Testing the Persuasiveness of Pro-inoculation Arguments

Vaccine Refusal Clinical Trial

Official title:

Message Testing Protocol for Misinformation Concerns

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT05804825
• Other study ID #: dfjgehea
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: May 4, 2023
• Est. completion date: May 24, 2023

Study information

• Verified date: July 2023
• Source: University of Pennsylvania
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The investigators will recruit a national sample of parents of 7-10-year-olds to complete an argument strength ranking for either a simple forwarding message or between 3 and 6 randomly selected arguments from an overall set of 50 to 100 messages identified from various online sources. Parents will rate each message they see on measures of perceived argument strength/PME. Parents will also answer sociodemographic questions and then rank the believability of a set of anti-vaccine messages identified in a different study. Study findings will contribute valuable information to understanding the effectiveness of different inoculation messages.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 523
• Est. completion date: May 24, 2023
• Est. primary completion date: May 24, 2023
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Male or female parent or legal guardian of an adolescent ages 7-10

2. Age eligible child has not yet received any doses of the HPV vaccine

3. Resides in the United States

4. English speaking

5. Completed informed consent

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Unable to read English at a 6th grade literacy level

2. Age < 18

3. Does not have a child within the age range of 7-10

4. Age-eligible child has received 1 or more doses of the HPV vaccine

5. Does not have a social media account on one or more of the following platforms OR does not read online news stories: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook (feasibility testing only - survey participation will not have this exclusion criteria)

6. Unwilling or unable to provide informed consent to study participation

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Human Papillomavirus Vaccination
• Vaccine Refusal

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Argument inoculation messages
Participants will then be presented with arguments randomly selected by the Qualtrics software algorithm from the full set of messages.
• Simple forewarning message
Participants will be presented with a simple forewarning message.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	UPenn	Philadelphia	Pennsylvania

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Pennsylvania

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Argument strength/PME	Arguments will be rated for their argument strength/message effectiveness	The outcome measure will be assessed immediately after the participant has viewed each pro-HPV vaccine message if they are in the multiple message condition, or the simple message if they are in the simple message condition stimuli during the survey.
Primary	Misinformation believability	A rating of the believability/ credibility of vaccine misinformation	The outcome measure will be assessed immediately after the participant has viewed each misinformation message during the survey.