The Role of Fear, Hope, Message Fatigue, and Message Shocking Value in Promoting the Public’s Understanding and Support Toward COVID-19 Wastewater Monitoring: Experimental Study

Abstract

Background: Although wastewater monitoring is an effective, nonintrusive public health strategy for tracking community-level COVID-19 prevalence, there has been limited research on public perceptions of this novel surveillance method. A significant gap exists in understanding how to design effective communication campaigns to gain public support for wastewater monitoring and persuade individuals to take preventive actions based on the data. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the impact of emotional appeals (fear vs hope) and pronoun use (we vs you) on public support for COVID-19 wastewater monitoring, intentions to discuss the intervention, and intentions to engage in preventive behaviors. Methods: An online 2 (emotional appeal: fear vs hope) × 2 (pronoun use: you-language vs we-language) between-subjects experiment with a control condition was conducted. A total of 603 US residents were recruited via Prolific in July 2023. Participants were randomly assigned to view 1 of 5 message stimuli and then completed a survey measuring emotional responses, message judgments (fatigue and shocking value), and the primary outcome variables. Results: Fear appeals led to greater support and stronger intentions to engage in preventive behaviors than hope appeals, while pronoun use had no significant effect. Additionally, message fatigue and shock value mediated the relationship between the message-evoked emotions and the outcome variables, whereby message fatigue was negatively associated with the outcome variables, and message shock value was positively correlated with policy support and communication intention. Conclusions: The findings suggest that while fear-based messages are effective, communication strategies should also aim to mitigate message fatigue to sustain public engagement and support for long-term public health initiatives.