Campaigning for the greater good?–How persuasive messages affect the evaluation of contact tracing apps

Abstract

The underlying scenario for adopting Covid-19 contact tracing apps is complex, given that users face potential surveillance, while expected health benefits are for the greater societal good rather than for themselves. To encourage adoption, many governments employ persuasive messages, highlighting either the app’s potential societal benefits (e.g., protecting the elderly) or high privacy standards. Responding to public media criticism, we compare the impact of two different persuasive messages, which focus on either societal benefits or privacy assurance. Emphasising societal benefits successfully stimulates this decision making without users losing sight of privacy risks. In contrast, emphasising privacy assurance diminishes users’ societal welfare concerns, as potential personal gains and losses largely frame their decision. These results are critical for developing and launching tracing apps, also beyond Covid-19, as well as for other applications of which widespread adoption is imperative to unlock potential societal level benefits, while requiring individual disclosure of sensitive data.