Does Framing and Humor Improve the Effectiveness of Messages About COVID-19 Vaccine
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT05085613. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
A Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Efficacy of Humor and Framing in Messaging to Correct Misperceptions About COVID-19 Vaccines
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
This study seeks to assess the efficacy of educational messages to correct misperceptions. People hold a number of misperceptions that are relevant to public health, including misperceptions regarding COVID vaccines. Some people incorrectly think the COVID vaccines authorized by FDA are not safe or effective. These misperceptions can reduce adherence to public health recommendations and result in continued spread of COVID. This study will test if humor and different types of framing increase the efficacy of messages to correct misperceptions about FDA's authorized coronavirus vaccine safety and effectiveness. The frames tested will include: framing the vaccine as a way to boost economic recovery and framing the vaccine as a way to increase freedom to choose how to behave. The addition of humor will also be tested. Message efficacy will be measured via improved accuracy of beliefs after being exposed to the message. In other words, participants will be asked how safe and effective FDA authorized COVID vaccines are before seeing a message, then they will see a message about why the COVID vaccines are safe and effective, and then they will again be asked how safe and effective they think the vaccines are. This study will also assess the accuracy of inferential beliefs. This will be accomplished by asking participants questions about other vaccines that either are or are not authorized by FDA. If participants have understood the messages and updated their mental models of how FDA evaluates vaccines, they should be able to infer if other vaccines are safe and effective based on their FDA authorization status. Hypotheses H1: Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will be more likely to increase their agreement with the statement that the FDA will only authorize coronavirus vaccines that are safe and effective after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition. H2: Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will agree more strongly with the statement that the FDA approved flu vaccine is safe and effective after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition. H3. Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will agree more strongly with the statement that the ResVax vaccine, which was not approved by the FDA for the treatment of RSV, is a safe and effective after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition. H4. Participants who are exposed to A.) a message with humor, B.) a message with an economic recovery fame, or C.) a message with a freedom frame will be more likely to increase behavioral intentions to get an FDA authorized COVID vaccine after message exposure than participants exposed to the control condition.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT05085613
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 100 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 21 Years to 99 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Oct 30, 2021
- Primary completion
- Jan 29, 2022
- Completion
- Mar 30, 2022
- Last update posted
- Aug 20, 2023
2021 – 2022
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health | Baltimore | Maryland | 21205 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT05085613, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Aug 20, 2023 · Synced Sep 6, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT05085613 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.