Did an emergency physician’s personal COVID-19 message resonate more than an official’s impersonal guidance?

Details

Containing the COVID-19 pandemic required people to change their behavior under social distancing mandates. Social media can supplement traditional channels for communicating public health recommendations. The study set out to assess the effectiveness of Twitter messages about COVID-19 when delivered by emergency physicians and containing personal narratives.

On April 30, 2020, researchers randomly assigned 2,007 U.S. adults in an online survey using a 2 × 2 factorial design. Each participant rated one of four simulated Twitter posts, varying the messenger—an emergency physician or a federal official—and the content—a personal narrative or impersonal guidance. The main outcomes were perceived message effectiveness on a 35-point scale, perceived attitude effectiveness (PAE) on a 15-point scale, likelihood of sharing the tweet on a 7-point scale, and whether the participant wrote a letter to their governor asking to continue COVID-19 restrictions or wrote none.

The physician/personal (PP) message had the strongest effect and significantly improved all main messaging outcomes except letter writing. Compared with the federal/impersonal (FI) message, the unadjusted mean differences for PP were 3.2 points for perceived message effectiveness (95% CI: 2.4 to 4.0), 1.3 points for PAE (95% CI: 0.8 to 1.7), and 0.4 points for likelihood of sharing (95% CI: 0.15 to 0.7). PP had no significant impact on letter writing compared with FI (odds ratio 1.14; 95% CI: 0.89 to 1.46).

The researchers concluded that emergency physicians sharing personal narratives on Twitter were perceived as more effective at communicating COVID-19 health recommendations than federal officials sharing impersonal guidance.