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Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19

The World Health Organization established that the risk of suffering severe symptoms from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is higher for some groups, but this does not mean their chances of infection are higher. However, public health messages often highlight the “increased risk” for these groups such...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Holford, Dawn Liu, Juanchich, Marie, Sirota, Miroslav
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Psychological Association 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9899423/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35588390
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xap0000416
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author Holford, Dawn Liu
Juanchich, Marie
Sirota, Miroslav
author_facet Holford, Dawn Liu
Juanchich, Marie
Sirota, Miroslav
author_sort Holford, Dawn Liu
collection PubMed
description The World Health Organization established that the risk of suffering severe symptoms from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is higher for some groups, but this does not mean their chances of infection are higher. However, public health messages often highlight the “increased risk” for these groups such that the risk could be interpreted as being about contracting an infection rather than suffering severe symptoms from the illness (as intended). Stressing the risk for vulnerable groups may also prompt inferences that individuals not highlighted in the message have lower risk than previously believed. In five studies, we investigated how U.K. residents interpreted such risk messages about COVID-19 (n = 396, n = 399, n = 432, n = 474) and a hypothetical new virus (n = 454). Participants recognized that the risk was about experiencing severe symptoms, but over half also believed that the risk was about infection, and had a corresponding heightened perception that vulnerable people were more likely to be infected. Risk messages that clarified the risk event reduced misinterpretations for a hypothetical new virus, but existing misinterpretations of coronavirus risks were resistant to correction. We discuss the need for greater clarity in public health messaging by distinguishing between the two risk events.
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spelling pubmed-98994232023-02-07 Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19 Holford, Dawn Liu Juanchich, Marie Sirota, Miroslav J Exp Psychol Appl Articles The World Health Organization established that the risk of suffering severe symptoms from coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is higher for some groups, but this does not mean their chances of infection are higher. However, public health messages often highlight the “increased risk” for these groups such that the risk could be interpreted as being about contracting an infection rather than suffering severe symptoms from the illness (as intended). Stressing the risk for vulnerable groups may also prompt inferences that individuals not highlighted in the message have lower risk than previously believed. In five studies, we investigated how U.K. residents interpreted such risk messages about COVID-19 (n = 396, n = 399, n = 432, n = 474) and a hypothetical new virus (n = 454). Participants recognized that the risk was about experiencing severe symptoms, but over half also believed that the risk was about infection, and had a corresponding heightened perception that vulnerable people were more likely to be infected. Risk messages that clarified the risk event reduced misinterpretations for a hypothetical new virus, but existing misinterpretations of coronavirus risks were resistant to correction. We discuss the need for greater clarity in public health messaging by distinguishing between the two risk events. American Psychological Association 2022-05-19 2022-09 /pmc/articles/PMC9899423/ /pubmed/35588390 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xap0000416 Text en © 2022 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This article has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Copyright for this article is retained by the author(s). Author(s) grant(s) the American Psychological Association the exclusive right to publish the article and identify itself as the original publisher.
spellingShingle Articles
Holford, Dawn Liu
Juanchich, Marie
Sirota, Miroslav
Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19
title Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19
title_full Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19
title_fullStr Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19
title_full_unstemmed Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19
title_short Ambiguity and Unintended Inferences About Risk Messages for COVID-19
title_sort ambiguity and unintended inferences about risk messages for covid-19
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9899423/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35588390
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/xap0000416
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