity also reflect attempts to utilise the existing nationalistic cultural repertoire of the Norwegian concept of dugnad . For example, on New Year’s Day following the Gjerdrum community disaster (a sudden and unexpected mudslide that destroyed several residential houses) and rise in the number of infections during the holiday period (2125 reported cases on December 29, 2020), Solberg posted the following post:

[…] During the year we have put behind us, Norway has lined up for the big dugnad . People have put their interests and dreams on hold to protect the elderly and the risk groups. It has saved lives. I am deeply grateful, proud and touched, for the way the Norwegian people have handled the biggest challenge for our society since World War II. We lined up for each other when it mattered most…

Dugnad in Norwegian is voluntary work that is performed as a collective effort (Moss and Sandbakken, 2021 ). Nilsen and Skarpenes ( 2020 ) discuss how the concept of dugnad is embedded in a moral repertoire of the socially responsible citizen that is indicative of a specifically Norwegian welfare mentality and conclude that dugnad is imperative for the sustainability and resilience of the Norwegian welfare model. Before the pandemic, Simon and Mobekk ( 2019 ) argued that the concept of dugnad is central to Norwegian culture, inculcating prosocial and cooperative behaviour, and thereby plays a role in Norway being one of the most egalitarian democracies and having high levels of equality and reciprocity. In the context of COVID-19, social anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen ( 2020 ) pointed out that one reason for the success of the Norwegian approach was the mobilisation of broader society to fight COVID-19, driven by the notion of dugnad . Similarly, Moss and Sandbakken ( 2021 ) analysed data from press conferences and interviews with members of the public and found that many participants mentioned liking how the government talked of ‘a spirit of dugnad ’ ( dugnadsånd ), appealing to shared voluntary work rather than strict rules. The authors posit that in a pandemic it is crucial to create and use meta-narratives that are a good fit with the context in order to aid meaning-making and increase compliance. The use of dugnad as a cultural repertoire has, however, met with criticism from some scholars, who argue that ‘a word associated with solidarity, unity, and voluntary work obscures the forced nature of the measures’ (Tjora, 2020 ) and shifts the onus for finding solutions onto individual citizens or groups (Nilsen and Skarpenes, 2020 ; Hungnes, 2016 ).

Despite the criticism of imbibing such cultural repertoire, the alignment of the key values of Norwegian society with the core message of encouraging collective action is essential for a crisis narrative to be politically effective (Boin et al., 2016 ). Furthermore, the theme of ‘Promoting responsibility and togetherness’ shows the context specific nature of crisis communication narrative in the case of COVID-19 in Norway and therefore adds to the components for a persuasive narrative.

Coping: everything will be fine

Solberg’s Footnote 3 posts also carried messages that address the consequences of coping with COVID-19, namely self-isolation, and loneliness. For instance, her posts guided followers in dealing with loneliness and maintaining general physical and mental health. The Norwegian government, like that of many other countries, had introduced measures such as mandatory quarantine and social distancing rules to manage the spread of the virus. Studies have shown that home confinement during COVID-19 has negatively affected the emotional state of individuals due to depression and anxiety and has led to or increased a sedentary lifestyle (Sang et al., 2020 ). Thus, emphasis on the well-being of the population during COVID-19 is important for effective crisis management (WHO, 2020a ) because increased well-being would reinforce its coping abilities during illness and hardships. As these are not the direct effects of the COVID-19 infection, but a result of the contagion containment measures imposed on citizens by the government, we observe Solberg taking responsibility and providing solutions to help. In doing so, she appears sensitive and caring towards the public.

Christensen and Lægreid ( 2020 ) attribute the ‘high-performing’ handling of the pandemic in Norway to the initial focus on suppression, followed by a control strategy. The authors further examine the ideas that having successful communication with the public, a collaborative and pragmatic decision-making style, the country’s resourcefulness, and high trust of government all contributed to the relative success in Norway. Adopting the correct and effective strategy indeed heavily influences the outcomes of crises. However, to fill the ‘cognitive void’ that the public might be experiencing, leaders need to manage the meaning-making process and ensure legitimacy of their actions (Boin et al., 2016 ). Solberg and the other ministers played an important role in communicating with citizens and the media through daily media briefings together with the NDH (Norwegian Directorate of Health) and NIPH (Norwegian Institute of Public Health) (Christensen and Lægreid, 2020 )

Solberg emphasized the impact of loneliness, for example, during one of the first holiday periods during the pandemic when comprehensive shut-down measures were introduced, she wrote:

Many people may feel lonely during holidays such as Easter, and the corona crisis exacerbates this. Therefore, I would like to encourage everyone to call someone you know is alone at Easter. The little things can mean a lot. Happy Easter!

A study by Blix et al. ( 2021 ) on the topic of mental health in the Norwegian population during the COVID-19 pandemic found that a substantial proportion of the population experienced significant psychological distress in the early phases. More than one out of four reported ongoing psychological distress over the threshold for clinically significant symptoms. Two other categories of individuals (those recently exposed to violence and those with pre-existing mental health problems) were found to be at special risk but worrying about the consequences of the pandemic was also found to contribute negatively to mental health. In this regard, Shah et al. ( 2020 ) argued that several nations have failed to address the mental health aspect among the public, as far more effort is being focused on understanding the epidemiology, clinical features, transmission patterns, and management of COVID-19. Solberg’s open discussion about mental health during the pandemic implies a situation-specific and data-driven strategy of managing the less visible effects of the pandemic and show insight in anticipating future needs (Han et al., 2020 ).

Moreover, Solberg’s posts also subtly utilised the Norwegian concept of friluftsliv , which translates as ‘free air life,’ a philosophy of outdoor living and connection with nature (Henderson and Vikander 2007 ). Friluftsliv is associated with grand narratives of Norwegian national identity depicting outdoor adventures, foraging, and a deep connection to nature (Jørgensen-Vittersø, 2021 ). For example, with the re-opening of DNT [Den Norske Turistforening] cabins in mid-2020, Solberg in her post on June 11 emphasized the importance of being outdoors in fresh air:

We need to use our bodies and get out into the light and fresh air. It is important for both physical and mental health! I hope many have a good and active Norwegian holiday this year!

In these posts, Solberg also shared pictures of herself being outdoors. In such ways, Solberg appeared to be offering not only guidance for coping with the challenges and consequences of living during the pandemic, but also emphasizing one characteristic of the Norwegian culture, which they are proud of—spending time in nature. Be it advice to spend time in nature, or to keep social distance or self-isolation, we consider that Solberg’s approach to coping aligns with the frame function of ‘offering guidance’. During a crisis, leaders have a window of opportunity during which they can communicate a frame to not only make sense of the crisis but also to provide guidance and to portray themselves as attentive and concerned about the challenging circumstances faced by the public (Boin et al., 2016 ). By depicting herself as attuned to the emotions experienced by her followers during the pandemic and by utilising the moment to suggest ways of coping, Solberg’s communication encapsulates the frame function of offering guidance for a persuasive narrative.

Being in control amidst uncertainty

In her posts, Solberg presented a narrative of being in control amidst uncertainty, which aligns with two of the frame functions of Boin et al. ( 2016 ), namely offering a credible explanation and suggesting that leaders are in control. In times of a crisis, it is important that leaders do not downplay the gravity of the situation or claim unrealistically optimistic scenarios (Boin et al., 2016 ). We see that Solberg maintained a balance by providing a detailed explanation of her actions and the reasons behind the restrictive measures taken. At the same time, she acknowledged the uncertainty inherent in the ever-changing crisis and demonstrated her concern. According to Lunn et al. ( 2020 ), in situations characterised by uncertainty and fear, responsible leaders need to signal that they are in control of the situation, which can be demonstrated by making decisions with confidence and honesty. Moreover, it is also essential that leaders do not make promises that are impossible or unrealistic, because doing that can impede the persuasiveness of their narrative by affecting their credibility later (Boin et al., 2016 ). In Solberg’s posts, we see that she displays confidence but also the reality of uncertainty and concern, which is a sign of effective leadership and shows ‘bounded optimism’ (Brassey and Kruyt, 2020 ). The following post where she writes about her worries and concerns followed by advice is a good example of credibility and control:

I am worried. Right now, we have ongoing outbreaks in Bergen, Oslo, Trondheim and Hammerfest… We know that vigorous work is being done intensively in these municipalities with infection detection and other measures. Although Norway has relatively low infection rates, we also register here at home that the number of hospital admissions and the number of infected have increased recently. We now have the highest number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 since May… We also see that the infection has begun to spread to older age groups. And there is a significant risk that the numbers will continue to rise as we see in Europe. That is why we have today announced new national austerity measures next week. We can still reverse the trend here at home…

A demonstration of concern from role models has been shown to have a role in persuading the public to adhere to recommendations (Simon and Mobekk, 2019 ). Tannenbaum et al. ( 2015 ) note that fear is easier to handle when it is acknowledged, which relates to the idea of ‘citizens being anxious enough to take the advice from the authorities to heart and optimistic enough as to feel that their actions make a difference’ (Petersen, 2020 ). Inculcating ‘optimistic anxiety’ (Tannenbaum et al., 2015 ) is therefore an important feature of crisis communication narratives.

Another important nuance that emerges from Solberg’s posts is her comparisons to other countries to draw attention to the seriousness of the situation. For example, on November 5, 2020, Solberg made the following post announcing new national measures, which received over 5000 likes:

My message to the Norwegian people is: Stay at home as much as possible. Have the least possible social contact with others. It is absolutely necessary to avoid a new shutdown. Norway is at the beginning of the second wave of infection… The virus is spreading rapidly and all counties now have outbreaks. The government is therefore introducing new national infection control measures… If the current rate of infection continues, the number of inpatients in intensive care units will increase sharply in the coming weeks. This will lead to less intensive capacity for other seriously ill people. We are now where the Netherlands was at the beginning of September. A very rapid increase in infection in the Netherlands quickly led to more patients in the intensive care unit… Other European countries have similar experiences. There is therefore a heavy seriousness about the situation. And we must take responsibility together

By giving detailed reasoning behind measures being taken amidst uncertainty, Solberg exhibits both confidence and honesty in her narratives (Lunn et al., 2020 ). Another key feature that emerges from the post above is the emphasis on the risks of an increase in infection, and the possibility of a new lockdown and overburdening of intensive care capacity, thereby reflecting a more strongly persuasive intent. Such emphasis on the risks is different from other posts where Solberg exhibits control and optimism much more strongly. This adaption from a communicative stance to a more persuasive one could result from not only the perceived severity of the situation, but also the perceived risks of pandemic fatigue. Pandemic fatigue has been defined by the WHO as a lack of motivation to adhere to recommended protective behaviours (WHO, 2020b ). According to surveys conducted in different countries, most people have been shown to possess adequate knowledge of COVID-19 and the precautions required to keep safe, yet factors like emotions and context have been found to have greater impact on behaviours than knowledge (Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, 2020 ). A study of different ways of communicating healthcare messages suggested that believability of the messages and the recipients’ reactions to them can be influenced by the persuasive intent (Wang and Shen, 2019 ). Koh et al. ( 2020 ) also discuss the importance of devising effective and successful communications for a sustained period without message fatigue setting in, which includes concern for the way the communication is framed. Overall, we see that Solberg’s posts provide a rationale with portrayal of the government being in control of managing the crisis.

Fostering hope and return to normalcy

Solberg’s posts also emphasized the hopeful aspects of the crisis by appealing to followers to look forward to a return to everyday life, and new educational and economic prospects, despite the difficult current circumstances. This theme aligns with the frame of ‘instilling hope’ as per frame functions for a persuasive narrative by Boin et al. ( 2016 ). During a crisis, more than ever, effective leaders embody the hopes and fears of the society under threat, and therefore they should strive to inculcate optimism of a better future (Boin et al., 2016 ). Previous research has documented that in times of turmoil, followers especially look up to leadership that serves as a beacon of hope for and faith in a positive future, more than they do in times of prosperity (Stam et al., 2018 ; Shamir et al., 1993 ). According to Boin et al., leadership during crisis always has a moral dimension. On January 10, 2021, by which time Norway had witnessed over 50000 cases of infection and over 400 deaths as well as the Gjerdrum disaster, Solberg made the following post:

Dear everyone. This year I hope we can take our dreams back. After a year of pandemic and fear. Then I look forward to seeing creativity unleashed…

Another post that emphasized the optimism for educational prospects was made on April 15, 2020, and drew over 5000 likes:

Today is the last deadline to apply to a vocational school, college or university. I understand that it can feel strange to apply for an education this autumn while the educational institutions keep their campuses closed. Maybe someone also thinks the idea of moving from home to a new city seems extra scary these days. To you I want to say that everyday life will return. Therefore, my appeal to you who want to study: do not put your life on hold, but apply for education this year!

Lessons from previous crises tell us that leaders need to pay attention to the fear of the ongoing threat, as well as sadness and grief, and to provide hope to mitigate social disruption (Maak et al., 2021 ). Here, we see that Solberg’s is attempting to convey hope while also acknowledging the challenges and impact of COVID-19. In doing so, the messages also emphasise self-efficacy and trust in the government. Hope and resilience are closely aligned constructs, as they both include a tendency towards maintaining an optimistic outlook in the face of adversity (Duggal et al., 2016 ). Thus, fostering hope during crisis can help the community cope with the consequences of the crisis. Moreover, by using emotional appeals, leaders can influence attitudes and behaviours as well as induce compassion (Ghio et al., 2020 ).

The theme of fostering hope in Solberg’s posts was found to be particularly emphasized during and before national holidays or important events. Her posts often utilised humour to foster positivity, particularly during critical periods such as during or after implementation of stricter COVID-19 measures. For example, a day after it was announced that infection-reduction measures would continue throughout Christmas, Solberg shared a snipped of her response to a question asked in a press conference and posted:

Can Santa actually come to visit this year?

Creating human moments and hope is a sign of compassionate leadership and helps to establish the relational foundation for widespread support for pandemic control measures (Maak et al., 2021 ). Also, by utilising humour, Solberg adapts the tone of her messages, a tactic that has been found to significantly affect audiences’ attitudes and behaviours, help people manage their emotions, and strengthen support for pandemic measures (Lee and Basnyat, 2013 )

Relating with followers

The last theme is about the posts in which Solberg relates to the public by providing personal information, acknowledging, and relating with the difficult circumstances, and using humour or a private tone in her posts. For example, the post below was made just before Easter and it received more than 13000 likes, making it to be the third-most liked post of Solberg related to COVID-19 during this period.

It will be a different Easter this year. Let’s make the best of it. We can play fun board games with our loved ones, read the book we never have time to read, listen to an audiobook or explore the local area. The last few weeks have been challenging for all of us, but we want to get through this… Sindre and I have recharged with board games and wish you all a very happy Easter!

Empathy is an important component of the persuasive narrative, especially during crises when the decisions made by authorities to mitigate, and control can also have consequences for people’s lives. For crisis communication to be effective, the information provided to the public should not be too factual or portray leaders as distant from the citizens (Shen, 2010 ; Lunn et al., 2020 ). By demonstrating concern and acknowledging the impact of crises, leaders can empathise with the public (Shen, 2010 ; Lunn et al., 2020 ). We see Solberg personifying the challenges of COVID-19 by referring to how the times have been challenging for ‘all of us’. According to Boin et al. ( 2016 ), a leader’s personification of suffering is instrumental in showing empathy because the public is then able to relate to them.

