Behavioral nudges increase COVID-19 vaccinations: Two randomized controlled trials
Abstract Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic requires quick and effective strategies to maximize vaccine uptake. We present two sequential randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that tackle this challenge with behavioral science insights. We deliver text-based nudges to UCLA Health patients one day (first RCT; N=113,229) and eight days (second RCT; N=90,662) after they receive notifications of vaccine eligibility. In the first RCT, text messages designed to make vaccination salient and easy to schedule boost appointment and vaccination rates by 86% and 26%, respectively. Nudges that make patients feel endowed with the vaccine heighten these effects, but addressing vaccine hesitancy via a video-based information intervention does not yield benefits beyond simple text. These results hold across ethnicity and age groups. By contrast, online experiments (N=2,003) soliciting hypothetical responses to the same messages reveal the opposite patterns, underscoring the importance of pilot-testing behavioral nudges in the real world before scaling them up. In the second RCT, we further find that receiving a second reminder boosts appointment and vaccination rates by 52% and 16%, respectively. Our findings suggest that text-based nudges can substantially increase and accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations at almost zero marginal cost, highlighting the promising role of behavioral science in addressing a critical component of the COVID-19 pandemic response..
Medienart: |
Preprint |
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Erscheinungsjahr: |
2024 |
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Erschienen: |
2024 |
Enthalten in: |
bioRxiv.org - (2024) vom: 23. Apr. Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2024 |
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Sprache: |
Englisch |
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Beteiligte Personen: |
Dai, Hengchen [VerfasserIn] |
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Links: |
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Themen: |
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doi: |
10.1101/2021.04.12.21254876 |
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funding: |
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Förderinstitution / Projekttitel: |
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PPN (Katalog-ID): |
XBI020353758 |
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520 | |a Abstract Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic requires quick and effective strategies to maximize vaccine uptake. We present two sequential randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that tackle this challenge with behavioral science insights. We deliver text-based nudges to UCLA Health patients one day (first RCT; N=113,229) and eight days (second RCT; N=90,662) after they receive notifications of vaccine eligibility. In the first RCT, text messages designed to make vaccination salient and easy to schedule boost appointment and vaccination rates by 86% and 26%, respectively. Nudges that make patients feel endowed with the vaccine heighten these effects, but addressing vaccine hesitancy via a video-based information intervention does not yield benefits beyond simple text. These results hold across ethnicity and age groups. By contrast, online experiments (N=2,003) soliciting hypothetical responses to the same messages reveal the opposite patterns, underscoring the importance of pilot-testing behavioral nudges in the real world before scaling them up. In the second RCT, we further find that receiving a second reminder boosts appointment and vaccination rates by 52% and 16%, respectively. Our findings suggest that text-based nudges can substantially increase and accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations at almost zero marginal cost, highlighting the promising role of behavioral science in addressing a critical component of the COVID-19 pandemic response. | ||
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