Vaccine Study 3
The Effects of Message Framing on Vaccination Intentions
Impact Canada, Impact & Innovation Unit, Privy Council Office
Summary
Impact Canada’s third deep dive study on vaccines, conducted in collaboration with academic experts from the University of Waterloo, with support from Ontario’s Behavioural Insights Unit. A broadly representative sample of approximately 2,300 Canadians was asked to complete an online survey that asked questions about their intentions to vaccinate, attitudes, behaviours, and perceptions relating to the COVID-19 virus and vaccine, as well as trust in information sources. In addition to these predictors of vaccination, four messaging types built on behavioural science principles were tested against a control message to assess the impact on vaccination intentions: operational transparency, anticipated regret of not getting vaccinated and contracting COVID-19, appealing to public/social benefits experienced by others, and appealing to personal benefits experienced by the individual.
Key Insights
On the whole, the messaging approaches performed similarly in terms of their impact on vaccination intentions. However, the impact of messaging differed based on socio-demographic factors.