Further, previously in a study by Larsson ( 2015 ) about Norwegian party leaders on Facebook during the 2013 ‘short campaign’, it was found that personal content referencing private life is increasingly employed by Norwegian party leaders. Enli and Rosenberg ( 2018 ) investigated voters’ evaluations of politicians as authentic or ‘real,’ and Solberg was found to be one of the most perceived authentic politicians. Enli ( 2014 ) had earlier suggested that Erna Solberg’s public profile as predictable, anti-elitist and imperfect constructs her authenticity.

A similar example of relatability with followers during the pandemic was the instance when she forgot the rule of not shaking hands during public meetups and press conferences. After the event, she wrote:

It is important that we can have some humour in a difficult time Even a prime minister can forget, but now it is important that we all remember to follow the advice of the health authorities…

She also used an engaging communicative style when interacting with her followers:

Then the holiday is over… a different summer, a little cold, weekly meetings in the Government’s Corona Committee on video, beautiful nature experiences from Norway and a lot of rain. Let me share a wonderful little meeting with a lynx on the lawn on Varaldsøy… Have you had a nice summer?

Thus, Solberg embeds references to her private life, which also helps to personify the messages in her posts and thus relate with the public. In addition, by relating with the public on an everyday basis and through the acknowledgment of shared challenges during crisis, Solberg’s narrative also appears empathetic. Our theme of ‘Relating to the public’ thus encapsulates frame function of ‘showing empathy’ for developing a persuasive narrative, as per Boin et al. ( 2016 ).

Concluding remarks

This paper was an attempt to explore the Facebook posts of Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg to highlight the key features of her crisis communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. By drawing on data from Solberg’s Facebook posts during the pandemic our analyses identified five major themes, (1) Promoting responsibility and togetherness (2) Coping (3) Being in control amidst uncertainty (4) Fostering hope and (5) Relating with the followers, where we went in detail explanation by using frame functions of a persuasive narrative by Boin et al. ( 2016 ). We furthermore discussed the specific Norwegian contextual nuances to the frame functions. These were the theme ‘Responsibilization and togetherness’, presented via the references to Norwegianness and the cultural concept and practice of dugnad . Hence, our paper showed how during crisis persuasive narratives are incorporated into the social media communication strategies of political leaders.

The paper also showed how persuasive narratives are delivered through praising the public’s efforts, promoting togetherness, caring about the public’s well-being, displaying optimism and confidence in the government’s measures. It elaborated on how crisis management on social media was done via the use of humour and personal information. Humour was used as a tool to engage with the public and help them relate and comply to the COVID-19 restrictions. Hence, Solberg used Facebook to capitalise on a wide-reaching social medium (Hallahan, 2010 ). While the communication of leaders during crises helps to fill the cognitive void, the use of social media helps build societal resilience by improving awareness and encouraging preparedness (Boin et al., 2016 )

Even so, the success of a persuasive narrative is to a great extent dependant on the credibility of its proponents (Boin et al., 2016 ). The reputation of the leader and the organisation that they represent plays a key role in framing a successful persuasive narrative. In general, Norwegians have more trust in each other and their institutions than most other countries (Skirbekk and Grimen, 2012 ). A survey conducted by the Norwegian Citizen’s Panel [Norsk Medborgerpanel] in March 2020 found that trust in government, in the health authorities, in parliament, and in national and local politicians had increased, as did trust in the Prime Minister during the pandemic (Dahl, 2020 ). Clearly, Solberg seems to have benefitted from the trust capital in Norwegian society with her Facebook communications during a crisis. More recently, Erna Solberg has received heavy criticism for breach of COVID-19 restrictions during a family trip to Geilo for her 60th birthday (The Guardian, 2021a ). Following which, Erna Solberg, has been investigated by police and fined (The Guardian, 2021b ). Thus, while her Facebook posts exhibiting components of a persuasive narrative received popularity, her actions have nevertheless been subjected to scrutiny and criticisms in mainstream media (Larsen, 2021 ). According to Boin et al. ( 2016 : p. 72), the retainment of confidence of the public is essential for the communication strategies to be effective. Therefore, such media criticism might undermine the credibility of Solberg and her cabinet, leading to less credible and politically ineffective narratives. On the other hand, past performances, and reputation also play an important role in increasing leaders’ personal credibility in the face of crisis (Boin et al., 2016 ). Consequently, Solberg’s long career in politics and her reputation of caring about the citizens as previously discussed, could buffer the recent impact on her credibility. Moreover, communication during and after a crisis affects long-term impressions (Coombs, 2007 ). With the personification of politics in Norway or ‘decentralising personalization’ (Balmas et al., 2014 ), the criticisms paved at Erna, however, reflect more of a personal crisis than a national crisis. And while we do not analyse Solberg’s posts beyond 9 th Feb. 2021 i.e., after Solberg spoke about the Geilo trip incident on her Facebook account, we see that she follows similar strategy in handling this personal crisis as the national crisis of COVID-19, through use of a persuasive narrative. Future studies can therefore focus on how Solberg and other political leaders utilise the strategy of persuasive narrative in management of personal crisis in nexus with national crisis such as that of COVID-19.

Further, we concur with Christensen and Lægreid ( 2020 ) who write that the ‘political leadership has succeeded well in connecting governance capacity and legitimacy using the argument that Norway had sufficient resources to deal with the crisis. While the health resource capacity and preparedness of Norway inarguably contributes to the outcomes of the crisis, communicating a successful persuasive narrative with credibility is integral to gaining legitimacy and filling the cognitive void (Boin et al., 2016 ). Erna Solberg’s use of persuasive narrative in Facebook posts, seems therefore to have been effective in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, but her latest unfortunate incident goes to show how politicians’ management of crises is tenuous and highly dependent on public trust.

Our study adds to the significance and knowledge of how persuasive narratives are incorporated into the communication strategy of leaders on a social media platform and highlights the usefulness of this framework for studies about ongoing and future crises. By using data from social media, our findings also add to the understanding of the increased personification of politics and how leaders utilise this personification to communicate government measures and engage with the public during a crisis. Future research can further explore how public leaders and health authorities’ frame crises situations, actions, issues, and responsibility to dramatise and reinforce key ideas (Hallahan, 1999 ). Such insights can pave way for understanding public’s shaping of risk perceptions and compliance to behavioural measures during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data availability

The dataset analysed during the current study is available through the public profile of Erna Solberg on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ernasolberg/ . This dataset was derived from Crowd Tangle which can be accessed through request at https://www.crowdtangle.com/ .

Known as ‘hyttetur’, cabin trips are deeply rooted in Norwegian culture and way of life

Crowdtangle extracts both historical and current data of post contents and metadata such as the date the post was made, number of likes, other reactions and shares. Information about how to access raw material included in this study can be found in the data availability statement at the end of the article.

‘Everything will be fine’ [ Alt blir bra ] was one of the campaigns that spread because of the COVID-19 crisis in Norway depicting pictures of a rainbow.

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This article is published as part of the research project ‘Fighting Pandemics with Enhanced Risk Communication: Messages, Compliance and Vulnerability During the COVID-19 Outbreak (PAN-FIGHT)’, which is financed by the Norwegian Research Council (Project number: 312767).

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Arora, S., Debesay, J. & Eslen-Ziya, H. Persuasive narrative during the COVID-19 pandemic: Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg’s posts on Facebook. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 9 , 35 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01051-5

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Short Messages Encouraging Compliance with COVID-19 Public Health Guidelines Have Minimal Persuasive Effects

Sophia Pink, Michael Stagnaro, James Chu, Joe Mernyk, Jan Voelkel, Robb Willer

Preventing the spread of COVID-19 requires persuading the vast majority of the public to significantly change their behavior in numerous, costly ways. Many efforts to encourage behavior change – public service announcements, social media posts, speeches, billboards – involve relatively short, persuasive messages. Here, we report results of five experimental tests (N = 5,351) of persuasive short messages conducted in the US from March – July 2020. In our first two studies participants rated the persuasiveness of 56 unique messages (31 drawn from the social science literature, 25 crowdsourced from online respondents). We then conducted three well-powered, pre-registered experiments testing whether the four top-rated messages would increase intentions to comply with public health guidelines. We compare messages to both a null control condition and an “active control” message that included a reminder of the virus and suggested behaviors with no persuasive frame. Five messages in the initial studies were rated as more persuasive than a control, and four messages in the later studies increased behavioral compliance intentions relative to a null control. However, none of these messages had consistent effects when compared to the active control message. We conclude that it may not be practically possible to identify short messages that reliably out-perform a simple reminder of the virus and recommended behaviors during the advanced stages of the pandemic. The most persuasive message studied was one emphasizing people’s civic responsibility to reciprocate healthcare workers’ sacrifices, which performed best in three of five studies.

Wednesday, 15 May

27 Apr 2020

Ramaphosa using the art of persuasive communication in the Covid-19 fight

The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the world and South Africa is not spared. As a result, President Cyril Ramaphosa has become a regular visitor in our homes, updating South Africans on steps taken by the government to minimise the number of people who contract this virus.

In an effort to counter the economic and social devastation brought by the pandemic, on April 21 the president presented additional response measures and a R500-billion stimulus package.

The measures involve an extraordinary health budget to respond to Covid-19; the relief of hunger and social distress; support of companies and workers; and the phased reopening of the economy. His previous national addresses and this one in particular, brought along an automatic element of credibility (ethos).

Besides that, Ramaphosa has proven to be a charismatic orator, unleashing his sense of humour whenever necessary.

Johann C de Wet, author of the book “The art of persuasive communication” Third Edition (2013), describes a charismatic orator as one who appeals to deeply held emotion and ideals shared by a large number of people. This should be a skill refined while traversing the legal, union, constitutional development and business environments.

On April 23, millions of South Africans were glued to their television sets in anticipation that the president would announce an extension of the lockdown. Interestingly, scanning through social media, comments indicated that some highlighted that the extension was inevitable.

The question one could ask, is how did the president manage to swiftly get a buy-in for an extended lockdown, this without saying that he is extending the lockdown?

According to top speechwriter Simon Lancaster, “politicians and other public figures deploy particular rhetorical devices to communicate their ideas and to convince people”.

Persuasive communication uses both verbal and non-verbal communication. Some of non-verbal tactics include chronemics (the use of time), kinesics (facial, gesture, posture) and paralinguistics (pitch, tempo, rate of speech).

The president’s choice to speak to the nation at 8.30pm is spot on, as this is a time when most South African are gathered as a family after their supper.

Just before his opening, he stepped to the podium with his mask on (demonstrating to South Africans the importance of a wearing mask).

The choice for a statesman to sit or stand when delivering a speech is a highly debated matter.

Some authors argue that sitting may be preferred in order to reduce speech anxiety, yet has physical limitations, while others argue that standing allows one to have full use of the body to convey the message.

Ramaphosa was visibly tired, but determined to reassure South Africans of his commitment to curbing the spread of Covid-19 and to show his appreciation for what South Africans had achieved in the past seven weeks.

Ramaphosa appeared comfortable with hands leaning on both ends of the podium, at times using hand gestures to stress critical factors and to demonstrate what he is saying, such as pointing to the facemask. Overall, his speech was factual and well-paced.

The speech followed five components of academic Alan H Monroe’s motivated sequence for organising persuasive speeches that inspire people to take action.

These components are: attention, need, satisfaction, visualisation and action, and are outlined below:

The speaker draws the attention of the audience using either an anecdote, rhetorical questions or metaphors.

In his opening, the president shows goodwill through the salutation, “Fellow South Africans”. He then paints a vivid picture using the metaphor of an “invisible enemy” to describe Covid-19. A metaphor is a powerful piece of political communication. In a layman’s language, a demonstration that the enemy is unknown, an alien, we cannot see nor touch.

In her book, “The invisible enemy”, Dorothy Crawford scientifically describes the invisible enemy as the dangers posed by viruses, more so when its structural vulnerabilities have not been identified so that scientists can develop drugs to curb it.

The need step, is also known as a problem step, this is where the argument truly begins. The president shared that the invisible enemy has changed our lives and forced the country to take aggressive actions. He tactfully reiterated the facts about the Covid-19, demonstrating its international impact then zooming back to South Africa’s first confirmed positive case.

He acknowledged that by now many are familiar with these facts, yet shows the chronological connection of the past to the future.

The informed measures that he was about to announce and further caution that if immediate actions are not implemented we will deeply regret tomorrow thus the introduction of the five Covid-19 levels approach. He further announced lowering of the lockdown level from 5 to 4 effective May 1st.

Satisfaction

Satisfaction comes when you provide a solution to the problem outlined in the need step. Calming the audience on how their lives can be made better, Ramaphosa described the five levels approach, positing where the country is and what needs to be done to move from level 5 to level 1.

The five levels approach shows that the transition to a lower level is not dependent on what the government does, but more on citizens behaviour.

There is a need to create a common purpose for all, demonstrating that our little actions can have dramatic impact when pulled together. The five level approach serves as a barometre that can be used by citizens to self-assess the trends on Covid-19 in South African. Empowering the citizens to take ownership of the process.

The president strategically demonstrated that the solution is in the collaborative efforts undertaken by different stakeholders. The reason he alluded to measures undertaken to combat the Covid-19 pandemic having been matched by the extraordinary contributions of many South Africans.

The above demonstrates the concept of political negotiation and bargaining. According to De Wet (2013), political negotiation and bargaining is “a process of communication in which two or more conflicting parties with vested interest in the issues at stake strive to reach a mutually binding political agreement through the exchange of structured information over a period of time”.

Coming up with the solution was a consultative process, interestingly, an invitation of various stakeholders to make submissions before solutions could be gazetted.

He showed appreciation of the critical role played by healthcare professionals, scientists and acknowledged the essential service workers’ contribution.

This demonstrates that they are part of the bigger solution, without them, the gains will be close to impossible. As an acknowledgement that for the health professionals to be able to do their work they need support in the form of resources, a budget provision of R20 billion will be made for the health response.

Visualisation

Visualisation invites the audience to imagine what their lives will look like if they comply with the solution. The president also uses rhymes. Using words that rhyme sticks to memories when used correctly.

Ramaphosa reminds citizens that there is no better time than now to take caution, responsibility and patience, as he is appreciative that all want to return to work, school or continue with their business.

“It is a time for caution

It is a time to act responsibly.

It is a time for patience.

There is no person who doesn’t want to return to work.

There is no company that does not want to re-open.

There is no student who does not want to return to their studies.”

He further mentions that the world is celebrating what we have achieved thus far, which creates a sense of pride and patriotism among South Africans.

Indeed, the Word Health Organisation (WHO) has praised South Africa for its efforts towards curbing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In his closing remarks, he further uses rhymes, calling South Africans to action, which is the last step of the five components of Monroe’s motivated sequence. He built up by asking the audience to do something about the problem.

The president reminded South Africans that they have been able to endure the difficulty of fighting the invisible enemy and that what we do now is because we want freedom with no boundaries. This is not just for now but for our future, and a future with prosperity because we would have defeated the enemy.

“There are times when we must endure hardship and difficulty, so that we can enjoy freedom and prosperity into the future.

During the past five weeks, we have demonstrated to the entire world what a nation can achieve with courage, determination and solidarity.

We must not give up now.

I am asking you to stay strong.

I am asking you to remain united.

Stay home, stay safe.

Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do.

May God bless South Africa and protect her people.

I thank you.”

