INTEGRATING REASONED ACTION APPROACH AND MESSAGE SIDEDNESS IN HPV VACCINATION PROMOTION IN THE ERA OF MISINFORMATION

Xizhu Xiao

By integrating the reasoned action approach and message sidedness, the current study examines the effectiveness of one-sided and two-sided social media messages in improving HPV vaccination-related attitude and intentions in the context of misinformation correction. In general, this dissertation has four main purposes: 1) to examine whether one-sided and two-sided messages that address misinformation are more effective than the control in influencing attitude about HPV vaccination; 2) to investigate the difference between sidedness conditions in influencing HPV vaccination-related attitude; 3) to explore the role of prior misperceptions of HPV vaccination in moderating the relationship between message sidedness manipulation and attitude; 4) to probe whether attitude mediates the relationship between message sidedness manipulation and HPV vaccination-related intentions. To this end, Twelve Facebook posts addressing some of the prevalent HPV vaccination-related misinformation were developed; four control message posts that are irrelevant to HPV vaccination were retrieved from the Facebook account of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A focus group with 32 individuals was conducted to pre-test these messages; a four-condition experiment with 251 individuals was then conducted to test the effectiveness of the messages on attitude and intentions. Results revealed a significant moderated mediation relationship. Specifically, as prior misperceptions increase, exposure to both one-sided and two-sided messages is related to greater positive attitude about HPV vaccination, compared to the control condition. Among sidedness conditions, refutational two-sided messages are more effective in enhancing cognitive attitude for individuals with low misperceptions, while one-sided messages are more persuasive for individuals with high misperceptions. Affective attitude mediates the moderated relationship between message sidedness manipulation and information seeking intention; higher affective attitude leads to higher intention to seek more information about HPV vaccination. Cognitive attitude mediates the moderated relationship between message sidedness manipulation and behavioral intention; higher cognitive attitude leads to greater intention to get the HPV vaccine. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed.

INTEGRATING REASONED ACTION APPROACH AND MESSAGE SIDEDNESS IN HPV VACCINATION PROMOTION IN THE ERA OF MISINFORMATION

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