Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-3-2021
Abstract
Despite the rapid transmission of and death toll claimed by COVID-19, there is evidence of resistance toward behaviors shown to effectively prevent and slow the spread of the disease, such as mask wearing and social distancing. This study applies psychological reactance theory to examine COVID-19 message factors (i.e., message fatigue, issue importance) that may be linked to nonadherence to CDC recommendations via the experience of reactance. Participants (N = 268) were current U.S. residents over the age of 18 who completed an online survey about their perceptions of COVID-19 messaging in general as well as toward a specific COVID-19 message they recalled. Results of structural equation modeling indicated that perceived freedom threat toward a COVID-19 message was predicted positively by message fatigue and negatively by issue importance. Greater perceived freedom threat was linked to greater reactance, which in turn was associated with lower levels of adherence to hygiene- and social-related COVID-19 preventive behavior. Notably, the negative association between reactance and social-related adherence was stronger than that between reactance and hygiene-related adherence. Implications for the role of reactance in risk and crisis communication as well as for public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed.
Recommended Citation
Ball, H., & Wozniak, T. R. (2021). Why do some Americans resist COVID-19 prevention behavior? An analysis of issue importance, message fatigue, and reactance regarding COVID-19 messaging. Health Communication, 37(14), 1812-1819. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1920717
Copyright
Taylor & Francis
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Health Communication Commons, Health Psychology Commons, Mass Communication Commons, Other Communication Commons, Other Psychology Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Health Communication, volume 37, issue 14, in 2021, available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1920717. It may differ slightly from the final version of record.
The Creative Commons license below applies only to this version of the article.
This scholarship is part of the Chapman University COVID-19 Archives.