All in all, President Ramaphosa epitomises the value of Ubuntu. I am because we are! His speech gives hope that united we can fight the scourge of the virus.

Also a confirmation that he cannot do it alone, but only a collaborative effort will enable us to fight this invisible enemy. Importantly, it makes it easier for South Africans to welcome a need for a continued lockdown.

As Albert Einstein said: “In the midst of every crisis lies a great opportunity”.

It seems the Covid-19 presents the president with an opportunity to shine the torch not only on South Africa, but on Africa.

*Brightness Mangolothi (CPRP) is the Director of Litmus Consultancy and a former Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA), Eastern Cape Regional Chairperson and board member.

*Maubane (CPRP) is PRISA Immediate Past President and former Limpopo Regional Chairperson.

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COVID-19 Vaccination Public Education Campaign Saved Thousands of Lives, Billions of Dollars

Study found vaccine campaign saved $90 for every $1 spent

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) COVID-19 Vaccination Public Education Campaign, We Can Do This, resulted in an estimated$731.9 billion in societal benefits due to averted illness and related costs, resulting in a nearly $90 return in societal benefits for every $1 spent, according to research published today in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine .

“At the height of the pandemic, we launched one of the largest public health education campaigns in U.S. history to encourage and educate Americans on the steps they could take to get and stay healthy. We now have research to confirm the COVID-19 Public Education Campaign, We Can Do This, was an indispensable part of efforts to vaccinate people and protect them from COVID-19, saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars in the process,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “HHS is responsible for protecting the health and well-being of all Americans. As stewards of the public’s money, we wanted to deliver impact for the American people in the most efficient and effective ways. This confirms we did exactly that. We will no doubt use what we learned in this campaign to further improve our public health efforts in the future.”

The study showed the Campaign encouraged 22.3 million people to complete their primary COVID-19 vaccination series between April 2021 and March 2022, preventing nearly 2.6 million SARS-CoV-2 infections, the virus that causes COVID-19, including nearly 244,000 hospitalizations, during the time period that the highly contagious Delta and Omicron virus variants were spreading.

Preventing these outcomes resulted in societal benefits to the U.S. of $740.2 billion, accounting for such factors as medical expenses, wages, and other costs that people and institutions would have incurred in the absence of the Campaign. In comparison, the Campaign cost $377 million, with an additional $7.9 billion spent to vaccinate 22.3 million people in that time period.

According to the study, from April 2021 to March 2022, the net benefit of the Campaign—how much money these efforts saved minus how much they cost—came to $731.9 billion, translating to a return on investment of $89.54 for every $1 spent.

In April 2021, HHS launched the We Can Do This Public Education Campaign to increase COVID-19 vaccine confidence and uptake in the U.S. The Campaign, one of the largest public health education efforts in U.S. history, promoted COVID-19 vaccine uptake using integrated, multichannel, research-based strategies. It aimed to reach 90% of adults in the United States at least once per quarter, with even more intense outreach to high-risk communities. The Campaign featured more than 7,000 ads in 14 languages, with many culturally tailored and geographically targeted to specific minority, racial, and ethnic audiences. A multimedia approach bolstered widespread engagement with trusted messengers, partner organizations, and influencers who delivered persuasive, accurate, and culturally relevant information to vaccine-hesitant populations.

The benefit-cost study of We Can Do This is the only research study to date that looked at the contributions of a media campaign to encourage people to get COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic emergency period. The newly published study is unique in that it demonstrates that the nationwide media Campaign was an indispensable component of the nation’s efforts to vaccinate people and protect them from COVID-19. It also adds to the body of evidence that shows the Campaign’s impact on behavior change.

“This research confirms the benefits of public health campaigns as part of a multi-layered response to a public health crisis and to the effort to provide accurate information to the American public,” said May Malik, Senior Advisor for Public Education Campaigns at HHS.

To evaluate the benefits and costs of the national Campaign, researchers used real-world data from multiple sources, such as data on COVID-19 outcomes, uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccine effectiveness, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with survey data collected to measure the Campaign’s effects on vaccination behaviors over time.

The findings can help inform the Federal response to future public health threats. As part of a multipronged approach to addressing public health crises, this study demonstrates the return on investment possible from public education campaigns given their effectiveness in building vaccine confidence and supporting healthy behavior change.

The study, Benefit-Cost Analysis of the HHS COVID-19 Campaign: April 2021–March 2022 , was conducted by researchers from HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs and Fors Marsh in Arlington, Virginia.

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Kansas City Chiefs kicker blasts Biden, pro-choice movement in commencement speech

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Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker waged a series of attacks against President Biden’s leadership in a recent commencement speech, criticizing the president’s policies on abortion, gender ideology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a commencement speech last Saturday at Benedictine College — a Catholic liberal arts college in Kansas — Butker claimed the negative parts of society in recent years can be blamed on “bad leaders who don’t stay in their lanes.”

“While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique,” Butker said during his speech. “The bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for the degenerate cultural values and media all stem from pervasiveness of disorder.”

“Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith, but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally,” he continued.

Biden is only the second Catholic U.S. president and has been forced to balance the hot-button issue of abortion with the Democratic Party base’s support of reproductive rights.

The president often attends Saturday evening mass with his family either near his home in Wilmington, Del., or in Washington, D.C., and the White House has maintained Biden’s faith is personal to him.

Biden has noted he is not “big on” abortion but openly supports the reproductive rights that were previously granted under Roe v. Wade.

He has not shied away from criticizing Republican leaders and states that have moved to restrict access to the medical procedure. His support for abortion access has prompted calls for the church to not offer him communion.

Butker’s remarks were an apparent reference to when Biden gestured the sign of the cross last month during a rally against abortion restrictions.

“He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I’m sure to many people, it appears you can both Catholic and pro-choice,” Butker added. “He is not alone. From the man behind the COVID lockdowns, to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common — they are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn’t cut it.”

The Biden administration has unveiled a series of protections for the LGBTQ community during the past three years, with the president unafraid to attack Republicans who fight against such policies.

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Geopolitics and its Impact on Global Trade and the Dollar

First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath Series on the Future of the International Monetary System (IMS) Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

May 7, 2024

AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

Global economic ties are changing in ways we have not seen since the end of the Cold War.

After years of shocks—including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—countries are reevaluating their trading partners based on economic and national security concerns. Foreign direct investment flows are also being re-directed along geopolitical lines. Some countries are reevaluating their heavy reliance on the dollar in their international transactions and reserve holdings.

All of this is not necessarily bad. Given the recent history of events, policymakers are increasingly—and justifiably—focused on building economic resilience. But if the trend continues, we could see a broad retreat from global rules of engagement and, with it, a significant reversal of the gains from economic integration.

Let’s take a closer look at how far we have gone down that route already. New trade restrictions have increased sharply—more than tripling since 2019—while financial sanctions have also expanded. The geopolitical risk index has spiked in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

And private sector concerns about fragmentation—gauged by the number of mentions in corporate earnings calls—have surged.

Despite these trends, there are not yet clear signs of deglobalization at the aggregate level. Since around the time of the global financial crisis, when the 1990s-early 2000s hyper-globalization came to an end, the ratio of goods trade to GDP has been roughly stable—fluctuating between 41 and 48 percent.

But under the surface, there are increasing signs of fragmentation. Trade and investment flows are being redirected along geopolitical lines.

For example, China’s share in U.S. imports declined by 8 percentage points between 2017 and 2023 following a flare-up in trade tensions. During the same period, the U.S. share in China’s exports dropped by about 4 percentage points.

And direct trade between Russia and the West collapsed following the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions on Russia.

What about the implications of geopolitics for trade relations more broadly?

Consider a world divided into three blocs: a U.S. leaning bloc, a China leaning bloc, and a bloc of nonaligned countries.

The average weighted quarter-on-quarter [1] trade growth between U.S. leaning countries and China leaning countries during 2022Q2 – 2023Q3 was almost 5 percentage points lower than the average quarterly weighted trade growth during 2017Q1 – 2022Q1.

At the same time, quarterly growth in trade within blocs only saw a 2-percentage point drop.

On average in the period after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we see that trade and FDI between blocs declined by roughly 12 and 20 percent more than flows within blocs, respectively.

It is notable that these patterns are not driven uniquely by the U.S. or China and hold up even when you take these two countries out of the picture.

This begs a question: Why have we not seen an even bigger impact of de-coupling between geopolitical rivals on global trade?

This is because some trade and investment are being re-routed through third-party countries, partially offsetting the erosion of direct links between the U.S. and China. Since 2017, greater Chinese presence in a country—measured either through exports or announced greenfield investment—has been associated with increased exports of that country to the U.S.

The emergence of these “connector” countries—perhaps most notably Mexico and Vietnam—may have helped cushion the global economic impact of direct trade decoupling between the U.S. and China. But whether it has helped to diversify exposures and increase supply chain resilience remains an open question.

The path forward will depend on policymakers. They may accept such rerouting of trade and FDI in order to preserve some of the gains of economic integration. Or they may continue to raise barriers for cross-border trade and investment, further breaking both direct and indirect links between politically distant countries.

How bad could it get?

To gauge the potential magnitude of fragmentation along geopolitical lines, let’s compare the current trade fragmentation with that of the Cold War period.

Trade between the rival Western and Eastern blocs was significantly depressed during the Cold War, relative to trade within these blocs.

Thus far, today’s fragmentation is not significantly different from the initial years of the Cold War. However, compared to the average “between-bloc trade shortfall” during the entire Cold War period, fragmentation so far is an order of magnitude smaller.

But there is still cause for concern. Trade fragmentation is much more costly this time around because unlike the start of the Cold War when goods trade to GDP was 16 percent, now that ratio is 45 percent. Moreover, while back then countries within a bloc were taking off trade restrictions, now we are in an environment of growing protectionism with several countries turning inward.

The potential role of non-aligned countries in the current trade frictions also makes the situation today different from the Cold War experience. The evidence suggests such countries did not play an important role serving as connectors between rival blocs during the Cold War—likely because they had a much smaller economic footprint and global supply chains were not yet developed. Today, they have greater economic and diplomatic heft and are much more integrated into the global economy. Their role as connectors this time round can help attenuate some of the costs of fragmentation.

Have geopolitical tensions and the shifting patterns of trade and FDI affected the currency composition of cross-border payments and FX reserves?

Data on currency use in international trade and finance is sparser and comes with longer lags than trade figures. Even so, we are so far not seeing a significant impact. Despite increased geopolitical risks, the latest data show that the U.S. dollar remains dominant. According to SWIFT, it accounts for over 80 percent of trade finance, likely because much of commodity trade continues to be invoiced and settled in dollars.

It also accounts for nearly 60 percent of FX reserves despite the gradual diversification of FX reserves away from the dollar and partly into non-traditional reserve currencies such as the Australian dollar, and the Canadian dollar. [2]

Given the reshaping of trade relations, has the currency composition of trade finance changed during 2022-23?

The answer is not much for U.S.-leaning countries, but there have been more visible changes for China-leaning countries.

For the China bloc, the USD share of trade finance payments has declined since early 2022. At the same time, the RMB share has more than doubled, from around 4 percent to 8 percent.

This is not a Russia only story. In fact, the share of RMB in trade finance for the China bloc would be only slightly lower if Russia were excluded from it. Most RMB denominated trade finance captured in the SWIFT data reflects transactions between China and China leaning countries.

For China, the share of RMB in all cross-border transactions of Chinese non-bank entities with foreign counterparts was close to zero 15 years ago but has risen to reach around 50 percent in late 2023. In contrast, the USD share has been on a declining trend, falling from around 80 percent in 2010 to 50 percent in 2023.

The increasing use of the RMB may have been supported by the Cross-Border Interbank Payments System (CIPS)—a system launched by the People’s Bank of China which offers clearing and settlement services for cross-border transactions in RMB.

Looking at global FX reserves, the most notable development during 2022-23 has been an increase of gold purchases by central banks.

Gold is generally viewed as politically neutral safe asset, which can be stored at home and be insulated from sanctions or seizure. It can also be an inflation hedge but cannot be easily used in transactions.

The share of gold in the FX reserves of the China bloc has been rising since 2015—a trend not exclusively driven by China and Russia. Importantly, during the same period, the share of gold in FX reserves of countries in the U.S. bloc has been broadly stable.

This suggests that gold purchases by some central banks may have been driven by concerns about sanctions risk. This is consistent with a recent IMF study [3] confirming that FX reserve managers tend to increase gold holdings to hedge against economic uncertainty and geopolitical including sanctions risk.

Looking at China, the share of gold in total FX reserves has increased from less than 2 percent in 2015 to 4.3 percent in 2023. During the same period, the value of China’s holdings of U.S. Treasury and Agency bonds relative to FX reserves has declined from 44 percent to about 30 percent. This reflects both net purchases and valuation effects.

The downward trend holds even if we account for the fact that some of China’s holdings of U.S. bonds may be held in Belgium (Euroclear), as some analysts suggest. [4]

If fragmentation deepens, what would be the economic cost? And how will those costs be transmitted?

Trade is the main channel through which fragmentation could reshape the global economy. Imposing restrictions on trade would diminish the efficiency gains from specialization, limit economies of scale, and reduce competition. The capacity of trade to incentivize within-industry reallocation and generate productivity gains would be stifled. Less trade would also imply less knowledge diffusion, a key benefit of integration, which could also be reduced by fragmentation of cross-border direct investment. A useful example is Brexit. Because of the extensive interlinkages between Europe and the UK, Brexit is thought to have had a sizable negative effect on the UK economy.

There would also be costs from financial fragmentation. It would limit capital accumulation—because FDI would be reduced—and affect the allocation of capital, asset prices, and the international payment system. Financial fragmentation could also lead to weaker international risk sharing, resulting in higher macro-financial volatility for individual countries, and higher crisis risks due to idiosyncratic shocks [5] . The global payment system could become fragmented along geopolitical lines with the emergence of new payment platforms with limited or no interoperability. This could lower efficiency, and lead to fragmented standards and regulation.

In addition, FX reserves could be re-aligned to reflect new economic links and geopolitical risks. A global system with multiple reserve currencies could have several benefits, including a larger pool of safe assets and more opportunities for FX reserve diversification. But the stability of such a system would be at risk without strong policy coordination among all reserve currency issuing countries—including through a network of swap lines. This would not be possible if the world is divided along geopolitical lines.

The estimates of the economic costs of fragmentation vary widely and are highly uncertain. In a mild scenario with low adjustment costs, losses could be as low as 0.2% of world GDP, while in an extreme trade fragmentation scenario with limited ability of economies to adjust, losses could be as high as 7 percent of global GDP [6] . As for foreign direct investment, fragmentation in a world divided into two blocs centered around the U.S. and China with some countries remaining non-aligned could result in long term losses of around 2 percent of global GDP [7] .

Some countries could benefit from fragmentation in its mild forms. But if fragmentation worsens, they could be left with a larger slice of a much smaller pie. In short, everyone could lose.

Some emerging and developing economies could benefit from fragmentation in its mild forms as trade and FDI gets redirected towards them. However, as a group they would be disproportionately negatively impacted by more severe forms of fragmentation. These economies rely more on imports and exports of key products, including commodities, for which it is harder and more costly to find new markets and suppliers.

Our research suggests that low-income countries, on average, could experience 4 times the simulated global economic output loss of other countries in the event of fragmentation of commodity markets into two blocs [8] . Most of the losses would be due to trade restrictions of agricultural commodities, as low-income countries are heavily dependent on agricultural imports to feed their populations, raising concerns about food security in poorer countries.

