Unintended Effects of Health and Risk Communication: Uncovering Message Strategies Against Message Fatigue

Youngji Seo (Grady PhD Alum) and Yan Jin. “Unintended Effects of Health and Risk Communication: Uncovering Message Strategies Against Message Fatigue.” Paper accepted for Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), 20-24 June, 2024, Gold Coast, Australia.Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how inoculated message might influence message fatigue and further message avoidance behavior. Based on findings from the online surveys, two online experiments were conducted to test the effects of inoculation and controlling language as communication tactics to mitigate message fatigue during the health communication. In the first experiment (n = 301), a 3 (elaborated inoculation treatment: normative vs. informative vs. control) × 2 (controlling language: high vs. low) between-subjects design was used. The first used elaborated inoculation framed as normative and informative designed to enhance threat of impending message fatigue to a message advocating for COVID-19 vaccination. To test whether the effects of an inoculation message on message fatigue differed by degree of threat detailed in the inoculation message, the second experiment (n = 350), a 2 (limited inoculation treatment: inoculation vs. control) × 2 (controlling language: high vs. low) between-subjects design was used in the context of HPV vaccination. The findings of the studies were two-fold. First, health persuasive messages with less controlling language were effective in reducing message fatigue than using inoculation message. Second, the findings showed a possible moderating role of vaccine status, indicating the previous engagement level in vaccination might reduce the adverse effect of message fatigue.