Delivering vaccination messages via interactive channels: examining the interaction among threat, response efficacy, and interactivity in risk communication

Abstract

New media-based interactive risk communication has gained increasing attention and importance. While extant research has focused on the main effects of interactivity on attitudinal and behavioral outcomes, little research has investigated how risk message content may interact with risk message modality such as interactivity in generating effects, or the psychological processes underlying it. In this study, we examined the interaction effect of interactivity, threat, and response efficacy on individuals’ involvement with risk message, attitudes toward vaccination, and information seeking intention in the context of meningococcal vaccination through a 2 (interactivity: low, high) × 2 (threat: low, high) × 2 (response efficacy: low, high) experiment. Results indicated a significant three-way interaction among interactivity, threat, and response efficacy on message involvement: individuals with high-threat, high-response efficacy perceptions were more involved with the message when it was presented in a more interactive modality. With high-threat, low-response efficacy, the interactive modality of the message did not influence levels of message involvement. Furthermore, message involvement mediated the effect of the three-way interaction among threat, response efficacy, and interaction on information seeking intentions. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Keywords:

• risk communication
• vaccination
• threat
• response efficacy
• interactivity

Notes

1. When only participants aged 18 to 24 years old were included (N = 206), the pattern of the three-way interaction among threat, response efficacy, and interactivity was consistent with the pattern for the three-way interaction when all participants (N = 221) were included.

2. Participants’ previous experience was not a significant covariate. Analyses separating those who have been vaccinated and those who have not been vaccinated did not yield difference in the interaction pattern.

3. The platform where stimuli messages were presented, Wordpress, recorded the total number of clicks made on each condition. Analyses of the data suggested that participants in the high-interactivity conditions made significantly more clicks than those in the low-interactivity conditions did, t(6) = 9.00, p < .001.

4. Independent observation assumption is met. Participants in the study are not linked in any way. The distributions of scores on message involvement are approximately normal in the eight conditions, with the kurtosis scores all falling within the range of −2–+ 2. All of the skewness fell within the range of −1–+ 1. The ANCOVA test is robust to violations of assumptions if the sample size is not small, which is the case here (Tabachnick and Fidell 1996). In addition, Levene’s test shows that within-group variability in the eight condition groups (response efficacy, threat, and interactivity) in terms of scores on message involvement do not differ more than would be expected due to chance (p₁ = .08).