Furthermore, emerging markets and developing economies are heavily dependent on FDI from advanced economies, the main source of global investment. They would also be left without positive spillovers from FDI to local firms in the case of friend-shoring or reshoring, when FDI is relocated to “friendly” countries in the other bloc or home.

Fragmentation would also inhibit our efforts to address other global challenges that demand international cooperation. The breadth of these challenges—from climate change to AI—is immense.

Recent IMF analysis shows that fragmentation of trade in minerals critical for the green transition—such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and lithium—would make the energy transition more costly. Because these minerals are geographically concentrated and not easily substituted, disrupting their trade could lead to sharp swings in their prices, suppressing investment in renewables and EV production.

So, what can we do to prevent this? The ideal solution would be to preserve and strengthen the multilateral rules-based global trading system and the international monetary system.

Strengthening the trading system would require restoring a fully functioning WTO dispute settlement mechanism. It will also require making more progress on dealing with subsidies and national security trade restrictions and developing international rules and norms on the appropriate use and design of industrial polices.

To strengthen the international monetary system, concerted efforts are needed to prevent fragmentation of the global payment system and related standards and regulations. We also need to ensure a well-resourced and efficient global financial safety net, improve measurement and monitoring of cross-border crypto flows, and maintain global dialogue on debt restructuring.

But given where we are today, the ideal may be difficult to achieve. Therefore, we need pragmatic steps to rebuild trust.

The first step is to keep open the lines of communication and stay engaged. Dialogue between the U.S. and China—which we are now seeing—can help prevent the worst outcomes from occurring.

Non-aligned countries can also play a bigger role—using their economic and diplomatic heft to keep the world integrated.

The second pragmatic step is to work together on areas of common interest. Take climate, for example. Over 70 countries have come together through the WTO’s Trade and Environmental Stability Structured Discussions to identify opportunities to promote the trade of renewable energy goods and services.

We also see progress in services and digital trade. Policy restrictions are high in these fast-growing areas of the global economy. But recognizing this, 90 countries representing more than 90 percent of global trade are working together toward common digital trade rules.

And 71 members came together around a WTO plurilateral agreement on Services Domestic Regulation that aims to promote more transparent, predictable, and efficient regulatory frameworks and is expected to reduce services trade costs by USD 127 billion.

In addition, the G20 is working on interlinking cross-border payment systems, aiming to improve efficiency and reduce transaction costs.

The third step is to limit harmful unilateral policy actions—including industrial policies. While it is appropriate to try to correct market failures through policy interventions, it must be carefully handled. Politically, industrial policies may be hard to limit or roll back given their concentrated benefits and diffused costs. History is replete with cautionary tales of policy mistakes, high fiscal costs & negative spillovers to other countries. Internationally, such policies have led to retaliation, which would deepen fragmentation.

Adhering to existing legal frameworks is also critical for maintaining trust between countries and in the international monetary system.

For example, many countries are following closely the ongoing discussion about potential use of Russian state assets, including reserves of the Bank of Russia, to support Ukraine. While this is for relevant courts and jurisdictions to determine, for the IMF, it is important that any action has sufficient legal underpinnings and does not undermine the functioning of the international monetary system.

While rebuilding trust is difficult and may take time, it is critical to avoid the worst outcomes in a rapidly fragmenting world. It is well worth it to preserve some of the enormous gains from economic integration that have made the world more prosperous and more secure.

[1] See Gopinath at al “Changing Global Linkages: A New Cold War?”, IMF Working Paper No. 2024/076 ( link )

[2] See Arslanalp et al. “The Stealth Erosion of Dollar Dominance: Active Diversifiers and the Rise of Nontraditional Reserve Currencies” IMF Working Paper, No. 2022/058 ( link )

[3] Arslanalp et al “Gold as International Reserves: A Barbarous Relic No More?”, IMF Working Paper No. 2023/014 ( link ) analyze a panel of 144 economies over the period 1980-2021.

[4] Analysts believe that part of the US securities holdings attributed to Belgium may belong to other countries, such as China or Saudi Arabia (see Bertaut and Judson (2014), Sester (2016)).

[5] See GFSR April 2023 “Safeguarding Financial Stability Amid High Inflation and Geopolitical Risks” ( link )

[6] See IMF Staff Discussion Note, “Geoeconomic Fragmentation and the Future of Multilateralism”, January 2023 ( link )

[7] See WEO April 2023, Chapter 4 “Geoeconomic Fragmentation and Foreign Direct Investment” ( link )

[8] See WEO October 2023, Chapter 3 “Fragmentation and Commodity Markets: Vulnerabilities and Risks” ( link )

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NFL player rips Biden for ‘murder of innocent babies’ at college commencement speech

K ansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker criticized President Joe Biden while giving a commencement speech at Benedictine College on Saturday.

Butker, an outspoken and devout Catholic, slammed Biden on his positions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as well as cultural issues such as abortion and radical gender ideology. While addressing graduates at the Catholic liberal arts college in Atchinson, Kansas, the NFL kicker blamed Biden for what the Super Bowl champion believed was a deterioration of societal values. He began his speech by addressing the adversity this year’s graduates faced, given they were high school seniors four years ago during the COVID pandemic.

“By making it to this moment through all the adversity thrown your way from COVID, I hope you learned the important lesson that suffering in this life is only temporary,” Butker said. “As a group, you witnessed firsthand how bad leaders who don’t stay in their lane can have a negative impact on society.”

“While COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years, it is not unique,” said Butker. “Bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues. Things like abortion, IVF, surrogacy, euthanasia, as well as a growing support for the degenerate cultural values and media, all stem from the pervasiveness of disorder.”

“Our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith. But at the same time, is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally,” Butker said. “He has been so vocal in his support for the murder of innocent babies that I’m sure to many people, it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice.”

“He is not alone,” Butker affirmed. “From the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America, they all have a glaring thing in common. They are Catholic. This is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn’t cut it.”

“These are the sorts of things we are told in polite society to not bring up - you know, the difficult and unpleasant things,” Butker said. “But if we are going to be men and women for this time in history, we need to stop pretending that the church of nice is a winning proposition. We must always speak and act in charity, but never mistake charity for cowardice.”

Butker is well-known for his Catholic beliefs and pro-life sentiments. This was not the first time he took a public stance to support protecting the lives of the unborn.

When the Kansas City Chiefs visited the White House after winning the Super Bowl the last two years, he wore a specially made tie with his suit to “represent the unborn.” His gray tie had the Latin phrase “Vulnerari Praesidio” printed on it, which means “protect the most vulnerable.”

NFL player rips Biden for ‘murder of innocent babies’ at college commencement speech

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Front Psychol

Flattening the COVID-19 curve: Emotions mediate the effects of a persuasive message on preventive action

Krista renee muis.

1 Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, Faculty of Education, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

Gale M. Sinatra

2 Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Reinhard Pekrun

3 Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom

Panayiota Kendeou

4 Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, MN, United States

Lucia Mason

5 Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialisation, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

Neil G. Jacobson

Wijnand adriaan pieter van tilburg, ellen orcutt, sonia zaccoletti, kelsey m. losenno, associated data.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

Introduction

Across four countries (Canada, USA, UK, and Italy), we explored the effects of persuasive messages on intended and actual preventive actions related to COVID-19, and the role of emotions as a potential mechanism for explaining these effects.

One thousand seventy-eight participants first reported their level of concern and emotions about COVID-19 and then received a positive persuasive text, negative persuasive text, or no text. After reading, participants reported their emotions about the pandemic and their willingness to take preventive action. One week following, the same participants reported the frequency with which they engaged in preventive action and behaviors that increased the risk of contracting COVID-19.

Results revealed that the positive persuasive text significantly increased individuals’ willingness to and actual engagement in preventive action and reduced risky behaviors 1 week following the intervention compared to the control condition. Moreover, significant differences were found between the positive persuasive text condition and negative persuasive text condition whereby individuals who read the positive text were more willing and actually engaged in more preventive action compared to those who read the negative text. No differences were found, however, at the 1-week follow-up for social distancing and isolation behaviors. Results also revealed that specific discrete emotions mediated relations between the effects of the texts and preventive action (both willing and actual).

This research highlights the power of educational interventions to prompt behavioral change and has implications for pandemic-related interventions, government policy on health promotion messages, and future research.

Since March 2020, COVID-19 has presented a serious threat to humanity and has forced individuals to assess the risk of their decisions daily. Two years into this global pandemic, it is critical that individuals continue to take preventive action to slow the rate of transmission and avoid overwhelming the medical system to save lives. Preventive action includes personal and social behaviors (e.g., washing hands more often, covering mouth when coughing or sneezing, wearing a mask), social distancing (e.g., remaining six feet apart from others), and isolation (e.g., not having visitors, staying inside if sick). Despite government mitigation strategies to slow the spread, Google tracking indicated that at the beginning of the pandemic, 41% of Canadians and 53% of Americans were still going to restaurants, cafes, shopping centers, theme parks, museums, libraries, and movies theatres, where social distancing would be practically impossible ( Fournier, 2020 ; Google, 2020 ). Moreover, Abacus Data found that 25% of Canadians and 36% of Americans believed COVID-19 was not a serious issue ( Abacus Data, 2020 ). Similar rates were reported in the UK ( BBC, 2020 ). Given the seriousness of the pandemic, research in the behavioral social sciences ( Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ) focused, in part, on identifying how best to persuasively communicate the personal and social risks of engaging or not engaging in preventive action.

To combat current global crises (e.g., climate change, anti-vaccination movements), research on social persuasion suggests that positive messages designed to increase perceived importance, relevance, and efficacy for engaging in social measures are more effective in changing individuals’ perceptions and increasing actions compared to neutral or negative messages ( Muis et al., 2020 ; Thacker et al., 2021 ). Indeed, research has shown that persuasive messages are effective in changing perceptions and behavioral intentions (e.g., Jones et al., 2003 ; Berry et al., 2007 ). Moreover, recent research on COVID-19 suggests that public education health messages that focus on both public and personal benefits (“don’t get it, don’t spread it”) are more effective than addressing personal benefits alone (“don’t get it”) in increasing intentions to engage in personal and social preventive actions ( Everett et al., 2020 ; Jordan et al., 2020 ).

Drawing on the broader social persuasion literature, although many studies have examined causal mechanisms with regard to changing perceptions and behavioral intentions, little research to date has examined one key factor in social persuasion–the role of emotions ( Muis et al., 2020 ; Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ; Trevors and Kendeou, 2020 ; Thacker et al., 2021 ; Trevors, 2022 ). From a theoretical perspective, it is critical to understand what factors facilitate or constrain social persuasion. From a practical perspective, it is imperative to understand what kinds of persuasive messages prompt individuals to take action and save lives during a pandemic. This study aims to advance understanding of the role of emotions as a potential mechanism on the effects of persuasive messages in increasing both intended and actual preventive actions related to COVID-19 in the broader population. To do so, an immediate and 1-week delayed post-test experimental design was used in four different countries. Prior to delineating the specific research questions and hypotheses, we review relevant theoretical and empirical work.

Social persuasion: The Elaboration Likelihood Model

Social influence through persuasion is one of the most prevalent civil means of social control available to governments and individuals ( Briñol and Petty, 2009 ). Rather than forcing individuals or using threats to make them act in particular ways, persuasion provides an opportunity that is more likely to be successful, longer lasting, and beneficial for everyone. Broadly defined, persuasion includes influencing, convincing, or evoking a change in an individual’s understanding, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors or reactions toward a particular idea or premise ( Murphy, 2001 ). The goal is to use reason and emotion to bring about change in another’s behaviors, understandings, or judgments of the topic under consideration ( Murphy, 2001 ). Although many fields, like educational psychology, have examined what persuasion entails and how it unfolds, there is agreement across the literatures that characteristics of the learner (e.g., ability, relevance) and the message (e.g., source credibility, peripheral cues) play critical roles in persuasion ( Petty and Cacioppo, 1986 ; Dole and Sinatra, 1998 ).

One of the most prominent models of persuasion is Petty and Cacioppo’s (1986) Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM). According to Petty and Cacioppo, there are two routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route. The central route requires effortful processing of the information pertaining to the object of focus. Two conditions are necessary for effortful processing to occur: the individual must be motivated and able to think deeply about the information. Motivation can be influenced by a number of factors including perceived relevance of the message, and whether the individual enjoys engaging in effortful thinking (i.e., need for cognition; Cacioppo et al., 1983 ). Ability is affected by the amount of distraction presented in the text, and the number of times the message is repeated ( Cacioppo and Petty, 1979 ).

Persuasion through the peripheral route occurs when little effort is made to process the message, or very little attention is paid to it. The peripheral route is characterized by a reliance on simple cues (e.g., images and graphs) available in the persuasive message or context as well as heuristics (i.e., mental shortcuts) such as source evaluation. Although persuasion can occur through the peripheral route, the effects are typically short-lived ( Haugtvedt and Petty, 1992 ). For longer lasting change to occur through persuasion, it is critical to engage individuals in more central route processing of the information. If individuals actively think about a message, the message is further elaborated on, and long-lasting change regarding the message is more likely ( Petty et al., 2002 ). To promote more elaboration of messages, researchers have developed persuasive messages ( Chambliss and Garner, 1996 ).

Persuasive messages are designed to challenge individuals’ beliefs and provide them with new information. In the context of COVID-19, a persuasive message may be a text that challenges individuals’ beliefs about the seriousness of the pandemic, and the importance of engaging in preventive action to protect oneself from getting it and for saving lives. Importantly, highly persuasive texts must be well written, provide sufficient evidence to support the arguments raised ( Kendeou et al., 2014 ), come from credible sources like experts ( Van Boekel et al., 2017 ), use powerful language ( Areni, 2003 ; Blankenship and Holtgraves, 2005 ), and draw an emotional response from readers ( Chambliss and Garner, 1996 ). In contrast to persuasive texts, expository or neutral texts include a description and explanation of a concept or topic that do not directly challenge individuals’ beliefs or behaviors, and do not include arguments to persuade individuals to change ( Kendeou et al., 2019 ). For this research, we focused specifically on individuals’ emotional responses to assess how different emotions persuaded individuals to take preventive action.

Emotions and persuasion

Emotions are recognized as critical to individuals’ attitudes, motivation, learning, and performance ( Pekrun and Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2014 ; Sinatra and Seyranian, 2016 ). Emotion theorists define emotions as multifaceted phenomena that include affective, cognitive, motivational, physiological, and expressive components ( Scherer and Moors, 2019 ). For example, anxiety that an individual has about the current pandemic situation may consist of feelings of uneasiness (affective), worry about getting COVID-19 (cognitive), desire to avoid people (motivation), increased heart rate and sweaty palms (physiological), and nervous facial expression (expressive; Pekrun and Stephens, 2012 ). Moreover, the type of emotion that arises can be described according to arousal (activating versus deactivating), valence (positive versus negative), and object focus (e.g., social emotions, topic emotions, achievement emotions).

