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Do you know someone who doesn’t want to get the COVID-19 vaccine? We might have something to help!
Getting people to change their minds about vaccination is as difficult as it is important. Why is it so difficult? What can we do? A short thread on our new results (1/X).
Getting people to change their minds about vaccination is as difficult as it is important. Why is it so difficult? What can we do? A short thread on our new results (1/X).
Convincing vax-hesitants is difficult (at least) because, for every pro-vax message, vax-hesitants can think of many questions that are still unaddressed. What if we tried to answer these questions? (2/X)
We provided some participants (a French sample, some of the most vax-hesitant people in the world) with a chatbot that could answer the most common questions about COVID-19 vaccines -- while others only saw a brief text describing how vaccination works in general (N=700) (3/X)
A few minutes of interaction with the chatbot significantly changed participants' attitudes towards vaccination (turquoise line, before and after treatment) (much more so than in the control, red line) (4/X)
There was a 37% increase in participants holding positive attitudes towards COVID vax, and a 20% decrease in participants who didn't want to get vaccinated -- v. large effects in the present context (5/X)
Two reassuring extra results:
1) the more participants interacted with the chatbot, the more they changed their minds, suggesting they were paying attention
2) instead of backfire effects, participants who started out with the most negative attitudes changed the most (6/X)
1) the more participants interacted with the chatbot, the more they changed their minds, suggesting they were paying attention
2) instead of backfire effects, participants who started out with the most negative attitudes changed the most (6/X)
We plan on launching a second wave, to see if the change of mind holds in time (these things are often all too fleeting). The preprint is there
https://psyarxiv.com/eb2gt (7/X)
https://psyarxiv.com/eb2gt (7/X)
And here's another thread if you want to learn more! (8/X)
https://twitter.com/Sacha_Altay/status/1346146922000752642
(initial picture from the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/health/anti-vaccination-movement-us.html)
https://twitter.com/Sacha_Altay/status/1346146922000752642
(initial picture from the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/health/anti-vaccination-movement-us.html)
Sorry, I forgot to tag (and thank!) the gang that made this possible: @Sacha_Altay @AsHacquin @CoralieChevall1
