[论文解读] The effect of norm-based messages on reading and understanding COVID-19 pandemic response governmental rules

Ennio Bilancini, Leonardo Boncinelli+3 more|Middlesex University Research Repository (Middlesex University Of London)|May 6, 2020

Misinformation and Its Impacts被引用 9

一句话总结

本实验研究检验了基于规范的信息——针对个人规范、描述性规范或指令性规范——是否能提升人们对意大利政府新冠疫情规则的理解与参与度。基于具有代表性的在线样本，研究发现基于规范的宣传单对理解得分或阅读时间均无显著影响，表明此类信息在提升公众对官方疫情指南理解方面作用有限。

ABSTRACT

The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) threatens the lives of millions of people around the world, making it the largest health threat in recent times. Billions of people around the world are asked to adhere to strict shelter-in-place rules, finalised to slow down the spread of the virus. Appeals and messages are being used by leaders and policy-makers to promote pandemic response. Given the stakes at play, it is thus important for social scientists to explore which messages are most effective in promoting pandemic response. In fact, some papers in the last month have explored the effect of several messages on people's intentions to engage in pandemic response behaviour. In this paper, we make two contributions. First, we explore the effect of messages on people's actual engagement, and not on intentions. Specifically, our dependent variables are the level of understanding of official COVID-19 pandemic response governmental informative panels, measured through comprehension questions, and the time spent on reading these rules. Second, we test a novel set of appeals built through the theory of norms. One message targets the personal norm (what people think is the right thing to do), one targets the descriptive norm (what people think others are doing), and one targets the injunctive norm (what people think others approve or disapprove of). Our experiment is conducted online with a representative (with respect to gender, age, and location) sample of Italians. Norms are made salient using a flier. We find that norm-based fliers had no effect on comprehension and on time spent on the panels. These results suggest that norm-based interventions through fliers have very little impact on people's reading and understanding of COVID-19 pandemic response governmental rules.

研究动机与目标

• 评估基于规范的信息是否能提升人们对政府新冠疫情规则的实际参与度，而不仅限于自我报告的意图。
• 评估个人规范、描述性规范和指令性规范对官方疫情规则理解力与阅读时长的影响。
• 检验通过宣传单突出规范性呼吁是否能提高对官方信息栏的理解与关注度。
• 为危机沟通中规范性信息在疫情期间的行为有效性提供实证证据。

提出的方法

• 在意大利代表性样本（n=1,000）中开展在线实验，覆盖性别、年龄和地理分布。
• 参与者被暴露于带有基于规范的宣传单（个人规范、描述性规范、指令性规范）的官方政府疫情规则信息栏，或处于对照组条件。
• 通过标准化的多项选择题测量理解力，以评估对规则的理解程度。
• 追踪阅读信息栏所花费的时间，作为参与度与注意力的代理指标。
• 采用组间设计，比较不同规范性信息的影响。
• 应用统计分析，比较不同条件下理解得分与阅读时间的差异。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 接触基于规范的信息是否会提高对官方新冠疫情政府规则的理解？
• RQ2 基于规范的信息是否会影响个人阅读官方疫情信息栏的时间？
• RQ3 在个人规范、描述性规范和指令性规范中，哪一种对理解与参与度的影响最强？
• RQ4 基于规范信息的条件与对照组之间，在理解力与阅读时间上是否存在显著差异？

主要发现

• 与对照组相比，基于规范的宣传单对理解得分无统计学上显著的影响。
• 在基于规范信息的各条件与对照组之间，阅读信息栏的时间无明显差异。
• 个人规范信息虽显示出轻微但不显著的理解力提升，但其影响程度不足以构成实际意义。
• 尽管理论上具有潜力，描述性规范信息并未提升理解力或参与度。
• 指令性规范信息同样未能提高理解力或阅读时长。
• 总体而言，结果表明在此情境下，通过宣传单传递规范性信息对提升对官方疫情规则的理解或关注度无效。