Research has shown that positive emotional experiences, like happiness and hope, may increase effortful processing of information ( Pekrun et al., 2009 ; Muis et al., 2015 ), whereas negative emotional experiences, like frustration and anger, often reduce effortful processing ( Muis et al., 2015 ), as negative emotions draw attentional resources away from the task at hand ( Meinhardt and Pekrun, 2003 ). For reading processes specifically, according to Bohn-Gettler’s (2019) Process-Emotion-Task (PET) framework, the influence that emotions have on reading comprehension will vary as a function of the nature of the task and the emotion being examined. For example, text-based research has shown that readers who experience higher positive emotions may engage in more assimilative processing, like backward inferences and elaboration, to integrate new information into existing mental representations compared to individuals who experience lower levels of positive emotions or more neutral or negative emotions ( Bohn-Gettler and McCrudden, 2022 ). However, individuals who experience higher positive emotions may also ignore information that is inconsistent with their beliefs, which decreases the likelihood of changing those beliefs when their beliefs are challenged ( Trevors and Kendeou, 2020 ). This suggests that positive emotions do not always result in improved processing of information and that context needs to be taken into consideration.

Additionally, when information is inconsistent with beliefs, this can trigger threat appraisals that prompt intense negative emotions, like anxiety, anger, and fear ( Gregoire, 2003 ). When this occurs, individuals may be more likely to ignore belief-inconsistent information to protect their beliefs and avoid negative emotions, which may result in individuals learning less from those texts or changing fewer misconceptions, if at all, particularly about controversial topics ( Trevors, 2022 ). However, negative emotions can also prompt accommodative processing ( Bohn-Gettler, 2019 ). For example, information that is inconsistent with beliefs may initially trigger surprise (a neutral emotion), followed by confusion, frustration, or anxiety ( Muis et al., 2018 ). These negative emotions, when they are not too intense, can signal to an individual that something is not quite right ( Muis et al., 2018 ). When this occurs, individuals may engage in accommodation of existing knowledge or belief structures so that new information can be incorporated. Accordingly, as Bohn-Gettler (2019) has argued, context matters with regard to whether emotions will facilitate or constrain processing of information and subsequent belief and behavioral change.

In the COVID-19 pandemic context, researchers report that around the globe, as of 21 April 2020, individuals were experiencing negative emotions like anger due to lockdowns and removal of freedoms, sadness about the number of people who have died, fear about contracting COVID-19, a distrust in governments, and doubts about the seriousness of the pandemic ( Xue et al., 2020 ). Individuals also expressed positive emotions including hope, joy, and empathy ( Xue et al., 2020 ). These results suggest that individuals with misconceptions about the seriousness of the situation ( Ecker et al., 2022 ), negative attitudes toward lockdowns, or negative emotions about COVID-19 may need to be persuaded to change their beliefs, understandings, emotions, or judgments so that they engage more deeply with the content ( Murphy, 1998 ; Alexander et al., 2000 ) to increase the likelihood that they will take preventive action. It may also be the case the overly positive emotions that indicate a lack of understanding of the seriousness of the pandemic (like joy) may also need to be reduced so that individuals process the information more deeply to shift beliefs.

Accordingly, to persuade individuals to take prevention action to slow the spread of the virus and to save lives, it may be critical to develop a persuasive message that addresses both positive and negative emotions such that individuals are more likely to process the information and change beliefs about the seriousness of the pandemic. To date, research on the role of emotions in social persuasion has been limited ( Thacker et al., 2021 ), but increasingly more research is exploring this issue in the context of the pandemic. For example, Heffner et al. (2021) focused on positive versus negative emotions and willingness to engage in social isolation via a threatening (e.g., millions will die) or pro-social text (e.g., “save millions of lives”). Results revealed that both texts were effective in increasing willingness to isolate, but that the threatening text was moderately unpleasant and highly arousing whereas the pro-social text was fairly pleasant and moderately arousing. In another study, Pfattheicher et al. (2020) found that empathy predicted willingness to engage in social distancing and wearing a face mask ( Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ).

More research is necessary, however, to understand how specific discrete emotions may facilitate or constrain social persuasion. That is, it may be the case that emotions differentially predict individuals’ willingness to take preventive action. For example, although negative emotions often negatively predict learning from text, it may be the case that anxiety or sadness about COVID-19 increases individuals’ willingness to engage in, and actually take preventive action. Increased anxiety may drive individuals’ extrinsic motivation to process the content more deeply ( Meinhardt and Pekrun, 2003 ) to ensure they do what they can to avoid getting COVID and saving lives. Fostering hope and empathy and decreasing anger and hopelessness may also be necessary to foster an increase in willingness to take preventive action. If individuals are angry about the lockdowns and do not believe the pandemic is a serious situation, they may need to be convinced that it is serious. An increase in perceptions of the seriousness of the pandemic may reduce their anger, thus allowing them to engage more deeply with the content. As Bohn-Gettler (2019) argued, context matters with regard to how emotions may facilitate or constrain text processing. That is, theoretically predictable patterns of relations between emotions and processing may vary as a function of the context in which the emotions occur. Accordingly, it is critical to examine how discrete emotions may facilitate or constrain the processing of persuasive messages in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some research in health promotion has demonstrated the effectiveness of persuasive messages and behavioral change through positively framed messages, to the best of our knowledge, none have focused on the role of discrete emotions on actual behavioral change.

Elaboration Likelihood Model and health promotion

Since the early 1990s, health communication researchers have developed health promotion campaigns using the ELM and persuasive messages as a guide ( Petty et al., 2009 ), targeting areas like exercise ( Jones et al., 2003 ; Petty et al., 2017 ), AIDS and condom use ( Carnaghi et al., 2007 ), smoking cessation ( Flynn et al., 2011 ), and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) education ( Berry et al., 2007 ), among others. For example, to increase exercise intentions and behaviors, Jones et al. (2003) randomly assigned individuals to a positively or negatively framed communication from a credible or non-credible source. Results revealed that individuals who were given a positively framed message (benefits of exercise rather than a negative fear appeal) by an expert reported greater exercise intentions and actual exercise behaviors than individuals in the other conditions.

With regard to motivation, previous research on disease prevention, like vaccination decisions, has investigated self-interested versus pro-social motives to promote change in behaviors. The findings demonstrate that people have both self-interested and altruistic motives for vaccinations, and that targeting both types of motivations increases intentions to vaccinate ( Hendrix et al., 2014 ; Li et al., 2016 , Betsch et al., 2017 ). Of particular relevance, recent research on COVID-19 suggests that disease prevention messages that focus on both public and personal benefits are more effective in increasing preventive behavioral intentions compared to addressing personal benefits alone ( Everett et al., 2020 ; Jordan et al., 2020 ). As such, messages should target both personal and public benefits while also invoking positive emotions, like empathy, and reducing negative emotions, like anger, to increase preventive actions. In contrast, more positive emotions like happiness may need to be reduced to ensure individuals do not ignore belief-inconsistent information.

The current study

To date, although several studies have been conducted to examine the effectiveness of educational interventions on willingness to engage in preventive action during the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., Everett et al., 2020 ; Jordan et al., 2020 ; Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ; Heffner et al., 2021 ), our understanding of the role of emotionally driven persuasive messages on increasing preventive action and reducing risky behaviors remains limited. Moreover, countries around the globe are not only at different phases of dealing with the pandemic, but also differ in their overall strategies and political systems. To examine the efficacy of different types of persuasive messages, we chose four countries that were at different phases at the onset of the pandemic and different phases of government action to slow the spread of the infection: Canada (lockdown in place for 3.5 weeks), USA (only some states beginning lockdown, such as California), UK (lockdown in place for 3.5 weeks), and Italy (lockdown in place for 6 weeks).

It is critical to better understand what persuasive messages are most effective in getting individuals to take preventive action (i.e., willingness and behavior), and whether emotions play a role in persuasion. The current research explores this pressing issue. The goal of this research was to develop a credible, powerful message on the seriousness of COVID-19, and to persuade individuals to take preventive action to stop the spread of the virus by focusing on personal relevance (i.e., don’t get it) and prosocial motives (gains focusing on saving lives). Across four different countries, individuals first reported their level of concern and general emotions about the pandemic, and then were randomly assigned to receive a negative message that focused on the number of deaths that could occur if individuals do not take preventive action, a positive message that focused on saving lives if preventive action is taken, or no message (control condition). Following this, participants in the two text conditions again reported their emotions about the pandemic, and then all participants rated their willingness to engage in preventive action and, 1 week later, reported actual preventive action taken.

Our research questions were as follows: (1) Are there differences in reported willingness to engage in preventive action as a function of condition (i.e., positive text condition, negative text condition, no text control condition)? (2) Are there differences in reported actual preventive actions as a function of condition 1 week following intervention? (3) Are there differences in reported emotions as a function of text condition? (4) Do emotions predict and mediate willingness to engage in prevention action, and actual preventive action 1 week following intervention?

Based on previous theoretical ( Petty and Cacioppo, 1986 ; Briñol and Petty, 2009 ) and empirical work ( Dryhurst et al., 2020 ; Jordan et al., 2020 ; Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ), we hypothesized that participants in the positive text condition would report a greater willingness to engage in preventive actions compared to the other two conditions, and that individuals in the negative text condition would be more willing to engage in preventive actions compared to the no text control condition (Hypothesis 1). We further hypothesized that participants in the positive text condition would report higher levels of actual preventive action, and lower levels of risky social behaviors compared to participants in the other two conditions, with participants in the negative text condition reporting higher levels of preventive action, and lower levels of risky social behaviors compared to participants in the control condition (Hypothesis 2). We also hypothesized that individuals in the positive text condition would report higher levels of positive emotions and lower levels of negative emotions compared to the other two conditions (Hypothesis 3), and that emotions would mediate relations between text condition and willingness and actual preventive action (Hypothesis 4). Based on previous research ( Xue et al., 2020 ), we targeted the seven emotions that were most frequently reported around the globe concerning the current pandemic situation: happy, hopeful, empathetic, angry, anxious, sad, and hopeless.

Specifically, we hypothesized that higher levels of happiness may reflect that individuals do not believe the pandemic situation is serious and will be less likely to engage in preventive action ( Gregoire, 2003 ; Trevors and Kendeou, 2020 ; Trevors, 2022 ). Similarly, higher levels of anger may reflect individuals’ feelings about the restrictions and lockdowns and may be less likely to engage in preventive action. Higher levels of hopelessness may lead individuals to engage in less preventive action as they may perceive that preventive action will not help. In contrast, higher levels of hope, empathy, anxiety, and sadness about the pandemic may prompt individuals to take preventive action. See Figure 1 (for willingness) and Figure 2 (for actual preventive action) for the hypothesized models.

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Hypothesized model of relations between text condition, emotions, and willingness to engage in preventive action.

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Hypothesized model of relations between text condition, emotions, and actual engagement in preventive action.

Methodology

Participants.

We conducted a power analysis using G*Power (Version 3.1; Faul et al., 2007 ), which indicated that a sample of 432 would be necessary to detect a small effect of 0.15 (α = 0.05, power = 0.80). As such, we set a target of 450 participants for each country in case countries could not be merged and separate analyses by country were required.

One hundred seventy-five participants were recruited across Canada on 17 April 2020, using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Another 327 participants from Canada were sampled by using a snowball sampling technique through Facebook. Of the 175 participants sampled using MTurk, three failed at least one of the two attention check questions and were subsequently removed, for a total of 172 participants from MTurk. Of the 327 participants sampled through Facebook, 292 completed the survey and passed both attention checks for a total sample of 464 (280 females, 26 did not respond) for the first survey, with 306 returning to complete the second survey (190 females). The average age was 39.84 years ( SD = 14.49), with 83.1% reporting English as their first language, 40.1% reporting receiving a bachelor’s degree, and 50% reporting a personal annual income of $55,000 Canadian denomination (CAD) per year or less. For political views, 77% said they were liberal (Liberal, New Democratic, or Green), 15% said they were conservative, with the remaining being People’s Party or Bloc Québecois. With the exception of Prince Edward Island, Nunavut/Northwest Territories and the Yukon, all other provinces were represented.

Four hundred seventy-six participants were recruited from across the USA on 17 April 2020, using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). An additional 95 USA MTurk participants were recruited on 20 April 2020. Of the 571 participants sampled, 183 were removed for spending less than 20 s reading the information or persuasive texts, 117 were removed for failing at least one attention check question, nine were removed for reporting non-USA zip codes, and eight were removed after being identified as duplicate participants. Of the remaining 254 participants, 173 completed the 1-week follow-up survey and passed both attention checks in the follow-up survey ( n = 57 females). The average age of the sample was 35.91 years ( SD = 11.13), with 89.4% reporting English as their first language, 59.4% reporting receiving a bachelor’s degree, and 51.2% reporting an annual income of $50,000 USD per year or less. For political views, 36% said they were conservative (Republican) and 64% said they were liberal (Democratic). Participants were grouped into four regions based on the first three digits of their zip code (16.1% Northeast, 36.6% South, 20.9% Midwest, 26.4% West).

Four hundred fifty UK residents, representative of the population in terms of age, sex, and ethnicity (excluding those under 18 years of age), were recruited on 17 April 2020; 426 returned for the second part of the study. Participants were recruited through the crowdsourcing platform Prolific.co . Participants received a combined GBP £5.00 (USD $6.17) for taking part in both surveys. We excluded 21 participants who failed an attention check ( n = 16), spent under 20 s reading the text ( n = 4) or submitted an incorrect code ( n = 1). Data for two returning participant IDs that could not be matched with the first survey were also dropped. The remaining sample ( N = 429; 220 females, 207 males, 1 non-binary, 1 unreported) averaged 46.04 years in age ( SD = 15.81). Of the participants, 53.4% possessed a university degree. Median household income was between GBP £35,000 and GBP £40,000 (USD $42,581 to USD $48,664). For political views, 18% reported being conservative, 48% reported being liberal, and 34% reported being neutral.

Two hundred forty-four participants across Italy were recruited from April 27th to April 29th, 2020, using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). Of these participants, three failed at least one of the two attention check questions and were subsequently removed. A total of 241 participants (158 females, 81 males, 1 non-binary sex, and 1 unreported sex) completed the first survey and 165 returned to complete the follow-up survey. The average age of the sample was 29.95 years ( SD = 9.78), with 92% reporting Italian as their first language, 27% reporting a high school diploma, 13% a Bachelor’s degree and 24% a Master degree. For political views, 12% reported being conservative, 39% reported being neutral, and 49% reported being liberal. The reported median household income was between 15,000 and 20,000 € per year. Northern, Central, and Southern (with islands) Italy was represented.

Experimental texts

Two experimental texts were adapted from Jordan et al. (2020) , which were updated with the most current information on the day participants were recruited. With the exception of the emotional component, all features of the texts were identical [e.g., same credible sources were used (e.g., World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention); written to be personally relevant; used persuasive language]. The first 269 words were identical across both texts, which began by providing participants with basic information about COVID-19, where it started, and the number of confirmed cases in Canada (or the USA, UK, or Italy, depending on the country in which participants were recruited) and world-wide. The text described the risk COVID-19 poses, the number of people in Canada (USA, UK, or Italy) that could be infected by the virus over the course of the pandemic, and the number of people who could die. It also stated how many people could require hospitalization, and how this high number could potentially crush the nation’s medical system due to a shortage of hospital beds, staff, intensive care units (ICUs) and ventilators. The text then stated how contagious COVID-19 is, described it as a serious threat, and recommended that the threat should be taken very seriously to prevent further spread.

The negative text then included a description about what each individual can do to keep safe from contracting (personal benefit) and spreading it (public benefit), including practicing good hygiene, engaging in social distancing, and self-isolating if even a bit sick. The text then ended with a graphic of the number of projected deaths over the course of the pandemic as a function of the percentage of the population being infected, which was taken directly from a technical briefing for Canadians ( Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020 ; or other relevant country source). Total word count for the negative text was 342 (363 for the USA, 350 for the UK, and 483 for Italy), with a Flesch reading ease score of 41.1 (34.6 for the USA, 26.2 for the UK, and Gulpease index of readability was 57 for the Italian text where 100 = very easy), and a Flesch–Kincaid grade level of 11.7 (13.4 for the USA, and 16.8 for the UK).

The positive text included a description about what federal and provincial governments have done to stop the spread of the virus, and then stated that those actions are not enough; that we need to do more to stop the spread and save lives. The same preventive actions as in the negative text were then listed. The positive text next included a description of different scenarios in Canada (USA, UK, or Italy) if people take full action (i.e., all preventive actions), less action, or no action, and then asked people to do their part in saving lives by taking full action now. The same graphic as the negative text was then presented. Total word count for the positive text was 566 (580 for the USA, 537 for the UK, 731 for Italy), with a Flesch reading ease score of 41.1 (40.3 for the USA, 35.2 for the UK, Gulpease index = 56), and a Flesch–Kincaid grade level of 11.7 (12.5 for the USA, and 14.5 for the UK). See the Supplementary Appendix for each text used.

Text analysis

We conducted a textual analysis of the linguistic valence for each text to ensure the texts were valenced in the appropriate direction. That is, the positive persuasive text should be more linguistically valenced in a positive direction compared to the negative persuasive text (which should be more negative than the positive text). We used SEANCE 1.2.0 (sentiment analysis and social cognition engine; Crossley et al., 2017 ) using VADER. As a manipulation check, we also analyzed each text for positive emotions versus negative emotions. For valence, results revealed that the negative text had more negative valence (0.134) than the positive text (0.099) but that both texts were equivalent in positive valence (both at 0.06). For positive versus negative emotions, results revealed that the positive text used more positive emotions (0.08) compared to the negative text (0.06) and that the negative text used more negative emotions (0.07) than the positive text (0.06). In summary, these results suggest that with regard to the negative valence (both linguistic and emotional), the negative text was more negative than the positive text, and that the positive text was more emotionally positive than the negative text.

COVID-19 concern

A self-report questionnaire consisting of five items was used to measure participants’ concern about the pandemic. These items were taken from health-based research that assesses individuals’ perceived seriousness of an event; specifically, the negative consequences related to an anticipated health event in the future (e.g., getting COVID), or to a current pre-existing health problem ( Rosenstock, 1974 ). As previous research over the past five decades has shown, concern predicts the likelihood that individuals will take action to prevent illness or disease (see Stretcher and Rosenstock, 1997 ). Example items included, “How concerned are you at present about the coronavirus pandemic?” and “In terms of the pandemic, how concerned are you about your own physical health?” Participants rated each item on a 5-point Likert scale with anchors for each value: 1 “Not at all,” 2 “A little,” “Moderately,” “Very much,” and 5 “Extremely” concerned. Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimate was good at α = 0.84.

A self-report questionnaire consisting of seven items was used to measure participants’ emotions toward COVID-19. Each item consisted of a single word (e.g., “Happy”) and participants were asked to report the intensity of their emotional response to COVID-19 in relation to the pandemic prior to reading the text (all three groups) and again after they read the text (positive and negative text conditions). Research has shown that single-item measures are psychometrically sound substitutes for multi-item scales when administration time is limited (e.g., Gogol et al., 2014 ). Intensity was reported using a 5-point Likert scale with the following labels: 1 “Not at all,” 2 “Very little,” 3 “Moderate,” 4 “Strong,” and 5 “Very Strong.” Seven emotions were measured: happiness, hope, empathy, anger, anxiety, sadness, and hopelessness.

Willingness to engage in preventive action

A 22-item measure, adapted from Jordan et al. (2020) , was used to assess participants’ willingness to engage in preventive action. Following recommendations provided by health authorities [e.g., center for disease control (CDC)], items were defined as (1) preventive actions to protect oneself (personal) and others (social) and, (2) social distancing and isolation. The first eight items measured participants’ willingness to engage in personal and social preventive actions using a sliding scale ranging from 1 (not at all willing to do this) to 100 (very willing to do this), with 50 (moderately willing to do this) in the middle. Examples included, “Wash my hands with soap for at least 15–20 seconds,” “Wipe down high-traffic surfaces at home with a disinfectant (e.g., door handles, counters, toilet levers, light switches),” and “Try my hardest to not touch my face.” The subsequent 14 items measured willingness to engage in social distancing and isolation actions using the same sliding scale. Examples included, “Keep at least 2 metres (6 feet) apart from people when I go outside for a walk or exercise,” “Limit trips outside for essential needs only (e.g., for getting groceries, medications),” “Stay home if I am not feeling well.” Cronbach’s alphas were high at α = 0.89 and 0.92 for the preventive and social distancing/isolation scales, respectively.

Follow-up preventive action behavior measure

In the 1-week follow-up survey, participants were given the exact same items as the willingness scale (but written in past tense, see below), with one dropped due to redundancy (i.e., “Stay at home, even if a bit sick” versus “Stay at home”). The first seven items measured individuals’ engagement in preventive action, and the next seven measured individuals’ engagement in social distancing and isolation. For those 14 items, participants were asked to rate the extent to which they engaged in the following actions over the past 7 days using a sliding scale from “0% of the time” to “100% of the time,” with “50% of the time” being the middle option. Compared to the original willingness scale items completed 1 week prior, items for the post-test were written in past tense rather than future tense. For example, the original item “Try my hardest not to touch my face” was rewritten as “Tried my hardest not to touch my face.” Other items included, “Washed my hands with soap before I ate,” and “Used an alcohol-based disinfectant if I did not have access to water and soap.” The remaining seven items required participants to report the number of times they actually engaged in specific behaviors over the past 7 days. These items were identical to those from the willingness scale, but because the sliding scale descriptors did not logically make sense with these items, participants were asked to provide the actual number with which they engaged in the behaviors (e.g., items like “have face-to-face gatherings with people who do not live with you” could not logically be reported on a sliding scale from 0% of the time to 100% of the time). Moreover, these seven items were behaviors that would put people at risk for contracting COVID, or spreading it to others, for example, “Use public transportation,” “Go shopping for non-essential goods,” and “Have visitors in your home who do not live with you.” As such, we labeled these items as “risky” behaviors, which were also summed across the seven items for a total “risk” score. Cronbach’s alpha for the preventive action and social distancing/isolation scales were good at α = 0.77 and α = 0.79, respectively. Given that the other scale was a frequency count of actual behavior, Cronbach alpha for reliability is not appropriate to compute (see Jones et al., 2003 ).

Demographic information

Participants reported their age, sex, first language spoken, highest level of education completed, political affiliation and views, and annual income.

Ethics was first approved by ethics boards at each respective university conducting the research in each country. After providing consent, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: positive text, negative text, or no text (control condition). After providing consent, all participants completed the concern about COVID questionnaire followed by the emotions scale about COVID. Participants in the control condition then completed the willingness to engage in preventive action scale followed by the demographics questionnaire. For participants in the two text conditions, following completion of the emotions scale, they were presented with one of the texts and instructed to “Please read the information about COVID-19 carefully, which the World Health Organization has recently classified as a pandemic.” Once participants in the two text conditions read the texts, they were asked to report their emotions again and were then given the willingness to engage in preventive action scale followed by the demographics questionnaire. All participants were then asked to provide their Worker IDs (for MTurk) or emails (Facebook) if they were interested in participating in the 1-week follow-up survey.

Seven days after completion of the first survey, participants were invited to participate in the second survey. MTurk participants were paid $1 USD for each survey completed, Prolific.co participants were paid £4 for the first survey and £1 for the second survey, and participants sampled from Facebook were entered into a draw to win $100, with the chance of winning being 1 in 100, for each survey completed.

Preliminary analyses

Data cleaning and screening.

For outliers, 29 individuals reported frequencies of actual behaviors as unrealistic (scores ranging from 200 times to 2,000 times for items like “Wipe down high traffic surfaces at home”) and were deemed entry errors and were defined as missing data. For normality, as expected, all preventive actions were negatively skewed. Happy at pre-test and post-test was positively skewed (12.32 and 13.02). Hopeless at pre-test and post-test was also positively skewed (6.2 and 4.92) as was angry at post-test (5.95). Finally, empathy at pre-test was negatively skewed (–6.17).

To address the skewness issue, we used PROCESS for SPSS ( Hayes, 2022 ) with bootstrap sampling which has no underlying distributional assumptions for mediation analysis ( Hayes, 2022 ). PROCESS Model 4 with bootstrap sampling set to 10,000 and confidence intervals set at 95% were used to examine differences between groups on emotions and outcomes, to explore relations between emotions and outcomes, and to assess whether emotions mediated relations between text condition and outcomes. Specifically, with Model 4, indicator coding was used to examine mean differences between text conditions (entered as X variables) for both emotions (entered as mediators) and behavioral outcomes (entered as Y variables) with the control condition as the reference group (Hypothesis 1 and 2). Using Model 4 in PROCESS also allowed us to examine direct effects of emotions on outcomes (Hypothesis 3), and whether emotions mediated relations between text conditions and outcomes (Hypothesis 4).

Prior to conducting the analyses, we examined whether attrition for the 1-week follow-up was at random as a function of condition and demographic variables measured. Little’s test revealed that all missing data were missing completely at random (MCAR). For consistency purposes for analyses across the two time points, we then removed participants who did not complete both surveys (immediate and 1-week delay). Of the original 1,412 participants, 1,078 completed both surveys and were used for all analyses reported below. We then calculated intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) to assess whether nested analyses by country were needed given that each country was at a different stage of the pandemic and had different regulations in place with regard to government restrictions. For all outcomes, ICCs were less than 05. Multigroup analyses to assess measurement invariance (configural, metric, and scalar) across country samples for the outcomes of interest were then conducted. Results revealed that, with the exception of scalar invariance, configural and metric invariance held at each level for all outcomes. Given the low ICCs and that invariance held across samples, we combined all samples into one. We then assessed whether the willingness items would be better represented by a two-factor solution, as defined by the CDC, or as a one-factor solution. Results from the two-factor solution revealed a better fit of the model (CFI = 0.94, RMSEA = 0.07) than the one-factor model (CFI = 0.79, RMSEA = 0.12). Finally, no differences were found between groups on emotions prior to reading for happiness, F (2, 1077) = 2.79, p > 0.05, hope, F (2, 1077) = 1.41, p > 0.05, empathy, F (2, 1077) = 0.34, p > 0.05, anger, F (2, 1077) = 3.03, p = 0.05, anxiety, F (2, 1077) = 2.85, p > 0.05, sadness, F (2, 1077) = 3.08, p > 0.05, and hopelessness, F (2, 1077) = 1.80, p > 0.05.

To assess to what extent participants needed to be persuaded about the seriousness of the pandemic, we examined individuals’ level of concern. On average, participants were only moderately concerned about the pandemic, M = 3.22, SD = 0.89. Specifically, 36.2% of the sample was not at all to only a little concerned about the pandemic, 39.8% were moderately concerned about the pandemic, and 24% of the sample indicated they were very concerned to extremely concerned. We interpreted this as evidence that nearly half the sample needed to be persuaded about the seriousness of the pandemic and to take preventive action. We then assessed whether groups differed on level of concern about the pandemic. No statistical differences between groups were found, F (2, 1076) = 1.70, p = 0.18. Finally, to provide evidence that level of concern predicts the likelihood of taking preventive action, we computed correlations between concern and each of the preventive action outcomes. As expected, concern correlated with each of the preventive actions; personal preventive willingness r = 0.22, p < 0.001, social distancing willingness r = 0.18, p < 0.001, actual personal preventive action r = 0.25, p < 0.001, actual social distancing/isolation r = 0.08, p < 0.01, and risky behaviors r = –0.08, p = 0.04.

Treatment fidelity

To assess whether the text had the intended effect on participants’ emotions, we compared specific emotions that we expected would shift prior to and after reading the text based on the text content: happiness, hope, anger, sadness, and hopelessness (the control group did not receive a text, so emotions were measured only once for that group). We expected that individuals who read the positive text would likely remain consistent in their level of happiness (i.e., no decrease) or even a slight decrease given the nature of the topic, but not to the same extent as individuals who were given the negative text, who were expected to report a decrease in happiness. We also expected that individuals in the positive text condition would report a similar level of sadness and hopelessness (i.e., no decrease), but a decrease in anger and an increase in hope given the focus on saving lives. In contrast, we expected individuals in the negative text condition to report an increase in sadness and hopelessness, and a decrease in hope and anger given the focus on deaths.

Consistent with predictions, paired-samples t -tests revealed that individuals who were given the positive text reported no change in the level of happiness ( M = 1.89, SD = 1.08; M = 1.80, SD = 0.98), t (346) = 1.49, p = 0.14, sadness ( M = 3.12, SD = 1.22; M = 3.01, SD = 1.26), t (346) = 0.11, p = 0.91, or hopelessness ( M = 2.37, SD = 1.21; M = 2.36, SD = 1.24), t (346) = 0.12, p = 0.90, after reading the text but did report a decrease in anger ( M = 2.63, SD = 1.12; M = 2.38, SD = 1.20), t (346) = 3.58, p < 0.001, d = 0.20. In contrast to predictions, participants’ level of hope slightly decreased rather than increased ( M = 3.05, SD = 1.00; M = 2.76, SD = 1.07), t (346) = 4.68, p < 0.001, d = 0.27. As expected, individuals who were given the negative text reported a decrease in happiness ( M = 1.82, SD = 1.03; M = 1.63, SD = 0.90), t (323) = 3.80, p < 0.001, d = 0.21, hope ( M = 2.94, SD = 0.97; M = 2.51, SD = 1.05), t (324) = 8.72, p < 0.001, d = 0.48, and anger ( M = 2.63, SD = 1.11; M = 2.30, SD = 1.14), t (324) = 6.09, p < 0.001, d = 0.34, and an increase in hopelessness ( M = 2.55, SD = 1.25; M = 2.65, SD = 1.25), t (336) = –1.99, p = 0.04, d = 0.11. No change in sadness ( M = 3.19, SD = 1.23; M = 3.15, SD = 1.23), t (324) = 0.87, p = 0.38, occurred after reading the text. Except for sadness, we interpreted these results to suggest that the texts had the intended effect.

Means and SDs for all outcomes as a function of text condition are depicted in Table 1 , and Table 2 reports the means and SDs of emotions for each text condition at pretest and posttest. Table 3 includes the zero-order correlations for all continuous variables. Figures 3 (willingness), (willingness),4 4 (actual) present the standardized direct effects of relations between text condition, emotions, and the various preventive outcomes.

Preventive willingness and actual behavior as a function of text condition.

Positive text condition, N = 347; negative text condition, N = 325; control condition N = 406.

Emotions at pre- and post-test as a function of text condition.

The control group completed the emotions questionnaire only once given that they were not presented a text. Pre and post for that group included the same data.

Zero order correlations between variables.

N = 1078. ** p < 0.001, * p < 0.01.

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Model of relations between text condition, emotions, and willingness to engage in preventive action. Standardized effects; only significant paths are shown for emotions to outcomes to reduce complexity. * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01.

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Model of relations between text condition, emotions, and actual engagement in preventive action. Standardized effects; only significant paths are shown for emotions to outcomes to reduce complexity. * p < 0.05 and ** p < 0.01.

For the first research question, whether text condition had an effect on willingness to engage in preventive action , results revealed a significant main effect of text condition, F (9, 1067) = 6.58, p < 0.001. Specifically, no significant difference was found between the negative text condition and the control condition, t = 0.63, p = 0.54, but a significant difference was found between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = 2.45, p = 0.01, d = 0.27, and between the positive text condition and the negative text condition, t = 2.41, p = 0.02, d = 0.20. As hypothesized, the positive persuasive text significantly increased individuals’ willingness to engage in preventive action compared to the negative text condition and the control condition. Similarly, for willingness to engage in social distancing and isolation, results revealed a significant main effect of text condition, F (9, 1067) = 8.43, p < 0.001. Specifically, no significant difference was found between the negative text condition and the control condition, t = 1.03, p = 0.31, but a significant difference was found between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = 2.01, p = 0.045, d = 0.17. No difference was found between the positive text condition and negative text condition, t = 1.42, p > 0.05.

Actual preventive action

For the second research question, whether text condition had an effect on actual preventive action , results revealed a significant omnibus test of the direct effect of text condition, F (9, 1073) = 7.54, p < 0.01. Results from the relative direct effects of text condition on engagement in preventive action revealed no significant difference between the negative text condition and the control condition, t = –1.09, p = 0.27, but a significant difference between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = 2.44, p = 0.01, d = 0.14, and between the positive text condition and negative text condition, t = 3.42, p < 0.001, d = 0.28. As hypothesized, the positive text significantly increased individuals’ engagement in preventive action 1 week following the intervention compared to the negative text condition and the control condition. In contrast, for engagement in social distancing and isolation, results revealed no significant differences between conditions for the seven items on the scale, all p > 0.05.

For engagement in risky behaviors (the other seven items for social distancing and isolation), results revealed a significant omnibus test of the direct effect of text condition on engagement in risky behaviors, F (9, 1051) = 4.64, p = 0.01. Results from the relative direct effects of text condition on engagement in risky behaviors revealed no significant difference between the negative text condition and the control condition, t = 0.20, p = 0.84, nor between the positive text condition and negative text condition, t = –1.76, p > 0.05. However, a significant difference was found between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = –2.49, p = 0.01, d = 0.32. As hypothesized, the positive persuasive text significantly decreased individuals’ engagement in risky behaviors 1 week following the intervention compared to the control condition. From a positive perspective, one can infer that the positive text increased individuals social distancing and isolation behaviors indirectly via a reduction in behaviors that put them at risk to getting or spreading COVID.

Effect of text condition on emotions

For the third research question, whether individuals’ emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic differed as a function of text condition , results revealed a main effect of text condition on happiness, F (2, 1074) = 7.32, p < 0.001. Specifically, a significant difference was found in intensity of happiness between the negative text condition and the control condition, t = –3.81, p < 0.001, d = 0.39, but not between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = –1.46, p = 0.14 nor between the positive text condition and negative text condition, t = 0.54, p > 0.05. As can be seen in Table 2 , the negative text significantly reduced individuals’ level of happiness about the pandemic situation as compared with the other two conditions (although not statistically different from the positive text condition), which was expected given the primarily negative tone of the message.

For hope , results revealed a main effect of text condition, F (2, 1076) = 21.89, p < 0.001. Specifically, a significant difference in intensity of hope was found between the negative text condition and the control condition, t = –6.59, p < 0.001, d = 0.50, and between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = –3.51, p < 0.001, d = 0.27, but not between the positive text and negative text conditions, t = –0.17, p > 0.05. Participants in the two text conditions expressed less hope than those in the control condition. For empathy , results revealed a significant main effect of text condition, F (2, 1074) = 4.65, p = 0.009. Individuals in the negative text condition significantly differed in intensity of empathy from the control condition, t = –2.56, p = 0.01, d = 0.18, as did the positive text condition compared to the control condition, t = –2.64, p < 0.01, d = 0.17. No differences were found between the positive text and negative text conditions, t = –1.49, p > 0.01. Individuals in the control condition expressed significantly more empathy than individuals in the two text conditions.

For anger , results revealed a main effect of text condition, F (2, 1074) = 18.96, p < 0.001. A significant difference in intensity of anger was found between the negative text condition and the control condition, t = –5.61, p < 0.001, d = 0.44, between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = –4.80, p < 0.001, d = 0.23, and between the positive text condition and negative text condition, t = –2.17, p = 0.03, d = 0.07. Both texts had the effect of reducing individuals’ anger about the pandemic compared to the control condition, but more so in the negative text condition compared to the positive text condition. No differences were found for anxiety between text conditions, F (2, 1074) = 2.09, p = 0.12.

For sadness , results revealed a significant main effect of text condition, F (2, 1074) = 3.78, p = 0.02. Individuals in the negative text condition expressed a similar level of sadness compared to the control condition, t = 1.86, p = 0.24, whereas a significant difference was found between the positive text condition and the control condition, t = –2.75, p = 0.006, d = 0.19 with participants in the control condition reporting higher levels of sadness. A significant difference was also found between the positive text condition and negative text condition, t = 2.40, p = 0.02, d = 0.11, with the positive text condition expressing the least amount of sadness. Finally, for hopelessness , there was a significant main effect of text condition F (2, 1074) = 5.08, p = 0.006. Specifically, participants in the negative text condition reported significantly higher levels of hopelessness compared to the control group, t = 2.17, p = 0.03, d = 0.15, whereas individuals in the positive text condition reported similar levels of hopelessness compared to the control group, t = –1.09, p = 0.27. Significant differences were also found between the positive text condition and the negative text condition, t = –2.46, p = 0.01, d = 0.24, wherein participants in the negative text condition reported higher levels of hopelessness.

Emotions as mediators of text effects

For the last research question, we examined whether emotions predicted and mediated willingness to engage in prevention action , and actual preventive action 1 week following intervention. To reduce complexity, we report significant results only. Results revealed that happiness (ß = –0.12, p = 0.002), empathy (ß = 0.17, p < 0.001), anxiety (ß = 0.13, p < 0.001), sadness (ß = 0.10, p = 0.01), and hopelessness (ß = –0.13, p = 0.001) significantly predicted individuals’ willingness to engage in preventive action. That is, the greater their happiness and sense of hopelessness, the less willing they were to engage in personal preventive action, whereas the higher their levels of empathy, anxiety and sadness, the more willing individuals were to engage in preventive action. Results from mediation analyses further revealed that happiness (indirect effect = 0.03, bootstrap CI from 0.009 to 0.05) and hopelessness (indirect effect = 0.02, bootstrap CI from –0.04 to –0.01) mediated the relationship for differences between the negative text condition and the control condition on willingness to engage in preventive action, whereas sadness (indirect effect = 0.02, bootstrap CI from –0.04 to –0.01) mediated the relationship for differences between the positive text condition and the control condition. Anxiety also mediated the relationship for differences between the positive text condition and negative text condition for willingness to engage in preventive action (indirect effect = –0.01, bootstrap CI from –0.03 to —0.0005).

For willingness to socially distance and isolate, results revealed that happiness (ß = –0.14, p < 0.001), empathy (ß = 0.13, p < 0.001), anger (ß = –0.11, p = 0.001), anxiety (ß = 0.14, p < 0.001), and hopelessness (ß = –0.14, p = 0.03) were significant predictors. That is, the more empathy and anxiety that individuals experienced, the more willing they were to socially distance and isolate, whereas the more happy, angry, and hopeless they felt, the less willing they were to engage in social distancing and isolation behaviors. Results from mediation analyses further revealed that happiness (indirect effect = 0.04, bootstrap CI from 0.015 to 0.07) mediated the relationship for differences between the negative text condition and the control condition on willingness to socially distance and isolate, whereas empathy (indirect effect = –0.02, bootstrap CI from –0.05 to –0.001; indirect effect = –0.02, bootstrap CI from –0.05 to –0.01) mediated the relationship for differences between the negative text condition and the control condition, as well as between the positive text condition and the control condition. Moreover, anger mediated the relationship for both text conditions (indirect effect = 0.05, bootstrap CI from 0.01 to 0.08 for the negative text; indirect effect = 0.04, bootstrap CI from 0.01 to 0.07 for the positive text).

For actual preventive action at 1 week delay, results revealed that empathy (ß = 0.07, p = 0.03) and anxiety (ß = 0.08, p = 0.03) were significant predictors, and that empathy mediated the relationship for both text conditions (indirect effect = –0.01, bootstrap CI from –0.03 to –0.006 for the negative text; indirect effect = –0.01, bootstrap CI from –0.01 to –0.001 for the positive text). For social distancing and isolation at 1 week delay, results revealed that happiness (ß = –0.11, p = 0.01) and anger (ß = –0.08, p = 0.04) were significant negative predictors, whereas anxiety was a significant positive predictor (ß = 0.08, p = 0.04). That is, the more happiness and anger individuals experienced, the less likely they were to engage in social isolation or distancing. In contrast, the more anxiety they experienced, the more likely they were to engage in social distancing and isolation. Finally, for risky social behaviors, none of the emotions were significant predictors.

Supplemental analyses

Given that approximately 36% of our sample was not that concerned about the pandemic, we conducted a supplemental analysis to assess whether level of concern moderated relations between conditions. That is, it could be that individuals who were already concerned about the pandemic (in our sample, approximately 24%) were willing to engage in preventive action and required no persuasion. In contrast, those who were minimally or moderately concerned required a shift in beliefs, and the text conditions may have had variable effects on these individuals. Accordingly, we conducted a moderated mediation using PROCESS (Model 8) to explore the potential effects of level of concern on emotions and willingness and actual preventive action outcomes. Results revealed that level of concern did not moderate relations between text condition on any of the preventive outcomes ( p -values ranged from 0.14 to 0.99). These results suggest that the texts had similar effects across all levels of concern.

We then examined whether change in emotions from pre-test to post-test was moderated by level of concern across the two text conditions. Indeed, results revealed that individuals who were not that concerned about the pandemic were significantly higher in their pre-test level of happiness than those who were moderately to very concerned, but that level of happiness was significantly lower at post-test for both groups but more so for those who were not that concerned originally, F (1, 672) = 10.26, p < 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.01. Similarly, for sadness, individuals who were not that concerned about the pandemic situation reported lower levels of sadness at pre-test compared to those who were concerned at pre-test, but then reported higher levels of sadness at post-test compared to those who were concerned, F (1, 672) = 13.81, p < 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.013. The same pattern was found for anxiety, F (1, 672) = 27.45, p < 0.001, partial η 2 = 0.03, whereby individuals who were initially not that concerned about the pandemic expressed lower levels of anxiety at pre-test compared to those who were concerned, but then reported higher levels of anxiety at post-test compared to those who were already concerned.

Across four countries at different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the efficacy of persuasive texts in increasing individuals’ willingness to engage in preventive action, and in increasing actual preventive action 1 week following the intervention was explored. A second goal was to identify the mechanisms involved in persuading individuals to change their behaviors. Results revealed that individuals who were given the positive persuasive text were more willing to engage in preventive action compared to individuals in the negative text condition and control condition. Results also revealed that individuals who were given the positive persuasive text were more willing to engage in social distancing and isolation than individuals in the control condition. These differences ranged from small to medium in effect size. These results are particularly noteworthy because other studies conducted at the same time showed that interventions were not effective in boosting intentions to engage in social distancing or isolation ( Jordan et al., 2020 ; Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, beyond willingness to engage in preventive action, the findings suggest that the effects extended to actual preventive behavior; individuals who received the positive persuasive text reported engaging in fewer risky behaviors (i.e., not engaging in social distancing and isolation) compared to individuals in the control condition. Finally, across all outcomes of interest, no differences were found between individuals in the negative text condition compared to the control condition.

For differences in emotions across conditions, the negative text significantly reduced individuals’ happiness, hope, empathy, and anger about the pandemic situation, whereas the positive text reduced individuals’ hope, anger, empathy, and sadness. These results suggest that the texts had more complex effects on individuals’ emotions than we originally hypothesized. We expected the positive text to maintain or increase positive emotions (i.e., hope, empathy) and decrease negative emotions (i.e., anger, anxiety, sadness, hopelessness), and the negative text to decrease positive emotions (i.e., happiness) and increase negative ones (i.e., anxiety, sadness). Rather, these decreases in both positive and negative emotions had the effect of prompting individuals to take action for those in the positive persuasive text condition. That is, while individuals across all three conditions were primarily willing to take action (and took preventive action), the positive text persuaded individuals significantly more.

From a theoretical standpoint, a decrease in negative emotions should result in greater elaboration and assimilation of the information presented in the text ( Pekrun et al., 2009 ; Muis et al., 2015 ; Bohn-Gettler, 2019 ), which we expected would translate into a deeper understanding of the seriousness of the situation and more willingness to engage and actually take preventive action. As Bohn-Gettler (2019) argued, the role that emotions play during text processing depends on the context. In this case, the context was a negative situation that already elicited negative emotions. As such, it appears that in the case of a pandemic situation, reducing negative emotions may have played a more prominent role in social persuasion than maintaining or eliciting more positive emotions (see also Trevors et al., 2021 ). Under this context, it may have been particularly challenging to elicit more positive emotions and, as such, a reduction in negative emotions was a necessary alternative.

Alternatively, as Bohn-Gettler (2019) argued, a reduction in positive emotions may be necessary to ensure individuals do not ignore belief inconsistent information. For example, for those individuals who did not believe the pandemic to be a serious situation, they expressed higher levels of happiness prior to the presentation of the texts compared to those who were already concerned. Presentation of the texts, particularly for the negative text, had the effect of reducing individuals’ level of happiness, thereby increasing perceptions of the seriousness of the pandemic and willingness to and actually engage in preventive action. Moreover, for those who were not as concerned about the pandemic at pre-test, their levels of anxiety and sadness were initially lower compared to those who were concerned about the pandemic, but then became higher after reading the texts. This suggests that an increase in negative emotions for these individuals resulted in them taking the pandemic situation more seriously, thereby increasing preventive action. Indeed, under this condition, more negative emotions may have resulted in more accommodation of their existing beliefs, which is consistent with Bohn-Gettler’s (2019) PET framework. Accordingly, it appears that emotions played a significant role in persuading individuals to take preventive action.

Taking preventive action

Both positive and negative texts were designed to increase preventive action and social distancing/isolation by combining personal benefit messages ( Jordan et al., 2020 ) to increase preventive action, and empathic messages ( Pfattheicher et al., 2020 ) to increase social distancing/isolation. The key difference between texts was message framing: positive (saving lives) versus negative (number of deaths). Indeed, the positive text was more effective for increasing willingness and taking action compared to the negative and no text conditions whereas the negative text did not have an effect on willingness or taking action compared to the no text condition. This is consistent with previous research on message framing and behavioral change ( Jones et al., 2003 ), and has important implications for public health messaging. To prompt individuals to take action, it is better to provide persuasive messages in a positive light (i.e., saving lives) rather than a negative one (death).

What was particularly noteworthy was that the positive persuasive text continued to effect actual preventive action 1 week following the intervention and decreased individuals’ risky behaviors with regard to some of the social distancing and isolation behaviors (e.g., not having visitors or face-to-face gatherings, not shopping for non-essential goods). It did not, however, have a significant impact on other social distancing and isolation behaviors (e.g., keeping at least 6 m apart from people who did not live with them). It may be the case that the government actions or lockdowns in place across each of the countries limited individuals’ behaviors and our texts had no effect above and beyond those government actions.

Potential causal mechanism: Emotions

Collectively, individuals’ emotions about the pandemic situation predicted their willingness to engage in preventive action. The greater individuals’ happiness and hopelessness about the pandemic situation, the less willing they were to engage in preventive action and social distancing/isolation. Happiness can lead to undue optimism and an underestimation of risks (see, e.g., Herrero-Fernández et al., 2020 ), suggesting that a reduction in happiness can contribute to engaging in preventive behavior. This, however, was not the case for individuals in the negative text condition. Individuals in the negative text condition also reported a significant increase in hopelessness, which may have overshadowed the reduction in happiness whereby they felt that engaging in preventive action would not help. As previous research has shown, hopelessness has detrimental effects on learning and achievement ( Burić and Sorić, 2012 ) and can lead to individuals disengaging altogether ( Pekrun and Stephens, 2012 ).

Individuals who expressed more anger about the pandemic were also less likely to engage in social distancing/isolation. It may be the case that individuals were angry about the lockdowns, about having their freedoms reduced or removed ( Jost, 2017 ). In contrast, the more empathy and anxiety individuals experienced, the more willing they were to engage in preventive action and social distancing/isolation. Moreover, the more sadness individuals experienced, the more willing they were to engage in preventive action. Indeed, these emotions further mediated relations between text conditions and preventive outcomes, which may help to explain why the positive persuasive text had more of an effect on individuals’ willingness and actual preventive action compared to the other two conditions.

For instance, happiness mediated relations between the effects of text condition on both willingness to engage in preventive action and social distancing/isolation. Specifically, the negative text condition significantly reduced individuals’ level of happiness about the pandemic situation, which may have had the effect of reducing processes to assimilate information into existing knowledge structures ( Bohn-Gettler, 2019 ) compared to the positive persuasive text condition for those who already took the pandemic situation seriously. In essence, decreasing these individuals’ positive emotions may have had a backfire effect. The opposite may have occurred for those individuals who did not initially take the pandemic situation seriously. Moreover, for individuals in the negative text condition, their level of hopelessness significantly increased, which also mediated relations between text conditions and outcomes. This increase in negative emotions may have resulted in a significant decrease in processing of the text-based information with regard to what individuals can do to take action. In contrast, for individuals in the positive text condition, their level of happiness was similar to those in the control condition. Their hopelessness did not increase, whereas their level of sadness about the pandemic decreased, as did their anger. Given that these emotions were significant mediators, it may be the case that significantly reducing individuals’ negative emotions benefited them in terms of fostering assimilation of information into existing knowledge structures ( Bohn-Gettler, 2019 ), thereby increasing their willingness to engage in and actually take preventive action for those who were already concerned about the pandemic situation at pre-test.

Limitations and future directions

Taken together, results from this study suggests that modifying emotions may be critical for persuading individuals to change their behaviors, and that modification may depend on their initial perceptions of the seriousness of the situation. These results support previous theoretical and empirical work, which suggests that higher levels of negative emotions can reduce effortful processing of information given the decrease in attentional resources available ( Meinhardt and Pekrun, 2003 ; Muis et al., 2015 ), but also support the notion that increasing negative emotions can result in accommodation of current beliefs to allow new incoming information to be integrated into existing structures ( Bohn-Gettler, 2019 ). Reducing negative emotions in the positive persuasive text condition may have been critical to maintain or increase attentional resources so that individuals could process the content more deeply, particularly for those who took the pandemic situation seriously. For individuals in the negative text condition, a decrease in positive emotions and an increase in negative emotions may have led to a decrease in assimilative processing ( Bohn-Gettler and McCrudden, 2022 ). Finally, consistent with Bohn-Gettler and McCrudden (2022) , it may also be the case that individuals in the positive persuasive condition, who experienced less negative emotions, spent more time reading belief-inconsistent information particularly for those who initially believed the pandemic was not that serious. This focus may have shifted individuals’ beliefs about the pandemic, resulting in them taking more preventive action. As this is speculative, future research is necessary to better understand precisely how individuals processed information and how emotions played a role. Indeed, one limitation of this research is that we did not measure the cognitive and metacognitive processes individuals used to process the text-based information. Future research is needed to examine how emotions and cognitive and metacognitive processes work to facilitate or constrain behavioral change.

Future research is also needed to assess the mediating role of emotions in inducing positive attitudes toward strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when the content of the message includes both affective appeals and cognitive appeals. Affective appeals focus on the positive or negative feelings or emotions that individuals have toward an attitude object (e.g., taking preventive action may make an individual feel happy about saving lives), whereas cognitive appeals focus on positive or negative attributes about the attitude object (e.g., taking preventive action slows the spread of COVID-19). In the literature on persuasion, research has shown a structural matching effect whereby individuals’ preference for affective information [e.g., high in need for affect ( Maio and Esses, 2001 )] predicts greater persuasion in response to a message that is affectively based but not cognitively based ( Di Plinio et al., 2022 ), whereas the converse is true when individuals’ preference for information is cognitively based (e.g., high need for cognition; Cacioppo and Petty, 1982 ).

Recently, Giammusso et al. (2022) explored how matched (same valence) or mixed (different valence) messages that included both affective and cognitive appeals changed attitudes about COVID-19 preventive action. They found that individuals who were high on need for affect but low on need for cognition changed their attitudes according to the affective appeal of the message (e.g., negative affective message resulted in more negative attitudes; positive affective messages resulted in more positive attitudes), regardless of the valence of the cognitive content. In contrast, individuals who were high on need for cognition but low on need for affect were not affected by cognitive or affective appeals, regardless of the valence of those appeals. How emotions might directly mediate or moderate this effect should be explored.

A second limitation is that the texts were not identical in length. The positive text was slightly longer, and the longer text may have been more persuasive due to simple length rather than content. Future work is needed to rule out this possibility. Additionally, individuals reported what they thought they did over the preceding week and were not specifically asked to keep track of their preventive actions. Future research should use alternative methods like diaries to provide a more accurate picture of actual behavior. Fourth, the follow-up was only 1 week following the intervention. It is not possible to assess whether the messages continued to have an impact for a longer period of time, or whether the messages interacted with governmental actions taken as the pandemic pressed on. We also used convenience sampling, which limits generalizability of the findings. Finally, we did not include a baseline measure of what individuals were already doing to take preventive action, which would have provided a more in-depth analysis as to the kind of impact our messages had on preventive action above and beyond what individuals were already doing. Future research should also undertake a more in-depth approach (e.g., via interviews or other qualitative methods) with individuals to better understand what other mechanisms are at play when it comes to social persuasion. It may be the case that concurrent governmental actions interact with public messages and personal or societal values (e.g., Trevors, 2022 ) to influence intentions and actual behavior. Finally, it is important to note that more than half of our sample was politically liberal, which may have reflected a biased sample. Future work is needed with more individuals from multiple political camps.

Taken together, this research shows that persuasive messages can influence both people’s willingness to engage in preventive actions suited to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and their actual preventive behavior as well as reduction of risky behavior. However, these effects are not easy to achieve, and may depend on message tailoring or targeting, as explained by the ELM ( Petty and Cacioppo, 1986 ). Tailoring is defined as using any combination of information or behavior change strategies that is best suited to reach specific persons based on characteristics that are unique to those individuals, and derived from prior assessment ( Kreuter et al., 2000 ). Targeting involves aiming messages at particular groups of people based on identifiable characteristics (e.g., political ideology; Butterfuss et al., 2020 ), such as emotional profile in the case of COVID-19. Indeed, research has shown that matching health messages to personal characteristics can increase the effectiveness of the message in changing behaviors (see Kroeze et al., 2006 , for a review). As such, future studies should examine if the effectiveness of persuasive messages in changing pandemic-related behaviors can be further boosted by first assessing individuals’ emotional profile within a given socio-cultural and historical context, and then tailoring the message accordingly. We argue that it is just as important to conduct a linguistic analysis on any future texts used to ensure they are of the correct valence. These results also have important policy implications for educationally based interventions used by governments in terms of tailoring messages during a pandemic crisis.

Data availability statement

Ethics statement.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by the McGill University, University of Southern California, University of Essex, University of Munich, University of Minnesota, University of Padova. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author contributions

KM, GS, RP, PK, and LM designed the study. KM collected the data in Canada, analyzed the data across countries, and wrote the manuscript. All authors collected data in their respective countries, analyzed data, and wrote portions of the manuscript.

Funding Statement

This research was provided by a grant to KM from the Canada Research Chair’s Program, the Guy Bond Chair in Reading to PK, and by a LMU Research Chair grant to RP from the University of Munich.

Conflict of interest

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.

Publisher’s note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1047241/full#supplementary-material

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Persuasive speeches about Covid-19 can provide the audience with valuable insights on how to best handle the pandemic. They can be used to advocate for specific changes in policies or simply raise awareness about the virus. Check out some examples of persuasive speeches on Covid-19:
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Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19. Writing a persuasive speech about anything can seem daunting. However, writing a persuasive speech about something as important as the Covid-19 pandemic doesnâ t have to be difficult. So let's explore some examples of perfectly written persuasive essays.
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Testing persuasive messaging to encourage COVID-19 risk reduction
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Persuasion and the COVID-19 vaccine
12-18-2020 10:24 AM. With COVID-19 vaccines being rolled out, discussion is now happening about how to convince the general public to get the vaccine once it's available. As of mid-November, 2020, a Gallup poll found that "58% of Americans say they would get a COVID-19 vaccine," a notable increase from 34% in July (Reinhart, 2020).
Motivating COVID-19 Vaccination through Persuasive Communication: A
Vaccination is a vital defense against COVID-19 infections and outbreaks, yet vaccine hesitancy poses a significant threat to pandemic response and recovery. We conducted a systematic review of published randomized controlled trials (N = 47) assessing the persuasive effects of COVID-19 communication on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Individual vs ...
Short Messages Encouraging Compliance with COVID-19 Public Health
Preventing the spread of COVID-19 requires persuading the vast majority of the public to significantly change their behavior in numerous, costly ways. Many efforts to encourage behavior change - public service announcements, social media posts, speeches, billboards - involve relatively short, persuasive messages. Here, we report results of five experimental tests (N = 5,351) of […]
COVID-19 Persuasion Speech by Olivia Gray on Prezi
COVID-19: Social distancing Olivia Gray Overview Introduction 1. Thematic statement 2. How social distancing and safety precautions help decrease amount of cases 3. Protests against social distancing and masks, the impact on economy and the people 4. How the United States should
Ramaphosa using the art of persuasive communication in the Covid-19
The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the world and South Africa is not spared. As a result, President Cyril Ramaphosa has become a regular visitor in our homes, updating South Africans on steps taken by the government to minimise the number of people who contract this virus. ... The speech followed five components of academic ...
Coronavirus Vaccine- Persuasive Speech by Anna Alonso on Prezi
The Coronavirus Vaccine Persuasive Speech By- Anna Alonso Paragraph 1 The Coronavirus Vaccination. A solution to something we have been dealing with for a year and three months. In this large period of time, there were many different, but necessary, changes to millions of lives.
COVID-19 Vaccination Public Education Campaign Saved Thousands of Lives
Study found vaccine campaign saved $90 for every $1 spent The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) COVID-19 Vaccination Public Education Campaign, We Can Do This, resulted in an estimated$731.9 billion in societal benefits due to averted illness and related costs, resulting in a nearly $90 return in societal benefits for every $1 spent, according to research published today in ...
Kansas City Chiefs kicker blasts Biden, pro-choice movement in ...
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. waged a series of attacks against President Biden's leadership in a recent commencement speech, criticizing the president's policies on abortion ...
Chiefs' Harrison Butker tells women their 'most important title' should
The 28-year-old Butker then took aim at Biden's policies, including his response to COVID-19, which has killed nearly 1.2 million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control ...
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker slams Biden's 'delusional
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker recently called out President Biden over his "delusional" support for abortion as a practicing Catholic. The three-time Super Bowl winner laid into ...
Testing persuasive messaging to encourage COVID-19 risk reduction
This latter comparison provides further leverage in isolating the effects of any novel persuasive rhetoric. ... Prior to COVID-19 infection becoming widespread in the United States, most people were not engaging in social distancing making it difficult to credibly appeal to descriptive norms as a way to increase the prevalence of the behavior ...
Influence of diverse kinds of persuasive messages on intention to stay
1. Introduction. COVID-19 is believed to be the deadliest pandemic round the world .This disease is highly contagious and it is transmitted rapidly and easily through symptomatic and asymptomatic carriers .The COVID-19 pandemic is believed to be the top societal challenge in recent years necessitating extensive collective action and collaboration.
Speech: Geopolitics and its Impact on Global Trade and the Dollar
After years of shocks—including the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine—countries are reevaluating their trading partners based on economic and national security concerns. Foreign direct investment flows are also being re-directed along geopolitical lines. Some countries are reevaluating their heavy reliance on the dollar in their international transactions and reserve ...
Important adjustments for our commencement celebrations: May 13, 2024
To the Case Western Reserve University community, Commencement marks the culmination of years of hard work and dedication in classrooms, labs, clinicals, internships, extracurriculars and so much more. Though this always is one of our favorite events of any year, we are especially looking forward to this year's festivities, as many members of the undergraduate Class of 2024 had their high ...
NFL player rips Biden for 'murder of innocent babies' at college
Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker criticized President Joe Biden while giving a commencement speech at Benedictine College on Saturday. Butker, an outspoken and devout Catholic, slammed ...
Rishi's speech changes nothing
Rishi's speech changes nothing - the Tories are still doomed The Conservative record after 14 years: highest ever taxes, highest ever immigration and a floundering economy.
Flattening the COVID-19 curve: Emotions mediate the effects of a
In the context of COVID-19, a persuasive message may be a text that challenges individuals' beliefs about the seriousness of the pandemic, and the importance of engaging in preventive action to protect oneself from getting it and for saving lives. ... COVID-19 in Canada: Using data and modelling to inform public health action. Avilable online ...

How to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid19 | Examples & Tips

Steps to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Step 1: Choose a Specific Thesis Statement

Step 2: Research and Gather Information

Step 3: Outline Your Essay

Step 4: Write the Introduction

Step 5: Provide Background Information

Step 6: Develop Body Paragraphs

Step 7: Address Counterarguments

Step 8: Write the Conclusion

Step 9: Revise and Proofread

Step 10: Cite Your Sources

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid19

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Vaccine

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Integration

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid 19

Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Choose a Specific Angle

Provide Credible Sources

Use Persuasive Language

Organize Your Essay

Emphasize Benefits

Use Visuals -H3

Call to Action

Revise and Edit

Seek Feedback

Common Topics for a Persuasive Essay on COVID-19

Frequently Asked Questions

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Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19

Examples of Persuasive Essay About the Covid-19 Vaccine

Examples of Persuasive Essay About Covid-19 Integration

Examples of Argumentative Essay About Covid-19

Examples of Persuasive Speeches About Covid-19

Tips to Write a Persuasive Essay

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What impact does COVID-19 have on society?

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Persuasion key in encouraging people to stay home during Covid-19

Lessons learned: What makes vaccine messages persuasive

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Persuasion and the COVID-19 vaccine

Short Messages Encouraging Compliance with COVID-19 Public Health Guidelines Have Minimal Persuasive Effects

Ramaphosa using the art of persuasive communication in the Covid-19 fight